Hi guys, I'm a newbie at this forum and hope that I will have a great stay here To go straight to the point, I am currently 16 years old and undecided on whether I should pursue car designing as a career. There are actually several reasons that often force me to give up the thought of working towards car designing as a career...
1. Cost of design courses and in renowned design universities and cost of living in these countries. -I've been reading up on the net and it struck me that to be a car designer, a degree/diploma is a must. And I guess for someone from a very very humble family background like me, the course fees at these universities will not be very affordable. Also even if scholarships are available, I guess only locals are eligible for them?
2. Language barriers -Since most of the design colleges and universities are found in Europe, it is definitely a must to at least master an European language. However, when I was just enrolled into high school, I made the wrong decision of selecting Malay instead of German or French as a Third Language. Realising that Malay won't be much of a use in the future, I dropped it when I was Secondary 3(Grade 9 I think). Therefore now I feel very useless knowing only how to speak English and Chinese due to the reason that I am very slanted towards the design of European cars and career opportunities are probably more available in the European region.
3. Racial stereotype -I don't know if I am sounding too childish here but I think these kinds of things are inevitable. But I guess racial stereotypes almost everywhere... Can anyone enlighten me on this issue?
On the other hand, I am graduating to a rather renowned junior college in Singapore (Raffles Junior College) and my grades are relatively good (Grade Point Average of 3.73 over 4.0). If I were to pursue a career in the field of medicine or engineering (more popular industries) it would be much less taxing than automotive designing as the local universities do provide scholarships for outstanding students. But sadly, I find almost no interest in any other careers other than automotive designing. Not to forget that my father has been hinting to me that he hopes that I can be a doctor in the future. Regardless of all these, I think I have a tiny little bit of flair in car designing... The problem is just that I have tons of obstacles lying in my path.
Thanks for reading through my rantings! Hope to hear some advices from you guys
First off, you're only 16 so you still have time. If you want my honest advice, do not go into this field unless you feel you absolutely cannot in anyway be torn away from it. If this is just a distraction to you, or just something you'd like to do, then try something else. Only intense passion will give you the drive you need to get through a ton of discouraging mountains that will likely present themselves in your course.
The auto industry currently is not in a good position, the largest car company in the world (GM) is currently facing bankruptcy, as are Ford and Chrysler. When the industry was good, getting a job as a designer was still very difficult, due to the intense competition and few positions. I can't imagine anyone hiring many designers these days.
Design school is extremely expensive, and will take many years to pay off with no guarantee of getting a decent paying job upon graduation. The best known ones are in America and in Europe, and will cost a pretty penny.
These are some of the reasons I decided against this field, I could in no way afford $40,000/year with no guarantee that upon graduation I will end up as a car designer, and I'm one of the more, um passionate ones on this site. I recommend you do what I've decided to do, go into mechanical engineering at wherever you are. After graduating consider getting a job as an engineer for a car company, if you don't at least the field is lucrative and well paying with affordable tuition costs. After you graduate from engineering you can also try design school if you don't like the jobs, but I think if you sketch well and have great design/drawing/rendering/ideation skills, you might be able to land a job as a car designer with just a Mechanical Engineering degree.
personal advice: don't put too much hope or emphasis on this field, if you feel you really want it, then prepare to deal with many setbacks along the way, with a reward that may not be as rewarding as you think.
I totally second Mr Burns opinion. It's not going to be easy (financially, physically, mentally), the only thing that can help you through the rough and tumble of this field is intense passion for cars.
The competition is so very fierce, there are hundreds of car designers graduating every year from schools around the world, so you better be in the top 5 among these people to get a job - because the job openings are very sparse.
Think strategically about what else you want to do or can do in life, discover your (other) inner passion. One good thing about being a doctor is that you can buy the nice cars that the designers designed, because designers are not paid enough to buy the things they like (expensive taste-not enough money).
On racial stereotype things, this is where everybody is on level paying field, if you are good then you are good - no need to worry about this
Guys, thanks very very much for your insights. I guess I still have to spend more time figuring things out.. But meanwhile I think it is better for me to keep car designing as a hobby.
jmv: Hmm I've never thought of that because I don't have prior experience and interest in other sectors of design such as design of cellphones or architecture... I think my alternative pathways are to do medicine or engineering... (On a side note the Bugatti concept you have on your CDN portfolio looks freaking fierce )
Ferrari_one_two: I guess it should be something like that. But I really don't have the money to give both plans a try... And I guess I don't have the liberty to like it or not
Originally posted by Ferrari_one_two: Turbopok, Someone said you should do Plan B first. Im saying you should do PLAN A. Successful people dont even have a PLAN B.
Good news is. If you do become a doctor, you can buy all the cars you want instead of working in a studio doing meaningless sketches all day.
Unfortunately that is the case. If one gets an mechanical engineering degree first, and has good sketching design skills developed through personal improvement and practice, they might get a job as a studio engineer or something. And if they don't, a whole host of high paying interesting jobs in most industries from computer to aerospace are available to them. Where as currently with a design degree, you might land a job as a car designer, but you will likely end up designing packaging for Head and Shoulders shampoo, especially when the CEO of the company you'd like to work for is down in washington begging the public for money and threatening bankruptcy.
Plan A is incredibly risky for failure, plan B then plan A is not, because if plan A fails, you have your plan B to fall back on, and you might just get what you want, or close to it, with just plan B. It's all about playing your cards right.
It's not like you're guaranteed a car design job when you graduate from Art Center, but you are guaranteed to have to pay $200k in loans. You are also not guaranteed a car design job as a mechanical engineer, but at least your loans would be significantly less, and other interesting well paying jobs plenty.
Mr. Burns! been a long time! I'm glad you still stick around!
FYI: I know someone who went thru science and engineering courses in their undergrad college, but transfered to RCA in UK for a graduate program (master degree) in transportation design. He got hired and already produced very cool concepts for OEM that's now showing in auto shows. He can't be more than 32 yrs old, not much in debt since RCA gave him decent financial help. Just something to share.
To go straight to the point, I am currently 16 years old and undecided on whether I should pursue car designing as a career. There are actually several reasons that often force me to give up the thought of working towards car designing as a career...
) 
