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Agricultural Engineering From University To The Real World

Most students at university would like to prolong their undergraduate time at school longer, except for engineers. Engineers know how to have fun, but the time it takes to cultivate a degree can take a bit longer than the average liberal arts degree.

Here we will look at the Bachelor Science Degree of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. It is one of the oldest engineering degrees available, but also one of the most unknown.

Within the realm of Agricultural Engineering you have three distinct realms. One is more geared toward the environmental management of crops and water. The second is geared toward agricultural machinery and operations. The third is more process orientated and is related to chemical and biological reactions.

Once you have graduated you have the choice of continuing your education or get out and hit profession with reckless abandon and see what is out there. Here is how I hit the profession and generated a career with my engineering degree.

My specialization was more orientated towards the process and biological reactionary side of Agricultural Engineering. I did get an offer from a company prior to my graduation, and started working at a processed food facility. My degree was helpful in understanding the post harvest operations and how the processing is controlled and how to enhance the conversion rates.

As your career progresses you will notice that you will start to specialize in areas that you were not completely exposed to. For me this was the realm of electrical controls and programming of real world equipment. I was well versed in the basic electrical engineering classes during my time at university, but that knowledge allowed me to leap into the realm of programming and electrical control schema.

During the 1990’s it became very competitive to have the talent needed to progress in the manufacturing world, and companies were willing to relocate people for such talents. I have been relocated to and from small towns and large cities. As you get older you learn what kind of environment you like to live and work in, and you tend to gravitate towards them.

Today my expertise is becoming more of an engineering project manager with a specialization with electrical equipment and electrical controls of real life machines. What I have learned during my time acquiring my engineering degree is more than what books contained within their pages. Engineering really is a mindset of how to think and solve problems.

What you specialized within the realm of engineering is becoming less important the further along you are in your career. The ability to learn and have an engineering geared mindset is the key to what separates a successful engineer from just a person with an engineering degree.

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