What does it take to land a career with Suzuki or Yamaha?

[zeoniks]

I want to work on motorcycles, but all I do is read about them and ride them. I was just thinking about my future in the motorcycle industry and I was just wondering where I could start.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by zeoniks

I want to work on motorcycles, but all I do is read about them and ride them. I was just thinking about my future in the motorcycle industry and I was just wondering where I could start.

When you say "I want to work on motorcycles", do you mean you want to be a mechanic or do you want to design/build motorcycles?

Either way, I'm sure you need the relevant education. If you go to http://www.suzukicycles.com/ they have a "careers" section with job offers.

The "motorcycle academy" or whatever it is called in Florida might be a good place. Cody from american chopper went there.

I myself, would love to work for Ducati

[FATMOUSE]

Seems like you'd need to maybe look into Mechanical Engineering as a career.

[zeoniks]

I'm currently at a university working for my B.S. in mechanical engineering. I really want to land an internship with them, but I can't seem to find any.

[klutch]

Internships generally begin once you've completed your degree.

[Karoug]

Or try to get a job at a company that does work for the teams.. Like Öhlins or such...

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally Posted by klutch

Internships generally begin once you've completed your degree.

im on a year long paid internship right now, mid way through my masters degree in mech eng.

im not sure we call it an internship here, arent internships usually unpaid? for me its called a DIS - diploma in industrial studies. basically involved companies of which there are many (including blue-chip ones) take on students for year long engineering placements, basically its cheap labour.

students have already completed 2 years of study, so they have a decent amount of knowledge to enable work in idustry, we get paid roughly half what you'd expect to get paid if it was a full job and it was your first year ( 12-14k is typical)

thats organised through the university. after that its usually wise to continue getting similar placements/jobs each summer. if you liked the company you worked for in your placement, and they liked you, theres a good chance you can easily go back to work for them every summer till you graduate.

my friend did this with the MoD, went back every summer, he graduated in 2006 and will be starting work for them as an engineer onf £45k + when he gets back from his year long trip.

you have to start somewhere, and you have absolutely nothing to loose by applying for jobs and internships at companies and industries that interest you. you make your own good luck.

[joemoefro]

If you want to work on motorcycles you should see if you can join a Formula SAE program. If your Uni has a team, Yamaha sponsors the fsae West competition and they offer jobs from the competition to engineers who have the right stuff.
If you want to have the right stuff, you need to get a head start on what you will learn in a mechanical engineering degree. The degree itself won't teach you all the things you need to know about cars.
Basically the people that these top companies are going to hire are top engineers. You need to have an extensive background and have excellent marks in school as well.
I will also recommend a great starter book for race cars, but is also very applicable to motorcycles because the principles are closely similar. Read
Engineer to Win by Carol Smith.
This book is an excellent start resource.
If they don't have Formula SAE at your school I would strongly recommend doing some extra curricular activities of some sort. Maybe do the HPV or DARPA teams. Any sort of extra curricular activities will show to employers that you are inspired by the work you do.
If this sounds like a lot of work to you it is. But if this sounds like work then maybe engineering isn't for you. Cheers.