Hi there, I am just finishing up high school and am in a Vo tech program that trains me for becoming a machinist. I am thinking about becoming a machinist but am not sure about the future of that career. I want to know what degree I could get (assuming being a machinist won’t work) that would either lend itself to machining or would allow me to do something similar in the future.
Have you applied for a job as a machinist? Where I live, that has great job prospects and not all that many people are trained.
Please discuss this with the advisors at your technical high school.
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Does your school not help arrange internships and apprenticeships? Talk to them about job placement. Machinists tend to earn great salaries.
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You could find work as a machinist and also take some community college classes part time to explore different career paths.
My son attends Texas State Technical College in Waco and is completing a certificate program to be a certified precision machinist. They also offer an associates degree for this program too. They have agreements with a couple of 4-year colleges in Texas that will accept all the credits for the associate’s towards a bachelor’s.
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they do help with jobs and internships.
you say great salaries, but what does that mean? enough to have a few cars and decent sized house, or just enough to have a beater car and an apartment.
Mechanical engineering would probably be the major to lend itself to being a machinist but also having other similar opportunities in other areas.
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I was actually thinking mechanical engineering technology too.
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ive heard of mechanical engineering technology. peaked my interest but i would like to hear about how the job works, not the curriculum.
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Mechanical engineers create designs and produce blueprints. Skilled professionals, such as machinists, convert these designs into tangible parts, machines and mechanical systems.
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Enough to have a decent car (why would you need a few?) each for a husband and wife, and the ability to purchase a starter home like most young people do. My husband is a career engineer and that’s even what WE did.
Machinists around here can earn a VERY good salary, with good benefits. You need to see what is available in your area.
As noted, you could work as a machinist, and pursue your bachelors part time. There are colleges that have this arrangement (ask me how I know).
i will also throw this out here, my program at my school has taught me the basics but not really much past that. a lot of the work i have done has been fairly simple and thus i don’t feel prepared feel to begin working right away. i have thought of a Precision machining degree like mentioned above.
the problem with going that route is that i cant pay for the schooling first because i have no money and second my “payers” (my parents) don’t believe that a career in machining is desirable and that it doesn’t pay enough paying enough.
i realize that the problem above is better answered on a dedicated machinists forum, but i still appreciate any help or insights.
Don’t know your state but here’s an ABET accredited curriculum.
Read the description. Then click on courses. Scroll down after doing so.
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Are you wanting to go to a 4 year college? Do you like machining? How are your grades? If you tell us what state you live in, we may be able to help you look at options, affordable ones if you will have to pay for it yourself.
Since my son will be looking for a machinist position in about 1.5 years I have been looking in our area at salaries for machinists. It looks like they can vary a lot. It looks to me like beginner certified machinists here in my state can start out around 50-55k per year and then with good experience under your belt can make 80-120k.
Our son wants to open his own machining shop and do custom car parts so our plan is to help finance him doing that once he gets some good experience under his belt.
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Im looking at either a 2 or 4 year college. 2 years are cheaper and have a machining related program. 4 years are as of right now the ones I would have paid for me.
Right now I have a 3.0 weighted GPA and as my classes stand at the moment, I have a 52% in my dual enrollment English class. I live in Maryland, but all the 2 year schools seem to have the same cost, that being around 20000 a year.
Since I do like machining, but want to further my knowledge in it before I go work, a 2 year looks to be the best fit.
If there are any 4 year degrees that are not as challenging as something like mechanical engineering but still highly relate to being a machinist I would want to know about those.
Look at the link at central Michigan I posted upthread
That was MechE Technology. You can see an overview and curriculum.
This one is Mechatronics tech.
These are examples of programs that may be especially well-suited to your interests:
Note that hands-on learning predominates over theoretical approaches in these programs.
A close family friend is a mechanical engineer by day and a machinist by night. He owns his own machinist business and works out of his garage (but he recently moved everything to a larger building that he purchased). He has all the necessary equipment to do the work (which is not inexpensive), but he has no shortage of paying customers. Mostly, he builds race car parts and parts for large manufacturing machines. He’s retiring this year from his day job but will continue his machinist business. It seems to be very lucrative.
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Many of the tech schools around here offer AAs in business administration or similar. Taking business classes would be an excellent supplement to your machinist classes in case you do enjoy the work and want to continue pursuing as a career and owning your own shop.
Having some level of business knowledge is valuable across many careers. For example, my kid is pursuing a healthcare field but we encouraged her to take a couple business classes so she’d understand how to read financial statements, etc.
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