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What's the perfect job for someone who likes art and engineering?

#art #engineer #engineering #job #artist

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Grace’s Answer

Hi Amulya,

Art and Engineering are beautiful interests and combined it is that much more interesting and fun! Have you considered bio medical engineering or industrial design? These types of fields combine creativity, precision, and functionality while producing a product that is straight from your imagination. I would encourage you to take a look at https://www.idsa.org/news/dblog/what-id which is the professional association for industrial designers.

Good luck!
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Dexter’s Answer

Hi Amulya,

Have you considered web development? If you have an artistic mind and a sound engineering base, you'd make an amazing web developer.

The pros (for me) of web development are that most of the problems you run into on the engineering side is pretty well researched and pretty simple. The hardest problems that I've run into as a web developer, I've solved within a period of 24 hrs (rarely longer than that). Compared this to my system validation friends who can be assigned to a problem, work on it for more than 6 months, and maybe find out that it's a problem that actually has no solution (or a solution that the chip manufacturer will not accept due to cost). On the artistic side, the most successful web developers I have seen all know a thing or two about what's beautiful and have the ability to balance that out with making sure beauty does not come before user experience.

The cons (again, for me) of web development, is that there are so many web developers out there because it's really easy to get into. Though I must say, if you're a great web developer with a healthy github activity profile and a decent portfolio, jobs are pretty easy to find because every business needs a website.

Anyways, I hope this help and best of luck in your search!

--
Dexter
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G. Mark’s Answer

You could look around for an engineering position that involves a lot of design or writing. And there are lots. But frankly, I've always been into art and music and writing and I've always loved engineering. So I'd say that you could easily end up in a position where such creativity is not encouraged. But in my career, I started at IBM and then went to Bell Labs. All through my career I've taken assertive efforts to incorporate my artistic drives into my work. And I've generally found that it's usually appreciated and later encouraged. So I'd have to say, "Just about any engineering has a great overlap with art." If you're artistic, you'll find a way to use that to enhance your problem-solving and the products and solutions you create. In my life, it's been a real thrill.
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Eric’s Answer

The ability to think both mathematically and artistically is a very unique and valuable combination. I'd like to second the recommendation for web design. When I have been in the position of hiring software / web developers, it was exactly that combination that produced the most successful team members.
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Peter’s Answer

The most direct path utilizing art and engineering is probably architecture. A sense of art and proportion is essential for a good architect. But to get the most out of an architect's ideas, a good knowledge of structures is important. After all, no matter how inspired or original the architectural design, the building still has to stand when constructed! So, ideally, a double major in Architecture and Civil Engineering (structural emphasis) combines art and engineering. This is a tall order as both disciplines are challenging.
Good Luck, Pete Sturtevant P.E.

Peter recommends the following next steps:

I suggest that you visit one or more architecture departments at colleges and discuss the concept.
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Anthony’s Answer

Architecture design
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Tony’s Answer

HI Amulya

For me, Engineering is art. Being an engineer, you have a chance to create great thinks. If you think about it, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest inventors of all time but he is famous for his paintings. Creativity comes from passion, ideas come from passion, and if you have the passion you can create great thinks. We didn't become an engineer just because, we become an engineer because we have the passion, we have a vision.

The Wright brothers didn't invent the airplane because they are bored, but because they have a vision that people can also fly. Karl Benz invented cars because he had a passion to move faster. And Elon Musk's vision is the future.

There are several fields of Engineering where you can apply the artistic side of you, you just have to find your passion.

For example, I am a Mechanical Engineer because I grew up seeing my father working on cars and I saw the passion in him. My daughter is taking up Chemical Engineering because she wants to create a cosmetic product that will be safe for both the users and the environment, and that is her passion.

Anyways, the perfect engineering job for you is the one you love to do most. Follow you passion.

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Yana’s Answer

Hi Amulya,

In addition to the more technical roles earlier folks have suggested, I know within larger companies engineers can often end up in Marketing roles. This allows folks with a technical background to use their artistic side to create content that may be more customer facing. The technical background helps when explaining products or serves to partners but there is the creative piece as well when determining how to market the product or service in a fun and successful manner.
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Katie’s Answer

Hi Amulya,

You should check out theme park/themed entertainment design. It's exactly the combination of Art and Engineering. Ideas start as art but the end product lives in the real world, so an understanding of physics and engineering is key. There are a ton of roles available, everything from project and construction managers, to civil engineers, to sound and lighting designers, special effects artists, etc. and all of these require an understanding of both artistic and engineering practices.
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Amanda’s Answer

Hi Amulya,
What a great question! I'd like to ask you what kind of artwork do you like seeing or hope to create? What kind of engineering fields make you go "Wow! I want to do that!" or "That is fascinating"?

As I'm sure you can tell from the responses above, there are a number of options to look into. Here are just a few suggestions with a brief description of the kind of projects they tend to have:

-Industrial design if you like designing products for people
-Architecture for buildings
-Environmental design for interior design/customer experience
-Digital media arts/Web design/Motion design- digital content
-Technical director- Stage production and parade floats
Themed entertainment- Theme park concept design

However, I wouldn't throw engineering or computer science fields completely out the window for ideal careers too! I may be a show mechanical engineer but I get to design audio-animatronic figures & show action equipment for theme parks, which is really exciting work (How often do you get to say "I worked with Belle," and actually mean it? It makes me laugh/smile when seeing the kids' faces). But, I don't do it alone. There are also electrical engineers, programmers, technicians, machinists, costume designers, industrial designers, special effects (sometimes) and animators all working together to make characters come to life.

However, I will say that engineering coursework will not have much in the creative/themed entertainment side of things but I hope one day, it'll change (Just like how themed entertainment is a fairly new major). Depending on your school/faculty, you may even be able to propose your own project that is more "Artsy" or Themed entertainment-centric (I did this when taking an Additive Manufacturing class, Solidworks class, Engineering Writing class, and my Senior Research project) while still using the concepts learned in class. You'd be amazed with how supportive and excited professors get if you just ask.

Wishing you all the best!
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Tammy’s Answer

Architecture immediately came to mind and there is a wide variety of types of architecture. I recommend with any career you intern at a firm so that you can see first hand the day-to-day responsibilities.
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