[TheLuky8]

Hey guys, I got my mechanical engineering degree back in December of 2019. Shortly thereafter, I got brought on to an industrial maintenance company as a project engineer. Well that was my title but I quickly got stuck just doing estimating work. I learned a fair amount but it wasn't using my degree at all or really using much critical thinking so I knew I didn't want to do it forever. For months and months, I fought to do what they brought me on for and promised what I would be doing but no luck. It was one of the many empty promises they made.

After a little over a year and a half, I got an opportunity to travel with my GF as she did travel nursing so I took it. Between the empty promises and arguably unethical business practices, I didn't really have a problem leaving the company. It has been a great time being off the past few months but the car would like some new shoes and some other parts so I need to start bringing in my own money again. And this is where I'm at. I feel I need to go back to do some sort of engineering because I don't want my degree to go to waste. She saw how I was at the last company and is saying find something that I truly want to do. I do enjoy engineering but I am also curious about what else is out there and what others are doing.

So for those of you with an engineering degree, what do you do now? Did your degree get you that position or is it something completely different? Those without an engineering degree or any degree, what do you do? I am in a fortunate position where I can kind of go any direction I want but I don't know which way to go.

[stalintc]

I am in an engineering position currently, and have worked all levels from an Associate Engineer up to Chief Engineer (although a slightly different title at the time). I loved what I was doing at every level, and worked hard to apply the unique qualities I had to the positions. My degree is not in engineering, physics, math, etc.

The reason I mention this is that in my opinion, it is just as important to apply yourself and your unique qualities in ways that are novel and beneficial for a perspective company. Treat the job like a relationship, equal energy exchange is needed between you and the company in order to have a successful long-term position. Don't limit your job search to a title, look at the function, industry, location, etc and apply what you are passionate about, and what you are good at and that will be a very good step towards finding the right answer for you.

Are you an engineer with especially good personal skills and communication? Maybe a sales engineering position is for you. Are you fluent in any languages / cultures? Local application engineer for a company based in a country from that language/culture which you are fluent in.

Best wishes!

[smokinHawk]

I got my BS degree in mechanical engineering
I have been in design engineer for about 22 years now (with a short 4 months as a production manager as I needed a job from being laid off)
I've worked for companies that produced refrigerators, IT network racks, fitness equipment, then back to IT racks.
I also got a MBA 10 years ago, and this year got promoted to Engineering Manager. Now I'm working on building, training a new team to do work. Before that promotion it seemed I was doing less designing and doing more with engineering processing being the expert on how to get things through our complicated systems to release them.
I'm pretty blessed for this job as the pay is good, I get to work from home and have unlimited vacation.

[chassis]

TheLuky8 Thanks for the post.

Suggest you get rid of the "empty promises" narrative and mindset. Welcome to life, time to put the big boy pants on. Nothing is guaranteed. If you think you have been promised anything, you are deceiving yourself.

Find a job doing what you like to do. If it works, stick around for a while. If it doesn't, go somewhere else. Get rid of the entitlement mentality.

p.s. I have several engineering degrees, but this is not germane to the topic. You could have a psychology degree and have written the same original post.

[CamasM3e93]

My BS is in Paper Science & Engineering. I was a process engineer in consumer products for a few years before going back to school - I chose Medicine but somehow still pine over the career I left behind. Manufacturing isn't glamorous to the outside world but there's some satisfaction at the end of the day being able to say - I built that. You're a mechanical engineer posting in a car forum. Problem meets solution.

[spazzyfry123]

Well I guess chassis must have been reading my notes.

In a world where people don’t seem to want to work, those that bust tail and don’t complain will get noticed. Success isn’t overnight, and your career is still wearing diapers. Build a resume that shows growth, and you’ll be where you want in due time.

You may be surprised just how far removed from engineering you can get with an engineering degree. I know there’s a few of us on here in that boat.

[rmanm4]

I got my Electric Engineering degree almost 20 years ago. I never used what I learned, not even once!

What that paper means is that you are capable of learning something fast. It doesn't mean you are smart! It means you can work hard and under pressure!

The degree will open doors for you as it did for me, after the first door, it's up to you what you gain and how far you push yourself.

If you want to step up your game, get a MBA to go with that BS. A MBA will open much bigger doors and a shit ton of more money!

[SimSimmaF30]

Originally Posted by TheLuky8

Hey guys, I got my mechanical engineering degree back in December of 2019. Shortly thereafter, I got brought on to an industrial maintenance company as a project engineer. Well that was my title but I quickly got stuck just doing estimating work. I learned a fair amount but it wasn't using my degree at all or really using much critical thinking so I knew I didn't want to do it forever. For months and months, I fought to do what they brought me on for and promised what I would be doing but no luck. It was one of the many empty promises they made.

After a little over a year and a half, I got an opportunity to travel with my GF as she did travel nursing so I took it. Between the empty promises and arguably unethical business practices, I didn't really have a problem leaving the company. It has been a great time being off the past few months but the car would like some new shoes and some other parts so I need to start bringing in my own money again. And this is where I'm at. I feel I need to go back to do some sort of engineering because I don't want my degree to go to waste. She saw how I was at the last company and is saying find something that I truly want to do. I do enjoy engineering but I am also curious about what else is out there and what others are doing.

So for those of you with an engineering degree, what do you do now? Did your degree get you that position or is it something completely different? Those without an engineering degree or any degree, what do you do? I am in a fortunate position where I can kind of go any direction I want but I don't know which way to go.

What's up boss. I work in higher education- more specifically recruiting, management etc.
If this makes you feel any better at all, please know that you're not alone in your current predicament. My team and I hear stories about people that are in very similar situations all day, every day. I could go into more detail and talk about this stuff all day but I'll spare you.

The company I work for have partnerships with many fortune 100/500 companies across the US/World. We work with the employees of said company(s) who are interested in furthering their education- may it be for personal growth / professional advancement or both.

The one sector that I see popping up on my desk almost on a daily basis is anything computer/software engineering related; Artificial Intelligence/Machine learning/ Data Analytics. If you have an interest in anything computer related, the sky is truly the limit. There's such a need for educated people that's well versed in high level AI/ML knowledge that a lot of the companies end up going to India to hire individuals.

So, in a nutshell- if anything in the computer sector interest you, I would look into a REGIONALLY ACCREDITED university that offers their programs ONLINE. That way you're able to travel with the woman and still get your education completed.

The last school I worked with that was regionally accredited and 100% online was Colorado State University Global Campus. I'm sure there are other schools as well, but that school is the most recent.

https://csuglobal.edu/graduate/maste...chine-learning


Good luck man.

Shawn.

[freakystyly]

Did the Mech. Eng. thing, ended up in a structural role instead.

Applied at all the major companies in the area and was discouraged they all were after experience and not new hires. The few in my course that had connections outside of school were the ones that landed anything good.

It's hard to figure things like that out when you're young and picking careers.

Also, most companies require experience before throwing you in the deep end, so don't feel bad being stuck in a menial task for a couple months/years. I'd be skeptical about being hired into a project management role right out of school.

[bosstones]

What interests you? Product development, manufacturing, industrial, etc...? What industries?

There's a lot of ways you could go.

[stalintc]

I think chasis has a good point about de-emphasizing the empty promises. I do not know your circumstances (which may be extremely valid) however no matter how right you are, the message received by prospective employers when hearing that may be a negative one, which is never good.

That said, I want to separate work not turning out to be what it was supposed to be, vs not willing to work. Part of why I left a previous job was due to my direct manager, and their manager knowingly promising me a hiring package (I turned down a different offer for theirs) which they did not follow through on (development plan, promotion path, tuition reimbursement after I had started classes, etc. When I discussed this with them explaining how it appeared to me, they said tough. That is not a culture I can work in. Trust and respect are paramount to true long term success in my opinion so it was clear that was my time to find better opportunities. I ended up making a lot more, with a much more trustworthy company, who was very supportive in my 13 years there.

Again, it is a relationship in which both sides must be equal in energy output. I always remember that I work for a paycheck, so I must earn it. If that balance is not there then start looking for a better situation.

[Germanauto]

My dad did Mechanical Engineering back in the day, eventually got a Masters and eventually and MBA too. Used to work for Detroit's Big 3 suppliers and eventually for one of the firms, however transitioned to an aeronautical engineering firm in the mid-00s when he saw no future in those companies. He had to work pretty hard to make the transition but it was well worth it.

If you're open to tech and open to moving, I think working on the hardware side for big tech or the EV players would be interesting. I know Lucid, Rivian etc. are hiring.

[Turkish Pickle]

I got my degree in civil engineering in december 2020, and been working in project management since. Done maybe a total of 40hrs worth of "civil engineering", rest has been microsoft excel and telling people what to do.

It's boring and unimaginative but it pays okay; using project management in construction (what i do now) as a launchpad into project management in software.

If construction is fun for you OP or at least sounds interesting, I know mechanical engineers are in high demand on the engineering side. You should look into it!

[e90335e36m3]

My undergraduate was in political science, naturally went to law school after. Knew after the first year that I'd never work as a lawyer but finished anyway. Ironically enough ended up working in the contracts department at two Fortune 500 corporations, first in oil and gas, then in aerospace. I don't enjoy what I do, don't enjoy contracts at all, I have a lot of anxiety, but the pay is incredible, I have worked extensively internationally, even worked as an expatriate for a few years. Work with mechanical, aeronautical, propulsion, electrical, etc. engineers every day. Brilliant people, amazing to see the kind of stuff they come up with to keep us regular folks flying safely every day, let alone the defence technology we make. I feel like their jobs are awesome, aerospace and defence is an incredibly interesting arena to work in as a whole.

[F80_Kbo]

I have my bs in mechanical engineering as well. I tried some low TRL level type work right out of college and realized it wasn't for me. I hated the "science experiments" that would never amount to a tangible product.

Right now I'm in the additive manufacturing industry. I absolutely love it. It has allowed me to do so many things even though the industry is chaotic. I spent about 4 months over in Germany and actually got to experience what it is like to drive a m and p car on the autobahn. It was also pretty cool to get to work on those titanium 3D printed HRE wheels you saw on the ford gt and mclaren p1…

[megf]

I have 3 engineering degrees (bachelors, masters and PhD) and work in an aerospace company as a Manufacturing Engineering Manager. Several of our manufacturing and quality engineers have ME degrees.
Having and engineering degree certainly helped me get my first role with the company I work for (I'm in my 5th role with this company, and moved my way into management), but my exact degree (biomedical engineering) has nothing to do with what I do now . It just gave me the tools I needed to be able to learn this industry and do the job.

[smrtypants44]

BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering- Currently an IE in aerospace manufacturing.

Do everything- Estimate costs, production progress analysis, recovery analysis, long term capital planning.

Its interesting that you consider project management/estimating to be not "engineering" but I definitely would put project management as an IE-adjacent role.

[oVeRdOsE.]

Define engineer. I'm not quite sure , but I think US engineer not equal Canadian engineer , right? In US I think having a bachelor/master/phd degree means professional engineer ?

Anyway, I did 5 years in a university to get my mech engineer degree in 2012, and I was super lucky.

Because yes, most of the time you won't use what you've learned, but school is not all about that, its about using your brain, and how to use it. Of course they will show you useless math , but what would you expect, doing + and - from little school up to university ?

I've started my intern right away in pharmaceutical business, then pop me up to hospital site supervision, where I learned a lot. This knowledge is not super common, CSA317 and IPAC is next level.

Then , I worked many years for the federal gov as a private consultant, for airports. I mainly did site supervision, basic design ( hvac, plumb, fire protection, BAS), stamped, cost estimation, well a project from A to Z. Client needs to project closure, 5 processes of a project. That was fun.

Covid hit, we got boring job, and after 8 years, I changed . Got far, from montreal to Toronto. Change, the way to do work, different codes, different way to manage a project. I feel like I'm the kid out from school, I learn new stuff, I feel stupid. Doing deep HVAC cals, not my cup of the. Learning revit too. Working on a 1G$ new hospital now.


I did start a master degree in university to get my PMP certification , which I have now.

Planing to get in the management while I'm young, then going back to site supervisor after my 50's (relax)


Not easy to change when people expecting a experimented eng, but hey, at least I did try. So far so good.

A old colleague had the same job for 25 years, doing the same job, he changed in covid time, and it was the hardest time to his life, having 50 yo and not knowing basic engineer stuff, that's hard.

[zx10guy]

First you have to figure out what you like to do. Nothing else matters as if you don't care for what you're doing, you won't put forth the effort to excel at the job to go into bigger and better things.

If you want to stay in Engineering and specifically Mechanical Engineering, I'd start by looking into getting your EIT (Engineer In Training) cert. And if you find a home where you are happy with PEs (Professional Engineers) on staff, then look at possibly getting a PE.

My BS degree is in Material Science Engineering. I can probably say I didn't use a lick of any of the knowledge I got in college for any of the jobs I've had. I actually migrated over somewhat quickly into IT and have been there ever since. My passion and interest in IT trumps that of Engineering. I'm happy with what I do and can probably say with confidence make a ton more in IT than if I tried to force a career in Engineering.

[TheWatchGuy]

like others said, need to figure out what you want to do.

Im an industrial construction PM and about 50-60% of the PMs at my company are mechanical/civil/electrical engineers. Then on the subs and vendors side, a good chunk of them are some type of engineer as well. If you enjoy construction, building things, or just seeing yours/others designs come to life, construction is a pretty good opportunity for engineers.

I also have buddies who are mechanical/electrical engineers that do things that have nothing to do with their degree. Restauranteurs, Corporate Finance, Law Enforcement, etc.

As i always tell kids in school at career fairs/trade shows/open houses, a degree doesnt mean you are stuck to that one thing. All it tells future employers is that you were able to put in the work and effort to start something, see it through and succeed at it and you are teachable and have the capability to learn something. That is valuable to a future employer in any industry. You learn a lot more in 6 months on the job than you do in 4 years in college.

[rantarod]

You need to always value the money, the project , the colleagues, your team and your boss. How do you value each one of the job components is the key to know what it is best for you. And you are the only one who knows what do you want. Even if you think you don't know what you want.
P.S. I have never used in 20 years any knowledge captured at the Engineering B.S. and I have worked in some roles and fields

[cnofar]

I'll contribute...

I have a bachelors in mechanical engineering (BMSE) and master's in mechanical engineering (MSME), concentration in bio mechanics. I worked 9 years initially in automotive sector doing design and engineering for automotive components. Michigan is a huge hub for automotive, so I felt like I "had" to do automotive.
Got bored at my job years later so I did my master's in engineering, liked the biomechanical/medical field and ultimately pursued medical school. Crazy big change...

I completed medical school, residency, and now I'm an attending physician. I enjoy what I do as a physician and I take my background from engineering in my job day to day analyzing things.

"Just because because you start in something, doesn't mean you have to end in it". Those were words of advice given to me years ago. If engineering suits you, find what area you like: civil, mechanical, industrial, aerospace, automotive, defense/military, consumer products, medical, etc... I'm biased but I think engineering is a awesome field (whatever facet you choose) and I would do it again for sure.

I'm still trying to find a way to bridge my engineering/medical degrees into one job; that's my dream one day. Maybe medical device consultant or something?....I'm still on the hunt.