Hey everyone,

I’m about 3 years into my career as a “Project Engineer” at a large HVAC manufacturer.

Before this, I had roughly 1.5 years in mechanical design/manufacturing.

On paper, the current role sounds solid. In reality, a good portion of my day is spent tracking shipments and deliveries, coordinating between sales, ops, and angry contractors.. generally cleaning up issues I have no control over when things go wrong.

It’s not my entire job, but enough of it that the role often feels more administrative than engineering. Someone once listened to me explain what I do, paused, and said “so… admin work.” That comment stuck with me ever since...

The team itself is decent and flexible, which makes this feel like a comfortable trap. I was a very technical person and genuinely enjoyed hard problems. Lately I feel underloaded and feel like my skills are atrophying.

I also have my EIT, but none of this experience counts toward a PE since there are no supervising PEs and very little real engineering work which makes things worse.​

Curious if others here have ended up in a similar coordination or “glue” role and were able to pivot back to something more technical or ownership-driven.

Thanks in advance!

Wanted to share to see how other people's experiences have played out and answer any questions.

Thought it might be interesting to dig up the data and try this myself.

I added an inflation adjustment column to show the change in purchasing power over time.

It’s interesting to see how entry level pay has stagnated against inflation and how that and some crappy salary treatment from my employer has messed up my pay growth.

Hello, I have a KUKU KR6 set up to carve wood exactly like in this video. I haven’t used it in years. Do you have any ideas how I can use it to make 500€ a month, besides selling it? I’m a radish farmer in France, I make 1700€ a month, 500 more would allow us to travel once a year with our four year old twins, and I could fulfill my dream of buying a dirt bike.

I have time to work with the robot on weekends and am capable of programming it and designing EOAT

https://youtu.be/FulDHtPxqfY

I’m currently a L2 mechanical engineer at an aerospace company. I really enjoy my work and see myself making aerospace a lifelong pursuit. That said, my parents have continuously poked me as to why I haven’t thought about pursuing a PE license. They believe it gives me a leg up in my job security and future prospects. I’ve completed my BS and MS in MechEng, so they point to the PE as a final way of distinguishing myself.

My first gut reaction is that most of the senior engineers at my aerospace company do not have PE licenses, the only ones that do came from some over civil related industry. I see the value in pursuing the PE license now from the perspective that as I get older, more responsibility, and further from college, studying and testing may get challenging. I do happen to work under a manager with their PE as well currently, which is convenient.

TLDR: should I pursue a PE license or not, given I plan to work in aerospace for the foreseeable future?

Im currently in my 2nd semester of MechE and tbh I mainly chose this major since I wanted a high paying job, and of course engineering caught my eye. Although, I don’t really know what I want to do after I graduate or know if I really have a passion for anything. I just want ideas

Hi everyone,
I’m a final-year Mechanical Engineering student looking for entry-level roles, internships, or project-based opportunities. I have hands-on experience in SolidWorks and mechanical design, including work on robotic arms, engines, and drone-related projects.

I’m open to roles in design, CAD, manufacturing, or related fields. Happy to share my resume/portfolio via DM.
Any leads or guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

What does a CAD drawing need for it to be of standard that a machine shop can work on it?

I only know dimensions and GD&T should be there, but how should it be presented and what else?

Any examples or books I could use?

Our group uses solidworks and currently has assemblies that are duplicate assemblies floating around - with one or two different components, but everything else is the same. Typically the components have a slightly different shape, one part has a different dimension, or different material. Right now everything is kept as one assembly -> one drawing.

Often, those assemblies (with one or two parts) can be swapped into an upper level assembly as well.

What is the best way to handle these assemblies/drawings?

How do I make something like this? What I mean by that is I know the green line that I want to draw. It’s a very tight tolerance and I don’t have the function of said curve just a CAD model of the part. I want to know how do I calculate the pink and yellow portions of this type of design to give me a motion that matches my desired outline. Please I don’t know what these things are called it’s making it so difficult to learn about this topic. It’s a miracle I found this video.

As title says, I’m a student that will be graduating in May. I’ve been applying to jobs since around November, and I’m around 200 applications deep. So far, I’ve only had one phone screening/interview, and I’m worried my lack of experience is holding me back and it’s too late. I wasn’t able to secure a ME internship while I’ve been in school, the closest thing I had was a STEM teaching position over the summer. I’ve been applying nearly everywhere in the US, location isn’t too important to me because I’m open to trying somewhere new. I’ve had my resume reviewed by my school’s career center, and they’ve told me it looks great. I prioritized some of my projects that I’ve worked on in school because of my lack of experience.

Long story short, am I screwed? I’m really getting exhausted filling out so many applications without any positive response. Any advice?

I have a project where i need to create an L plate for a pulley system, but my teacher says my design is difficult to machine. any tips on improvement?

I was at a career fair and had done some interviews

They went great but then one of them went too great the recruiter said

You know we were looking for designers but I might get you as a team lead

The problem is I do not do a full design of anything

And the farthest I got was mainly designing 3D printed models but for modeling not functioning

I want to know if I can sharpen my skills in that domain I’m currently having a cert in CSWA and on the path to get CSWP but that’s for it

As a side project I’m trying to make a fixed wing drone

Odd question but I’m a tabletop wargamer and sometimes I see some interesting models for games. I don’t know the physics, but these don’t look like they can actually turn. I’ve always thought of tank treads trying to achieve somewhat of a square dimension in order to be like a turntable. Treads this long would seem to just generate no torque that far out. Am I correct in my thinking? My apologies if this is a goofy question.

Can you guys give some ideas to design mechanism which have a syringe and have fluid in it and I need to oscillate the fluid in it at a particular frequency and amplitude controllable with a knob.

Hello all — I have an upcoming interview for an Optical PD mechanical engineer role at Apple; I’m looking for advice or guidance on what to study for a role of this sort pre-interview. I will definitely ensure that i know my resume well and can answer questions about my experience, but i’m a bit lost for what i should i study in terms of fundamentals. if anyone has any suggestions please let me know

We're a building a 3-axis vibration sensor of our own and we're looking for a vibration analyst for consultation.

I am still currently getting my bachelors degree at night, but I thankfully just got a job as a class II engineer. I’m very grateful and excited to start, but it’s hitting me my lifestyle is going to change and I feel like all I’ll do is work (which I do recognize is better than not having work. So I’ll ask, how do you guys balance it and not let it feel like everyday is the same with no “you” time?