Who Wants To Design Coasters??

I would definitely recommend everyone who posted here hop on over to John Wardley's web site (Look for it in the sites here on CB). It's long, but an excellent read. It tells about his journey into the industry and about his job now.

Here's some advice I have:

1. Work at a park as a roller coaster operator when you are in High School, or College.
2. After you get some sort of degree in Engineering, see if you can get a job at a park as a mechanic for the rides. This will give you valuable hands on experience and it looks good on your resume.
3.Apply for a job at an Engineering firm, or at a park. Don't forget many parks have positions like Disney's "Imagineers".
4. Work your way up to the top, or where ever you want to be.

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Jes
Webmaster, Jes's Roller Coasters
http://www.jesms.cjb.net

My Friend Does. He'll make really bad cheap coaster's for SFAW.

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I am taking classes in business and in College I am going to get a Business or Recreation Major. Then I will just keep on working in Park Operations till I work my way up(at Cedar Point).

This past year I had the chance to talk(and play golf with) Don Miers(Cedar Point general manger up till this year) and I have talked to many "high up" different job fields all they all tell me the sam thing - Stick to it. I won't be surprised if it takes almost 20 years to be a "high up" person.

Also remember it isn't what you know that gets you the job... Am I the only one who remember how Kinzel became the Park Operations Director... they said he didn't know the difference between a roller coaster and a merry-go-round. He juts got the job because he wanted to make the park a better place.

To sum it all up: Just because you know how to design a coaster doesn't me company will hire you... most companies look for for people with experience more than how much a person knows(but it helps if you know a lot on that certain field).

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Andrew Hyde
http://www.experiencethepoint.com *** This post was edited by Andrew on 7/8/2001. ***

I hear that allot of companys intern. So if you intern with some company and they get to know you and you get experience. Then they may hire you since they know you and see how you work.

X

Im going to school now to do all of this . Its great.

Hey GhostRider, if you want to be an Imagineer, you need to go Industrial Engineer. I go to Purdue, and I know that Disney interviews for Inmagineer interns every semester, and they look for IE's primarily. I'm in Mechanical, but I applied anyway. They gracefully rejected me cause they had already chosen someone.

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"Before you see the light, you must DIE!"
-SLAYER

For my first year in highschool I choose enginering as one of my electives so I could design coasters in the future. i can't wait to start!!!

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If at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence of trying.

Well, I'll be @ Intamin if anyone needs me...

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Magnum is Red,
Millenium Force is Blue.
I love Wicked Twister
And Raptor too.

I'd add with the way coaster design is going right now you'd better not just speak English...

Yeah. I'm hoping to become a designer. I know a little Spanish and I'm gonna take German next year. It's pretty neato because I've already talked to Werner Stengel about stuff I should do. Along with the guys a Gravity Works, and S&S. Arrow and CCI wouldn't write me back. :(

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www.moviecoaster.com

i want to design roller coasters, actually i have scketched an idea if a flying roller coaster with your legs stretched, and some what of a 4d with it s own axis, and doesnt need the gears on like on x

I already have 4 independent designs of mine. A teracoaster I call Pyromaniac, a hypercoaster called Tokyo Monkey (I like that name!) that has a new inversion known only to me, cause no of you are gonna steal it! A 150 ft. woodie called Centaur, and a impulse called Instant Replay (not a boomerang coaster.)

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Take it up a notch, Mr. Operator! I wanna feel my brains in my feet!

I would like to do this as well. I'm probably going to major in math in college, then go for mechanical engineering after that.
But, if it doesn't happen, I'll still have RCT2 and my SixFlags Cool Coasters sets...

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"What am I doing?" "OoohwhAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Formerly Glidein

coasterdude16 said:
I welded for Vekoma at SFGAM!!
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I love the American Eagle at SFGRAM!!!!

Oh, so we have you to blame for Deja Vu? ;)

Good luck to everyone. Engineering is a tough profession, generally. It's more difficult than most people examine, it can require a lot of math, and I find it stifles creativity.

Sketching a coaster layout, really, is only the tip of a very large, complicated iceberg. I've designed and built some robots, and while more mechanically complex than most coasters, they're also considerably smaller. The amount of work that goes into the design alone is staggering.

Some of you, also, seem to display the need for some business courses ;) There are coasters companies that exist today that are having a hard time staying in business. If you're not offering a vastly superior product, your business won't survive in the marketplace.

Lastly, has anyone considered the larger field of Urban Planning or Environmental Design? There are other, more creative pursuits that may not lead directly to a career in roller coaster design, but still offer opportunities to work in the themed entertainment industry :)

Walt Disney Imagineering, here I come.

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~~~ Maddy ~~~

Being better than B&M is my life dream/ goal.

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Have you ever seen the Demon?
Have you ever heard him scream.............

Instead of mechanical I decided to major in civil-structural engineering. So far it's a lot of work as I have approximately 30 hours of class per week. But in the end it will all be worth it. I can't wait to get into the coaster business.

You can design ALL you want, just leave the theming to me guys. Those who have been here a long time KNOW, it is my true calling....you can build 'em, and you can build 'em bigger and better, but I want to be the guys who turns it from a RIDE into an EXPERIENCE.....