What is the best raiting for Mechanical Engineers? [Archive]

jakelong

07-08-2009, 06:31 AM

Hi,

As some might know by now I am interested in joining the Navy and eventually becoming a Mechanical Engineer on day. I have not really decided what subspecialty I would be best for but I do have some experience as a car mechanic in my spare time.

My question is: which rating do you believe would be most interesting for someone interested in that field? Do you have some comments or piee ceof wisdom on the various ratings such as MM, MR, CM or EN

My recruiter is pushing MM Nuke but I would like to know a bit more about all the other related ratings.

Thanks for your help!

forcedj

07-08-2009, 09:24 AM

Jake,
I've been following your various posts about becoming a mechanical engineer and which Navy ratings would contribute the most toward reaching your goals. It's good to see that you're looking ahead and are concerned about what you'll be doing once on active duty. I've been trying to think of an enlisted rating that really lends itself to mechanical engineering. But I can't really come up with one. But there are lots of mechanical ratings in which you could do a considerable amount of mechanical repair and/or mechanical operating. So I did a search and came across a good statement on Yahoo Answers. You can read it at this link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090423204342AA2WXAr

As that answer sort of eludes to...I think that aiming toward a specialized program might be a better way to go if you're going to be an enlisted sailor. If you can find a program or system that is still in the development stages and somehow become part of it, and perhaps assisting the engineers...that might be the best you can do. Otherwise I think that any "maintenance" or "repair" rating would be the best way to go. Some of those ratings you posted above are ratings of that nature (except maybe MM). There are others in the aviation community too.

Also, as a reminder, your recruiter won't necessarily have your best interest as his/her primary concern when offering you various ratings and programs. They have quotas and high priority billets that they have to fill. So again...if he/she is telling you things like being a MM can lead to becoming a Mechanical Engineer...he/she may actually mean (but not tell you) that "Yeah, become a MM and while you're on active duty you can take college classes on your own time that will contribute to earning your engineering degree."

Dan