Mechanic vs Engineer - 5 Things You Need To Know

Should I be a mechanic or an engineer? What's the difference between an engineer and a mechanic? Is it better to be a mechanical engineer or a technician?

1. What is the educational requirement for engineers and technicians?
2. What's the educational experience like?
3. How much do engineers/mechanics make?
4.What’s the job requirement like?
5.What are the advantages/disadvantages of this job? Would you recommend it?

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[MrSuperX]

Having actual engineers and mechanics talk about how they initially did not know how to do anything on their first day has really boosted my confidence about choosing engineering. Thanks guys.

[HumbleMechanic]

Great time chatting as always brother!

[SIMKINETICS]

As a retired mechanical engineer, I found during my career that the best engineers love doing some wrenching! There's a synergy bringing that hands-on feeling of parts & tools that relates equations to the real world. When I was a kid, I could not stay away from disassembling, tuning, repairing & re-assembling all kinds of mechanisms, wondering about how they were made and why they worked or didn't. Maths & physics schooling provided many 'Aha!' experiences that answered long-brewing questions coupled with a recall of why materials felt the way they do at the end of a wrench or in motion.
During my long career, I've mostly built my own prototypes to get a sense of how machines are assembled & serviced without the expletive-drenched experience of knowing bad design. I've worked on my own cars to save money & get a better feel for their strengths & weaknesses, and even got into autocross racing with my own home-brew, heavily modified cars to test my skills at both cranking bolts & making creative changes to improve performance; I learned that there's plenty of thoughtless design that came out of some overly academic automotive designer's limited imagination! I so often thought that engineers should always spend considerable time busting knuckles in almost physically impossible body positions like mechanics do. If they did, they'd design more sensible systems that can be serviced without cursing the damn engineer! As an engineer myself, I've been fairly successful at avoiding being the brunt of that cursing. Having been an avid amateur mechanic helped immensely.

[MostlyLoveOfMusic]

I'm amazed how many people still think an engineer is a mechanic

[AashishBharat]

Become a Mechanic/Technician then study to become an Engineer. Best of both worlds.

[PoeRacing]

Jason, how did you skip the classic Mechanical vs. Civil engineer joke???
Mechanical engineers design cool things like fighter jets and missiles. Civil engineers design targets!

[sharpjm]

As an engineer, my best tool is the technician I work with. And I'm not saying that in any derogatory, "you're just a tool" kind of way. I mean it in the most humble, "I value your input" type of way. I have turned wrenches and I have learned to use new tools. In my first year as an engineer, I got to try the jackhammer, acetylene torch, and sandblaster, among others. Usually I try these things for no other reason than to demonstrate my dedication, interest, and curiosity to the technicians I work with. Doing so helps me to determine a couple of things: 1) how proficient is the technician, 2) can the technician teach others to do mundane jobs, and 3) is this task more of an 'art' or more of a 'labor'? Over time, you can develop a great relationship with coworkers that builds mutual respect and allows for simple and efficient communication of problems. You get less of the "the technician assembled it wrong" and "the engineer designed it wrong" type of finger-pointing scenarios. There do exist bad technicians. There do exist bad engineers. But when good meets good, careers can be accelerated and innovation can really happen.

[eel]

you don't know how happy I am that you posted this video

[wesleygonzales]

Great video, the technician did a great job articulating his professional insight

[Gruxxan]

engineers design, technicians assemble, mechanics maintain

[NextMerckx]

"It's not the technician, it's not the engineer, it's marketing."

Truer words have rarely been spoken.

[lordchickenhawk]

Funnily enough, old mechanics and old engineers seem to tend to migrate toward each other's fields. Old mechanics get a better grasp on theory and old engineers experience application "in the wild" so as to speak. These young fellas seem to have an early insight to each other's perspectives.

[jeepcollector]

Mechanic vs Engineer vs YouTuber
You guys forgot to go over your other career choice...

[beefchillingham]

This video is so true... I'm working at a Toyota dealership as an entry level tech. I'm actually going to school to become an electrician but I like cars and enjoy working on them. Anyways I've been an dealership culture for a long time and TheHumbleMechanic is on point. It's really cool to see people rise through the ranks and get what they deserve. Working on cars is incredibly difficult if you have no reference. However I have a buddy who is majoring in computer science. He's very smart and understands complex math like its no problem. However he is clueless when it comes to anything mechanical. It's funny how intelligence varies from people. I would say both are impressive in there own right.

[bunkey]

Engineer:  makes it happen  Mechanic:  keeps it happening

[juancabeza]

All in all an engineer creates the product by using mathematics (science) and a mechanic built/rebuilt the product by using knowledge (experience)...

Both are exhausting jobs!

[kmier]

every engineering student should go work "on the tools" for a year on the 2nd year just to see what works and what doesn't. That would also make him/her a great heckler on those senior year lectures:) I'm a mechanical engineer (10yrs) myself and a lot of my designs got "humbled down" by the guys on the field over the years...

[wittwer]

As a marketing guy, I blame it on the population who would prefer to have a camery. And corporate.

[kabloosh]

Who says we don't want a car that gets 45 MPG? Let me speak to that marketer.

[blammers]

Thank you so much for making this video. I'm a sophomore engineering student and among these endless math and physics classes, it's easy to get lost and lose sight of what I'm working for. Hearing you both talk about your work is motivating.