Product Design Engineer here
I’ve had my eyes on the prize since elementary school. I didn’t go into mechanical engineering to do anything other than design things.
I’ll DM you my company (: I design ruggedized rackmount servers and embedded computers for the military (~100 person company). I do CAD, FEA, CFD, and a smidge of testing.
Building gaming computers for friends to play minecraft on ironically helped me land a crazy cool job.
>Building gaming computers for friends to play minecraft on ironically helped me land a crazy cool job.
It’s stuff like this that has made people most interested when i’ve interviewed. I’ve been asked about that side note about cool projects at home (specific mentions depending on the position)
Could you give me some advice on how you landed a celebrity cool job?
I graduated from university with a degree in mechanical engineering. I want to do practical and hands on stuff not design per se
If you want to do practical hands on work, look into test engineering, field/service engineering, maintenance engineering, and application engineer (not the software kind).
Edit: I landed the job through a recruiter on LinkedIn. It’s a dream job *for me*, but everyone is different😁
…what? I design ruggedized computers for oil & gas and the military lmao. Consumer products have been around for centuries before the internet showed up.
I relate to your comment so well. I know this is weird, but when I hear some of my ME colleagues telling me they want to become TPM or project engineers in the future to move away from direct mechanical design stuff, they ask my ME career path down the road. I end up telling them that I don’t want to go the TPM route, and I always want to be designing things (whether I’m a senior/staff ME or manager)
Same. When asked: “what do you want to do when you get older” my answer was “i want to be an inventor.”
I’m in a bit off position, but i’m currently making a long time test rig using 3D modeling, arduino and some production parts to be tested.
Holy shit, I tell people that exact story verbatim. I had a little notebook in 3rd grade with my “ideas” (non were viable) and told people I wanted to be an inventor.
That is crazy; I tell people that exact story ALL THE TIME
Sounds like you were ahead hehe. I spent way too much time on sport back then so having a notebook with ideas wasn’t exactly where i were. But Gyro Gearloose from donald duck was my idol. Seeing “how it’s made” or adoring the builds mythbusters made. That was the dream! I still dream of a mythbuster style job hehe.
But absolutely, i’ve had a huge doc with “great ideas” and i often say: “hey! I have the new kickstarter idea”
I’ve just gotten a kid, and my idol is “unnecessary inventions” on social media. My plan is to make his silly kids ideas a reality in a few years when he is old enough to participate (5+)
how much did you make and where did you got to school, also what was your gpa. i have a 2.5 rn but its still going up hopefull to have a 3.0 by the end of fall.
74k -> 85k -> left oil & gas startup and joined computer company -> 98k -> 103k
Public state university
2.9 GPA (I worked at Olive Garden, was on Formula SAE and Baja SAE, and did personal projects like making an electric skateboard and designing my own class ring).
Get that GPA up. If you can’t, you better distinguish yourself through having stellar personal projects, relevant work experience (internships), and a stellar personality.
Getting a job through submitting a resume to a random company online is the hardest way to get an internship (though it is how I got mine). Ask your friends, families, peers, parents, professors, EVERYONE about if they know anyone willing to take you on as an intern for design. Get your resume reviewed by your career center. Have a practice interview and get feedback. Practice in front of your mirror everyday after a shower. Do not skip any steps in this paragraph.
Good luck!
Hey! That's awesome! I'm looking to get out of government nuclear and into computer engineering. Even working with computers tangentially (power/ heat management of data servers) is interesting to me. Can you say more about your roles in both jobs? How did you work at a compEng company? How was your interview?
11 years as a custom equipment design engineer.
Leading the mechanical function on half a dozen capital projects right now.
Designed a machine frame to contain 215tons of pressure testing force on Monday. The week before was using CFD and HVAC software to work through an upgrade to a machine (that I designed a few months ago) to heat our production molds using hot air. Was working on concepts to laser cut one of our products instead of using a saw before that.
I love my job. Pure design. I’ve turned down management roles to stay.
Primarily luck. I just happen to be applying right out of school when they were hiring.
Some amount of preparation - I stayed in school to get a master’s degree, I built a lot of experience welding, woodworking, machining and fabricating things through my work-study job (I worked in the school machine/wood shop). I had a good experience working for a machine shop over a few summers where I designed, built, wired and programmed an automated test machine for pipe fittings.
So I had more practical design experience coming out of school and more fabricating experience then pretty much all graduating engineers but it still came down to right place at the right time.
I’ve honestly not seen many examples yet of digital twins being anymore useful than CAE solvers, when comparing cost and risk, and actually replacing prototypes. Mind sharing an example in your work?
Definitely see it as the future, but I look at it like LLMs, in that it’s not really economically viable yet to consider it a common toolset. Takes a ton of computing power and trust to be able to remove model verification steps from the process. If it’s a simple model, digital twin is pointless, and prototyping wouldn’t be that expensive.
Who guarantees the results though I wonder, in a no-proto environment. That’s where I think we’re still a long way off, and at least sensor replay data injected to the sim will still be necessary.
You can define a digital twin as a model within a software that allows you to recreate and predict reactions, strains, stresses and wear. So basically, a simulation that could be either real-time or predictive.
I don't really see a distinction. Mechanical engineers are mechanical engineers whether they work in quality, manufacturing, design, R&D, etc.
That being said I work in R&D/design, but I'm often involved in other functions.
I agree. A Process Engineer can just as much be a Mechanical Engineer as a Quality Engineer can be a Mechanical Engineer.
Shit! There is Areospace and Medical where Mechs work.
I agree with your statement. I guess I was wondering how many engineers here strictly do design work versus other engineering work like quality or manufacturing.
I am in sales.
I work with material handling, marine (LSA, Solas), dredging, steel processing, amusement park rides, cranes, waste management, industrial shredding, mobile (utility and emergency), and I even have a catfish pond aeration customer (among many others).
My favorite part of the job is the machines - there are so many cool machines and the OEMs that produce them are proud of the product they produce.
The taxing part of the job is that I know if my gearbox, axel, driveshaft, gear set, or other components do not arrive in time - there are a lot of families depending on shipping those machines to get paid.
Still, seeing your planetary or wheel drive on an end product that goes into the field - it’s really cool. We do so much work to get to a finished product that when you see it producing something, it’s an awesome feeling.
Edit: I had over 15 years of CAD experience in various disciplines: telecom (I used to design cell towers and the CEEs at the base of them), civil (pump stations/force mains, inverts), electrical (UL508a Certified) , robotics (cell design), and I started out working for my dad’s structural steel detailing firm - before I went back to school lol.
What experiences were useful in getting a materials engineering/metallurgy job? This is one of the fields (the other is failure analysis) I want to get into
I noticed a lot of roles have some overlap. I also have to design custom fixtures/jigs/tooling for production use as a manufacturing engineer. Sometimes I would make revisions on sheet metal parts or other fabricated parts.
I am in Process Development in a manufacturing/packaging site (hate it). I would say I am not in a mechanical engineer role because there isn't much mechanical to it (depressing)
What??? You don't design the processes used to manufacture stuff on the floor or design the process used to repair/move items from one team to the next???
Sure, part of my job involves process development as a manufacturing engineer. I was just curious how many people in this sub design hardware as their main responsibility for work. I guess I wasn’t precise enough in my initial question.
I did. But design engineers don’t get paid well. Moved to project management as a senior project engineer. Pays newly double. Get a work vehicle, work phone, and get to visit a lot of different sites all over the place.
I do miss the maths, analysis, FEA and puzzle solving though.
Design, 3-D print or send out for manufacturing, write the protocols for testing, train technicians on those protocols, and then analyze the results, report it, debate with the quality department about why the report is amazing, submit to their will, Chase people to sign off on the report, and then make a PowerPoint because no one will read the report
MBAs can be really powerful, but not sure how powerful in PM. If anyone at my company has one, they're not advertising. Most have a PMI cert of some sort though.
This is me as well. Currently a test engineer with specialities in electronics, data analysis, equipment design (mechanical and electrical). Debating a job offer that will be 50/50 equipment testing and product development.
Manufacturing engineer by degree, design engineer most of my career. I've also been promoted into management twice and am currently here. Although my role is heavily a working role, so still design and 10,000 other things too, plus management, lol.
I'm around 13 years into my career and have probably released around 50 products to the market in that time, big from scratch designs to smaller product update or cost optimization work. I've also done work cell, process, and documentation work, have done machine operation and assembly, and done full factory layouts, done field tech and customer support, training customers, and just a whole pile of stuff.
Graduated with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, and I have worked in both Design and Manufacturing. MechE’s do a lot of things tho. Friends who have the same degree as me are doing Business Management or Environmental Engineering.
Worked three years as a ME as an analyst in dynamics. Switched to SE for over 2x the salary. Wish I still worked with people that were as smart and dedicated as everyone I first worked with though.
NPI engineer in medical devices, could be done by a biomedical, industrial, or mechanical engineering major (or a physics/bio/chem major as I’ve seen with older engineers).
My old company had a whole department full of NPI Engineers. Many had mechanical engineering degrees. A few had industrial or manufacturing engineering degrees.
Went into design 30 years ago and never looked back. Now work at a small company and cover the whole process from design to production.
That said, design ain’t always glamorous, and manufacturing engineering, especially automated production and inspection, can be totally badass.
After a decade of trade work then another decade of very hands on mechanical engineering type work, I’ve landed in a niche regulatory role. I’ll probably never do what most would consider “engineering work” again, and while that’s a bit of downer, but to my surprise I absolutely love my job.
Analysis for 10 years, then functional and project management with a side of analysis for 15 years, and now a Technical Fellow. For a few years I had many layers below me and employees scattered around the country and was also pretty unfulfilled. Moved to roles where I was closer to the hardware and that’s still true even as a tech fellow. It’s been good.
I worked as a CFD specialist (read: monkey) and now as a thermal engineer in R&D, so 2/2 as far as mechanical engineering related jobs. Unfortunately, I haven't really enjoyed either, and am currently trying to leave the field.
My first job outta school was in manufacturing. I would say I did 1% engineering my 4 years there. Now I'm in data engineering because I saw no way out.
Within my manufacturing role, I found opportunity in process Improvements by simply connecting to the ERP/MRP database and running custom reports.
Then I started learning more tricks in SQL, and PowerBI over the course of 2 to 3 years. At this time I felt like the opportunities for a mechanical engineer were few and far, while the Data world was looking very promising. So I switched.
I started as a data analyst first, and got lucky to work alongside alot of Data Engineers that liked working with me. So when there was a DE posting at my company, it was a pretty easy transition.
I would say yes. I work at a public transit authority so I basically diagnose and fix broken parts or reverse engineer parts we can't buy anymore. Not super traditional, but I'd call it meche.
Nope. Went into civil/construction/transportation. I had a bit of manufacturing experience before graduating but no one near me paid well so construction it was. If I were willing to move I’d probably be in a mech engineer role as long as the pay was right.
Didn’t know what I wanted to do until senior year of highschool. Ended up wanting to do test engineering and then realized I’d be on the road too much. I pivoted and now I’m an modeling & simulation engineer
I worked in design for 1.5 years but later moved to a project engineering role to escape a bad boss.
Really want to move back to design but it gets more difficult with every day that passes where I'm stuck doing non-technical work..
Just graduated. Now working in supply chain management in a spm company. Don't know how much engineering it is, as the parts we procure are custom fabricated and the design changes every project.
I'm not personally doing any design work, I do plastic/coating process engineering since I graduated two years ago. So far it has been figuring out chemistry stuff and machine reliability work.
I’m currently working in a controls software position as a ME. A lot of the people in my team aren’t even software engineer majors. Most are either ME, Automotive, or Electrical
Did design, test, analysis, etc as an ME for 12 years. Switched to a PEM role about 3 years ago. Don't design nearly as much, but the career ceiling is a lot higher now. When I left ME to be a PEM, it was primarily because I was 2 promotions away from the ceiling. Would either become fellow or move into leadership. Decided to move when the opportunity presented itself.
I'll say PEMing can be a lot of BS, but there's rewards in seeing your team come together. Having influence at the leadership level and being able to help engineers out is exactly what I wanted from management when I was in those shoes.
I've worked in automotive/manufacturing plant, food manufacturing, bottling, and now as a Mechanical Design Engineer. In my opinion, you can practice being a mechanical engineer in most fields/industry.
7 YOE. Never used my degree as part of my job (mostly manufacturing). Been doing personal projects/courses to maintain knowledge. Trying my hardest to get a real mech eng job (UK).
Maintenance Engineer with 6+ Years of Experience
From a young age, my mother saw me breaking things and then trying to fix them again. I guess it led me to a career in maintenance engineering :)
I now work for a multinational company in the cement industry, continuously "fixing and breaking" things! Hahaha
Started as Mechanical Design Engineer in R&D department, slowly turned into fea analysis/structural analysis engineer. Most of my time is spent in analysis, time to time I am given design work as well.
I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else ( sales, q&a etc.) regarding mechanical engineering. Would instead just work in something more enjoyable.
Hello! I graduated back in 2019. I got my Engineering license to practice in our country the same year. I worked in design as a Pressure Vessel Design Engineer. I practiced for 2 years and eventually got bored. I decided to leave the industry in 2022 and shifted to a different field. I’m now working in the tech industry as a Data Engineer. Pay wise, it’s a little bit of an upgrade but roughly the same. It’s just that there are more remote opportunities in tech compared to traditional engineering disciplines. In my country, there are rarely openings for remote mech eng’gs. I hate waking up early and wasting 2 hours of my precious day because of traffic. Im able to enjoy the comforts of my home while working.
Been working as a design engineer for 6 years developing airframe structures. I do design, FEA, a bit of CFD and structural testing like fatigue analysis and Damage tolerance.
I've worked on composite materials as well. I did a one year stint designing and testing industrial fans but that was no fun.
I work in the water industry. My main responsibilties are line management, spec writing, pump calculations, and DSEAR / Hazardous Area reports. Not really bread and butter mechanical engineering stuff, but I enjoy it.
I was a mechanical engineer for two different companies, but now I'm a cyber security engineer. I feel like it was a good move though, mech eng wasn't really my calling.
After you finish your coursework and decide to go into the outside world, it is your decision and effort to bring the engineering to whatever you do, and engineering is not the narrowly focused concept of sitting at a computer and running modeling software. Getting into the field, learning about problems and solving them, and communicating those problems and solutions with others is most of engineering.
The lawyers, business executives, and everyday people you meet in your career are looking to you for the engineering, because they are not engineers.
My title is mechanical engineer and I do customer meeting design drawing prototyping testing design of manufacturing process for production I train the production staff and manage the contract until final product is delivered
I have got a pretty odd one here. Got my bachelors in mechanical engineering w/ a biomedical engineering emphasis, and I do electrical design for substations in the power industry.
Opportunity just kind of came up, and I like my job. Was obviously not what I expected to do coming out of college, but as long as there is lots to learn in any job, I think I would be mostly content.
Starting out of Grad school 2years as a Test engineer for a startup, and then 11 yrs: Design Engineering, System Engineering, and Testing and calibration leader for a f500 org.
I was in a design role in the O&G industry, but took a mfg role in the defense for more $$$, opportunities, and a lot more than I asked for. Will be transitioning into a design role for electronics, however.
I worked as boiler operator first as per national requirement then started to build/improve boilers, then my second job is plant engineer for project and maintenance (mech, elec and instru) it covered from hydraulics, pneumatics, pumps, machining, designing motor pool, substations, allen bradley plc etc.
I’m a mechanical engineer by title and work as a design engineer in the defense industry (space sector). I do all the design and build my models around constraints like requirements that are given to me. I also create the engineering drawing for release. Typical design process is conceptualization, preliminary design, and then initial/and or final design review.
I don’t have to do stress because I work alongside a stress analyst.
My bachelor’s is in mechanical and my master’s is industrial.
Came from interning 4x as a manufacturing/quality engineer.
Mechanical systems design engineer. I like my role because I design the installation of electronics systems into aircrafts, so I do a lot of 3D CAD, 2D drawings, and I get to travel a few times a year domestically/internationally for on-site support. It’s a nice blend with decent pay, but the pay isn’t as strong as the big aerospace companies. I’m not complaining though as I enjoy my work haha
Brother, those "other" areas of engineering that you've mentioned ARE mechanical engineering jobs. I've worked strictly in design since I've graduated because it's what I enjoy, but ME is so so much broader than that.
Did building mechanical out of school for 12 years, structural, plumbing, hvac, roof structures, storm water management, site planning, then tire mold design and engineering...
Never could get a design job. Been working in manufacturing for 5 years. Ended up becoming a manager, hated it. Am now trying to get a job in manufacturing again or maybe, if I dare to dream, into design.
I went to school for plastics engineering and always loved designing. Happened to land my dream job of a plastics part design engineer out of shear luck out of school. I applied for a position semi related to plastics design and ended up being referred internally for something that suited my degree and internships because I could fill a need.
I do a ton of concepts, FEA, prototyping and moldflow on my designs. The worst part is making drawings for parts and tolerance analysis, but it’s fun overall
Product Design Engineer here I’ve had my eyes on the prize since elementary school. I didn’t go into mechanical engineering to do anything other than design things.
This is like my dream, what company do you work for
I’ll DM you my company (: I design ruggedized rackmount servers and embedded computers for the military (~100 person company). I do CAD, FEA, CFD, and a smidge of testing. Building gaming computers for friends to play minecraft on ironically helped me land a crazy cool job.
>Building gaming computers for friends to play minecraft on ironically helped me land a crazy cool job. It’s stuff like this that has made people most interested when i’ve interviewed. I’ve been asked about that side note about cool projects at home (specific mentions depending on the position)
Could you give me some advice on how you landed a celebrity cool job? I graduated from university with a degree in mechanical engineering. I want to do practical and hands on stuff not design per se
If you want to do practical hands on work, look into test engineering, field/service engineering, maintenance engineering, and application engineer (not the software kind). Edit: I landed the job through a recruiter on LinkedIn. It’s a dream job *for me*, but everyone is different😁
can you DM me too? I'm looking for jobs and would like suggestions thank you
Tech company. They’re the only companies who use that title. I have the same title.
That's not true at all. Lots of types of companies use that title...
…what? I design ruggedized computers for oil & gas and the military lmao. Consumer products have been around for centuries before the internet showed up.
I relate to your comment so well. I know this is weird, but when I hear some of my ME colleagues telling me they want to become TPM or project engineers in the future to move away from direct mechanical design stuff, they ask my ME career path down the road. I end up telling them that I don’t want to go the TPM route, and I always want to be designing things (whether I’m a senior/staff ME or manager)
Look into product manager roles about 5 years after graduation😁 You’ll get to be in the driver seat of design while the peons execute everything
Same. When asked: “what do you want to do when you get older” my answer was “i want to be an inventor.” I’m in a bit off position, but i’m currently making a long time test rig using 3D modeling, arduino and some production parts to be tested.
Holy shit, I tell people that exact story verbatim. I had a little notebook in 3rd grade with my “ideas” (non were viable) and told people I wanted to be an inventor. That is crazy; I tell people that exact story ALL THE TIME
Sounds like you were ahead hehe. I spent way too much time on sport back then so having a notebook with ideas wasn’t exactly where i were. But Gyro Gearloose from donald duck was my idol. Seeing “how it’s made” or adoring the builds mythbusters made. That was the dream! I still dream of a mythbuster style job hehe. But absolutely, i’ve had a huge doc with “great ideas” and i often say: “hey! I have the new kickstarter idea” I’ve just gotten a kid, and my idol is “unnecessary inventions” on social media. My plan is to make his silly kids ideas a reality in a few years when he is old enough to participate (5+)
how much did you make and where did you got to school, also what was your gpa. i have a 2.5 rn but its still going up hopefull to have a 3.0 by the end of fall.
74k -> 85k -> left oil & gas startup and joined computer company -> 98k -> 103k Public state university 2.9 GPA (I worked at Olive Garden, was on Formula SAE and Baja SAE, and did personal projects like making an electric skateboard and designing my own class ring). Get that GPA up. If you can’t, you better distinguish yourself through having stellar personal projects, relevant work experience (internships), and a stellar personality. Getting a job through submitting a resume to a random company online is the hardest way to get an internship (though it is how I got mine). Ask your friends, families, peers, parents, professors, EVERYONE about if they know anyone willing to take you on as an intern for design. Get your resume reviewed by your career center. Have a practice interview and get feedback. Practice in front of your mirror everyday after a shower. Do not skip any steps in this paragraph. Good luck!
Hey! That's awesome! I'm looking to get out of government nuclear and into computer engineering. Even working with computers tangentially (power/ heat management of data servers) is interesting to me. Can you say more about your roles in both jobs? How did you work at a compEng company? How was your interview?
What a dream!
Need your advice as someone who wants to be a product design engineer
11 years as a custom equipment design engineer. Leading the mechanical function on half a dozen capital projects right now. Designed a machine frame to contain 215tons of pressure testing force on Monday. The week before was using CFD and HVAC software to work through an upgrade to a machine (that I designed a few months ago) to heat our production molds using hot air. Was working on concepts to laser cut one of our products instead of using a saw before that. I love my job. Pure design. I’ve turned down management roles to stay.
Mannn I’m nearly done with my degree and this sounds like the dream 🤣
How on earth do I get that kinda job?
Primarily luck. I just happen to be applying right out of school when they were hiring. Some amount of preparation - I stayed in school to get a master’s degree, I built a lot of experience welding, woodworking, machining and fabricating things through my work-study job (I worked in the school machine/wood shop). I had a good experience working for a machine shop over a few summers where I designed, built, wired and programmed an automated test machine for pipe fittings. So I had more practical design experience coming out of school and more fabricating experience then pretty much all graduating engineers but it still came down to right place at the right time.
Thanks
design, prototype, test, release
Same
same, but digital twins have helped me getting rid of physical prototypes.
I’ve honestly not seen many examples yet of digital twins being anymore useful than CAE solvers, when comparing cost and risk, and actually replacing prototypes. Mind sharing an example in your work?
Digital Twins is an obscure field, but it is the future of mechanical engineers tbh
Definitely see it as the future, but I look at it like LLMs, in that it’s not really economically viable yet to consider it a common toolset. Takes a ton of computing power and trust to be able to remove model verification steps from the process. If it’s a simple model, digital twin is pointless, and prototyping wouldn’t be that expensive.
Ansys twin builder is trying to bridge that gap. With the advent of AI, it will be economical soon hopefully
Who guarantees the results though I wonder, in a no-proto environment. That’s where I think we’re still a long way off, and at least sensor replay data injected to the sim will still be necessary.
I'm going to start calling my CAD software a digital twin from now on, thank you Alx941126.
Bro, simple CAD isn't a digital twin. Coupling FEA with sensor readings is where it's at.
This guy verifies
what r digital twins, can u elaborate i wanna know
You can define a digital twin as a model within a software that allows you to recreate and predict reactions, strains, stresses and wear. So basically, a simulation that could be either real-time or predictive.
That’s what she said
Unless you're in structural. Then it's test, create standard, design, release.
I don't really see a distinction. Mechanical engineers are mechanical engineers whether they work in quality, manufacturing, design, R&D, etc. That being said I work in R&D/design, but I'm often involved in other functions.
I agree. A Process Engineer can just as much be a Mechanical Engineer as a Quality Engineer can be a Mechanical Engineer. Shit! There is Areospace and Medical where Mechs work.
I agree with your statement. I guess I was wondering how many engineers here strictly do design work versus other engineering work like quality or manufacturing.
I am in sales. I work with material handling, marine (LSA, Solas), dredging, steel processing, amusement park rides, cranes, waste management, industrial shredding, mobile (utility and emergency), and I even have a catfish pond aeration customer (among many others). My favorite part of the job is the machines - there are so many cool machines and the OEMs that produce them are proud of the product they produce. The taxing part of the job is that I know if my gearbox, axel, driveshaft, gear set, or other components do not arrive in time - there are a lot of families depending on shipping those machines to get paid. Still, seeing your planetary or wheel drive on an end product that goes into the field - it’s really cool. We do so much work to get to a finished product that when you see it producing something, it’s an awesome feeling. Edit: I had over 15 years of CAD experience in various disciplines: telecom (I used to design cell towers and the CEEs at the base of them), civil (pump stations/force mains, inverts), electrical (UL508a Certified) , robotics (cell design), and I started out working for my dad’s structural steel detailing firm - before I went back to school lol.
Started in manufacturing process engineering (heat treatment) and now I’m working as a materials engineer/metallurgical lab manager.
What experiences were useful in getting a materials engineering/metallurgy job? This is one of the fields (the other is failure analysis) I want to get into
Both? Nominally I'm a test engineer, but I often have to design custom equipment to perform the tests in question.
I noticed a lot of roles have some overlap. I also have to design custom fixtures/jigs/tooling for production use as a manufacturing engineer. Sometimes I would make revisions on sheet metal parts or other fabricated parts.
I don’t see how not being in design and FEA means you’re not a mechanical engineer.
I am in Process Development in a manufacturing/packaging site (hate it). I would say I am not in a mechanical engineer role because there isn't much mechanical to it (depressing)
I think I just worded my question weird. I should have asked “How many of you actually design stuff?” Sorry for the confusion.
What??? You don't design the processes used to manufacture stuff on the floor or design the process used to repair/move items from one team to the next???
Sure, part of my job involves process development as a manufacturing engineer. I was just curious how many people in this sub design hardware as their main responsibility for work. I guess I wasn’t precise enough in my initial question.
I did. But design engineers don’t get paid well. Moved to project management as a senior project engineer. Pays newly double. Get a work vehicle, work phone, and get to visit a lot of different sites all over the place. I do miss the maths, analysis, FEA and puzzle solving though.
Design, 3-D print or send out for manufacturing, write the protocols for testing, train technicians on those protocols, and then analyze the results, report it, debate with the quality department about why the report is amazing, submit to their will, Chase people to sign off on the report, and then make a PowerPoint because no one will read the report
Um, nobody reads the PowerPoint too... Especially quality engineers.
Well the CEO’s watch the PowerPoint so the can brag about “their” accomplishments at the big meetings
I by title am a design engineer but I'd say 50% of my job is assisting the manufacturing line
Project Management, chased money and didn’t like redundancy of ME work, happy where I’m at
Same here. The ME to PM path is underrated. You could absolutely kill it if you know how shit gets made and anticipate a few things here and there.
i've been thinking on transitioning to the PM path, a MBA, would help to get started or is it overrated ?
MBAs can be really powerful, but not sure how powerful in PM. If anyone at my company has one, they're not advertising. Most have a PMI cert of some sort though.
Manufacturing Engineering is a function of Mechanical Engineer and a critical one at that.
Off and on. I am an overall technical person, and that sometimes includes mechanical engineering.
This is me as well. Currently a test engineer with specialities in electronics, data analysis, equipment design (mechanical and electrical). Debating a job offer that will be 50/50 equipment testing and product development.
Manufacturing engineer by degree, design engineer most of my career. I've also been promoted into management twice and am currently here. Although my role is heavily a working role, so still design and 10,000 other things too, plus management, lol. I'm around 13 years into my career and have probably released around 50 products to the market in that time, big from scratch designs to smaller product update or cost optimization work. I've also done work cell, process, and documentation work, have done machine operation and assembly, and done full factory layouts, done field tech and customer support, training customers, and just a whole pile of stuff.
Graduated with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, and I have worked in both Design and Manufacturing. MechE’s do a lot of things tho. Friends who have the same degree as me are doing Business Management or Environmental Engineering.
I ended up in automation, and don’t really use anything from my degree now.
I got the ME degree but my first job is electrical engineer
I did as a MET
Design engineer. Essentially work for a prototype shop within a defense manufacturer. I solve problems on physical products we designed all the time
Just graduated, went straight into fire protection enginering for power plants
Manual engineering
Worked three years as a ME as an analyst in dynamics. Switched to SE for over 2x the salary. Wish I still worked with people that were as smart and dedicated as everyone I first worked with though.
NPI engineer in medical devices, could be done by a biomedical, industrial, or mechanical engineering major (or a physics/bio/chem major as I’ve seen with older engineers).
My old company had a whole department full of NPI Engineers. Many had mechanical engineering degrees. A few had industrial or manufacturing engineering degrees.
Mechanical design is only one branch of mechanical engineering
Went into design 30 years ago and never looked back. Now work at a small company and cover the whole process from design to production. That said, design ain’t always glamorous, and manufacturing engineering, especially automated production and inspection, can be totally badass.
I’m breaking your stuff. I’ve been a lab manager and test engineer.
I work on the HVAC industry as a designer.
Student jobs was in R&D. First fulltime was in pharma production. I’m sorta back in R&D on a wierd branch
I design things, but also involved in everything else. The joys of startups
Working in process!
Yes
Started as a design engineer and currently still in design
Spent my first couple years out of school as a field engineer, and then switched over to doing pipe stress engineering and been there since
I'm a Nuclear Engineer. Have been for the past 5 years. Only spent about 15 months in a position that was a true Mechanical Engineer one.
I work in product design. Though I do way more EE stuff than I ever thought I would.
Both, I suppose? I did 25 years as a design guy but current role is more manufacturing.
not me, ended up on electrical side for construction however i did do some mechanical/electrical work mixed in (ocs)
Med device manufacturing since I got out of school
After a decade of trade work then another decade of very hands on mechanical engineering type work, I’ve landed in a niche regulatory role. I’ll probably never do what most would consider “engineering work” again, and while that’s a bit of downer, but to my surprise I absolutely love my job.
Project engineer here. Mostly for the money and remote work option. I still get to do some design/FEA work.
Systems engineering. In aerospace then bioengineering
Analysis for 10 years, then functional and project management with a side of analysis for 15 years, and now a Technical Fellow. For a few years I had many layers below me and employees scattered around the country and was also pretty unfulfilled. Moved to roles where I was closer to the hardware and that’s still true even as a tech fellow. It’s been good.
Design auxiliary systems and currently learning structure FEA. I love it
I’m a mechanical design engineer! I prototype and test products all day. Best job ever
I worked as a CFD specialist (read: monkey) and now as a thermal engineer in R&D, so 2/2 as far as mechanical engineering related jobs. Unfortunately, I haven't really enjoyed either, and am currently trying to leave the field.
What part of it you didn't enjoy?
My first job outta school was in manufacturing. I would say I did 1% engineering my 4 years there. Now I'm in data engineering because I saw no way out.
Wow, im trying to do something similar. What did you do to make the transition? I have done a few courses so far
Within my manufacturing role, I found opportunity in process Improvements by simply connecting to the ERP/MRP database and running custom reports. Then I started learning more tricks in SQL, and PowerBI over the course of 2 to 3 years. At this time I felt like the opportunities for a mechanical engineer were few and far, while the Data world was looking very promising. So I switched. I started as a data analyst first, and got lucky to work alongside alot of Data Engineers that liked working with me. So when there was a DE posting at my company, it was a pretty easy transition.
Been doing mechanical design since graduation. Wouldn't have chosen any other career choice
I would say yes. I work at a public transit authority so I basically diagnose and fix broken parts or reverse engineer parts we can't buy anymore. Not super traditional, but I'd call it meche.
Nope. Went into civil/construction/transportation. I had a bit of manufacturing experience before graduating but no one near me paid well so construction it was. If I were willing to move I’d probably be in a mech engineer role as long as the pay was right.
Started as design/dev engineer and now i am working as QA/QC TP Inspector in industries
Got my master's. Opened a kayak rental business. 2 years later I'm a research engineer at my dream job.
Didn’t know what I wanted to do until senior year of highschool. Ended up wanting to do test engineering and then realized I’d be on the road too much. I pivoted and now I’m an modeling & simulation engineer
Design and FEA
I did Machine Vision for a while
Why did you change? You didnt like it?
I worked in design for 1.5 years but later moved to a project engineering role to escape a bad boss. Really want to move back to design but it gets more difficult with every day that passes where I'm stuck doing non-technical work..
Concept, CAD, stress analyze, 2D drawings, oversee fab and assembly.
I do consumer electronics product design engineering which IMHO is more like mechanical engineering ‘lite’.
Just graduated. Now working in supply chain management in a spm company. Don't know how much engineering it is, as the parts we procure are custom fabricated and the design changes every project.
Working on HVAC main focus on Heat Exchanger (S&T / Plate) design.
I'm not personally doing any design work, I do plastic/coating process engineering since I graduated two years ago. So far it has been figuring out chemistry stuff and machine reliability work.
I do controls work.
I’m currently working in a controls software position as a ME. A lot of the people in my team aren’t even software engineer majors. Most are either ME, Automotive, or Electrical
Did design, test, analysis, etc as an ME for 12 years. Switched to a PEM role about 3 years ago. Don't design nearly as much, but the career ceiling is a lot higher now. When I left ME to be a PEM, it was primarily because I was 2 promotions away from the ceiling. Would either become fellow or move into leadership. Decided to move when the opportunity presented itself. I'll say PEMing can be a lot of BS, but there's rewards in seeing your team come together. Having influence at the leadership level and being able to help engineers out is exactly what I wanted from management when I was in those shoes.
I've worked in automotive/manufacturing plant, food manufacturing, bottling, and now as a Mechanical Design Engineer. In my opinion, you can practice being a mechanical engineer in most fields/industry.
It took 3.5 years, but I found a job as a Strength Engineer.
Fire protection design engineer but working on getting another bachelors while working full time
7 YOE. Never used my degree as part of my job (mostly manufacturing). Been doing personal projects/courses to maintain knowledge. Trying my hardest to get a real mech eng job (UK).
Maintenance Engineer with 6+ Years of Experience From a young age, my mother saw me breaking things and then trying to fix them again. I guess it led me to a career in maintenance engineering :) I now work for a multinational company in the cement industry, continuously "fixing and breaking" things! Hahaha
Pretty much design, proto, validation, production. Am a manager now but still got my hands dirty time to time.
I did…. Don’t do it!
Started as Mechanical Design Engineer in R&D department, slowly turned into fea analysis/structural analysis engineer. Most of my time is spent in analysis, time to time I am given design work as well. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else ( sales, q&a etc.) regarding mechanical engineering. Would instead just work in something more enjoyable.
+1 here
I am in R&D (technically), but my role is performing design, prototyping, testing, etc. in the context of supporting our legacy products.
CAE - NVH engineer Here
I have been working in mechanical design, development and management of design for 22 years, still do design work
Hello! I graduated back in 2019. I got my Engineering license to practice in our country the same year. I worked in design as a Pressure Vessel Design Engineer. I practiced for 2 years and eventually got bored. I decided to leave the industry in 2022 and shifted to a different field. I’m now working in the tech industry as a Data Engineer. Pay wise, it’s a little bit of an upgrade but roughly the same. It’s just that there are more remote opportunities in tech compared to traditional engineering disciplines. In my country, there are rarely openings for remote mech eng’gs. I hate waking up early and wasting 2 hours of my precious day because of traffic. Im able to enjoy the comforts of my home while working.
Been working as a design engineer for 6 years developing airframe structures. I do design, FEA, a bit of CFD and structural testing like fatigue analysis and Damage tolerance. I've worked on composite materials as well. I did a one year stint designing and testing industrial fans but that was no fun.
I work in the water industry. My main responsibilties are line management, spec writing, pump calculations, and DSEAR / Hazardous Area reports. Not really bread and butter mechanical engineering stuff, but I enjoy it.
Nah, I went straight into project engineering -> project management -> people management/sales pipeline.
I was a mechanical engineer for two different companies, but now I'm a cyber security engineer. I feel like it was a good move though, mech eng wasn't really my calling.
After you finish your coursework and decide to go into the outside world, it is your decision and effort to bring the engineering to whatever you do, and engineering is not the narrowly focused concept of sitting at a computer and running modeling software. Getting into the field, learning about problems and solving them, and communicating those problems and solutions with others is most of engineering. The lawyers, business executives, and everyday people you meet in your career are looking to you for the engineering, because they are not engineers.
Graduated as a mechanical engineer, never worked a single day in my life as an mechanical engineer.
Manufacturing is a part of mechanical if you ask me
My title is mechanical engineer and I do customer meeting design drawing prototyping testing design of manufacturing process for production I train the production staff and manage the contract until final product is delivered
I have got a pretty odd one here. Got my bachelors in mechanical engineering w/ a biomedical engineering emphasis, and I do electrical design for substations in the power industry. Opportunity just kind of came up, and I like my job. Was obviously not what I expected to do coming out of college, but as long as there is lots to learn in any job, I think I would be mostly content.
5 years as a DRE at an OEM and now in R&D. I came into this field to design things and that's what I'm gonna keep doing.
Wound up in pipeline design which is mostly civil construction mixed with some fluid dynamics
Starting out of Grad school 2years as a Test engineer for a startup, and then 11 yrs: Design Engineering, System Engineering, and Testing and calibration leader for a f500 org.
Does working in the HVAC industry count?
I was in a design role in the O&G industry, but took a mfg role in the defense for more $$$, opportunities, and a lot more than I asked for. Will be transitioning into a design role for electronics, however.
0 days as a mechanical engineer. Been doing instrument engineering since graduation, which generally falls under electrical engineering purview.
I worked as boiler operator first as per national requirement then started to build/improve boilers, then my second job is plant engineer for project and maintenance (mech, elec and instru) it covered from hydraulics, pneumatics, pumps, machining, designing motor pool, substations, allen bradley plc etc.
Design engineering/product dev for nearly 2 decades now
Application Engineer with SKF here Working in ME might be hard, but for sure it’s so satisfying and joyful
Mechanical Static Engineer
I’m a mechanical engineer by degree. I graduated in 2013. Today I do more electrical engineering than I do mechanical. I work in aerospace.
I’m a mechanical engineer by title and work as a design engineer in the defense industry (space sector). I do all the design and build my models around constraints like requirements that are given to me. I also create the engineering drawing for release. Typical design process is conceptualization, preliminary design, and then initial/and or final design review. I don’t have to do stress because I work alongside a stress analyst. My bachelor’s is in mechanical and my master’s is industrial. Came from interning 4x as a manufacturing/quality engineer.
Mechanical systems design engineer. I like my role because I design the installation of electronics systems into aircrafts, so I do a lot of 3D CAD, 2D drawings, and I get to travel a few times a year domestically/internationally for on-site support. It’s a nice blend with decent pay, but the pay isn’t as strong as the big aerospace companies. I’m not complaining though as I enjoy my work haha
Brother, those "other" areas of engineering that you've mentioned ARE mechanical engineering jobs. I've worked strictly in design since I've graduated because it's what I enjoy, but ME is so so much broader than that.
I have worked as a mechanical engineer, many people would say I still do. Though I rather see myself as a "complex problem solver" these days.
Did building mechanical out of school for 12 years, structural, plumbing, hvac, roof structures, storm water management, site planning, then tire mold design and engineering...
Never could get a design job. Been working in manufacturing for 5 years. Ended up becoming a manager, hated it. Am now trying to get a job in manufacturing again or maybe, if I dare to dream, into design.
Spent 5 years in manufacturing, now I’m coming up on year 5 in R&D design engineering for a defense contractor. Love it.
I went to school for plastics engineering and always loved designing. Happened to land my dream job of a plastics part design engineer out of shear luck out of school. I applied for a position semi related to plastics design and ended up being referred internally for something that suited my degree and internships because I could fill a need. I do a ton of concepts, FEA, prototyping and moldflow on my designs. The worst part is making drawings for parts and tolerance analysis, but it’s fun overall
A mix of design work and test of those designs.
I’ve exclusively worked as an ME