My dream job would be to work at a company that does pre-production car testing. You know, driving the car before it is on the market for sale. I bet i am not the only one who would love a job like that. Does anyone know names of any companies that do that? Thanks, Taras
I just thought it was the car company itself who does that. Maybe they bring in consultants or something...I dunno
this kinda of testing? http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...P72C00&CMP=KNC-CROYPICARS&HBX_OU=51&HBX_PK=pi
I imagine you would need to either: A) get a degree in journalism while spending all of your free time at the track. or B) get an engineering degree while spending all of your free time at the track.
Car companies do that testing themselves on their own test tracks most of the time. The GM test facility in Michigan is amazing. To get that job- get a mechanical or electrical engineering degree while working on a project like Formula SAE to get inside contacts at companies. Get amazing grades (3.8 or better). Intern at said companies for piddly $ to get your foot in the door while going to school. 1 year before you graduate apply for every position posted at those companies to try to get in. I have 1 friend from college that did precisely what I said, and that is his job. Last I talked with him he was designing and testing electronics for GM.
Pre-production cars are driven only by engineers working for specific car companies. You need a degree in Mechanical Engineering to get hired, and then you need to attach yourself to the right project to work on the car. You might get to drive the car during road tests, but driving the car on a racetrack (like the Lutzring or Nordschleife) is restricted to a small pool of engineers (they don't use racers). Otherwise, get a job at a magazine.
yeah I would think a job in a magazine would be cool, something like car and driver or even consumer reports.
It could be a cool job. or it could be a death trap. ie drive the experimental ford exploerer up and down pikes peak at WOT. i bet you wouldnt last very long. on the flip side, you could test the DBS for prodrive, or the P2
Car and Driver used to require ME degrees for new writers. However, they relaxed their standards a few years ago and now the writing has started to slide. Coloring the magazine mustard and ketchup last year didn't help. Now you can get a three year subscription for $12. They're desperate for paid subscriptions...
My girlfriends little brother did this exact same thing. ME degree, SAE, interned at ford for a couple years, the whole deal. The company sucks, the engineering work you do as entry level sucks (ie, designing door hinges, wiper motors, all the other crap that goes into building a car), and job security is non-existant. I got the ME degree, tried to get into SAE, but everyone at the U seemed to be kind of D-baggy about the whole deal, and they weren't very competitive anyway. I've still got my eyes on how to get into that sort of thing, I just don't know the right direction to go. Maybe the marketing side of things? Topher any word on that? I'm trying to get more into the management side of things by going back to school. Maybe If I do that with the engineering background I'd have better luck? I have no idea. I did apply here when I first got out of school. www.mts.com but had no luck.
a friend of a friend used to work for a high end repair shop in europe and de went to the customer's house to pick up the cars and drove them to the dealership. He got paid the bills, too. I'd take the long way every time if I was driving bmw's ferraris and lambos.
I don't know of the company name but there is a third party company testing pre production cars in Marquette, MI. You can see them driving around town with the black stuff all over them trying to cover them up. The company bought my old bosses farm up there and it has car all over the place. You have to check all camera's at the door. Highly secret. I can try to find out the company name for you.
That seems to be a common theme with engineers these days. I guess the job isn't all that it's cracked up to be and that it's real easy to hit a career plateau. Then there's the whole job security thing....
Yeah, that does seem to be the case for a lot of engineers. On a more personal level, I think management is just a better fit. I mean, I love laplace transforms and setting aside permanent memory for random constants as much as the next guy [/sarcasm]. Getting super technical into things I don't really care that much about kind of turns me off. I think part of it is the fact that what I've been doing at work lately hasn't been very stimulating, and if I could have gotten a job at MTS or even if they assigned me to some of the cooler stuff we do at my current job, I'd feel a little bit differently. But in the end, I think management might have a more "organic" fit to my own personality, temperment, interests. I also feel like the higher up I could get in those regards, the better chance I would have for respect and ultimately, the better chance at getting a stab at the dream job. Testing and tunnnig cars. That was the whole reason I got my degree in the first place.
There are companies like MTS in Eden Prairie that do alot of testing for F1, Nascar, WRC, you name it they break it!
MTS is an awesome comapny, but.... I've applied there a couple of times too without even a response. I have been to a bunch of presentations by there employees and on a company tour through SAE. They never fail to get my nerd goin. ha ha My philosophy on getting a dream job is that if you want it, you have to be patient. If you want to do test drives on concept cars, that is going to be tough, but you can do it. It all depends on how much dedication you want to put into that dream... relocation, low pay, crappy positions that get you in the door, etc. Plus, with technical positions you almost always need to have experience. Get a job, work for five years, then things really open up for you. Personally, I just applied for one of my dream jobs as a bicycle design engineer for QBP and I think I have a good chance of getting it. There is no way in hell I would have gotten this job out of school, but now I honestly have every necessary and desired requirment they have asked for. Hopefully it works out. That might be the reason I am waisting time at my current job writing this right now....oops, back to work. I say go for it and don't stop until your in that car going around that track.
QBP I here is a great company to work for, although a little hardcore with there whole bike to work thing. All and and I have heard nothing but good things about that company while working at Erik's. I someday hope to get a job at MTS, maybe an internship in the near future. I'm currently a second year Fluid Power student and planing on going on to get my four year degree.
