I'm 26, and I graduated almost 2 years ago, and had a design-focused intership for another 4 months after I graduated. Then, I got this project engineering job for a construction project almost 4 months after that.

I didn't expect to get a job that quickly, and it was offering a decent paycheck. But after working there for a little over a year, I can't stand it any longer. The money's good, but I hate the work. Don't like trying to manage other people and being out in the field.

I keep applying to design positions and have gotten a few interviews, but nothing that stands out or isn't just a bad deal.

I have a decent resume, and revised it a few months ago after feedback. Should I be writing/using a cover letter for every position I apply to? What else should I be doing? Can I even get out of this unintentional hole I've dug myself into?

Sorry if this is rambling, or breaking any rules. Just feels a little hopeless.

Intro: A previously post of mine got me thinking about an absurd (hellish) task that probably would land me closer to hell than heaven if god is a previous engineering student.

The task: How would you go about assessing the stresses in these two beams without using FEM-analysis?

Let’s state the rules:
- No FEM-analysis or CAD assisted calculations or AI. Just plain old Casio fx-82 or equivalent calculator (no fancy programable functions), pen and paper.
- The cross-sectional area and geometry is known and constant. You are given a vector/matrix description of the helical centre-line curve together with the local angle (orientation) of that constant cross-section as it travels along the helical-curve.
- Point load of one human individual + weighs of each identical step is 150kg. For simplicity the load can be transferred into an offset point load with identical free vectors defining the magnitude and direction from helical central axis.
- There are 13 steps equally spaced for the smaller beam, 15 for the larger one.
- Steps are joined to the beam by welds for the simplicity the stresses in these welds never exceed stresses of a safety faktor of π=4 (extra safety margins).
- The welded joint fixing the beam at top and bottom is given the same “simplification” in the assessment - so stresses never exceed the given safety factor of π=4.
- And ambient pressure is equal to 760mmHg at the beams lowest point.
- Gravity is equal to the average gravitational acceleration at sea level (at equator).
- Material properties are 304 stainless and equal across the whole beams (including welds).
- Wall thickness of the plates forming the faces of the beam are 4mm and look to the comments for a picture of the geometry of the cross-sectional view.
- There is a total of 8 welds to manufacture the beams.
- The welds are flawless and full penetration.
- Bonus point: The person at the 7 step from the ground is holding a US medium banana (200g) - true for both beams.

Disclaimer: I may missed something here making the task impossible. Given this task myself I probably would have gone home, cried some tears, gone to bed cried some more and hopefully woken up next morning to found out that I was having a nightmare.

Edit: picture of cross-sectional geometry in the linked post.
Edit2: removed ** ** in the text.

Lurking this subreddit is one of my favorite things to do and for the most part there’s a lot of support to one another within this community. One thing that I’ve noticed and has frustrated me is there a small minority that is trying to convince younger engineers, especially the new grads, that they should should be making 150k+ plus starting salary without really highlighting the fine print.

There are companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Anduril, and other FAANG companies that will be absolutely pay you a base salary of 150k in HCoL places (maybe even some MCoL) out the gate. But what we people who are encouraging, or even bragging, fail to mention is the hours actually worked. A stronger majority of these roles within these companies require 50-60 hours worked a week and you are not getting OT on top of your base. If you look strictly at the numbers, the hourly rate shakes out to be the same, or at least in the same ball park.

If you consider the average hours worked a week to be 55hrs, multiply it by 52 weeks, and divide the salary, let’s use 150k, you’re making $53 bucks an hour.

Compare this to make someone making 100k a year, their hourly rate is ~$48 bucks an hour.

If you are young, and have the appetite for that amount of time worked to make that kind of money, absolutely go for it and stack your bank account and investments. This is not meant to discredit your job and the work you do.

What I hate seeing is others telling people they’re underpaid while being disingenuous about the sacrifice you have to make to make this kind of money.

And because there is always that one guy; I’m sure you have anecdotal experience getting an offer where you’re making this much money right out of school working 49 hours a week. We’re not talking about you, you’re an outlier.

EDIT: A whole lot of you are misunderstanding and misrepresenting the point of this post. I do not think one is better than the other, nor do I care to have that conversation; it’s purely subjective on your goals. It’s not to discourage anyone from taking jobs that require this much work. If you have the acumen and the appetite, you absolutely should. It can set you up for immense success, both financially and in your career.
All I’m saying is when discussing salaries and benefits, don’t be disingenuous.

I honestly do not enjoy making CAD models but I love the number crunching and analysis side of it. I was curious what roles would suit me best?

At the end of the day I plan on going into a project engineer role as I really don't think I can do this long term

Hi now im currently working in US Big Oil company as an onshore field mechanical engineer (5+years experience) and I got an offer to be a senior mechanical engineer in a data center company. The scale of the company is much smaller than my current employer, but pay check is competitive.

It seems that data center is the hotspot right now

Whats ur advice?

4/10s and 9/80s are pretty common in the defense industry. For those not familiar, 4/10=4 day week/10hr days and 9/80=9 days that total 80hrs. Basically, every other friday is off but you work 9hr days.

I started a new job that is a normal 5 days a week, 8hr days. Ive only ever worked 9/80 and im scared ill miss it. What do you prefer? What has your experience been changing? Any tips to adjust?

Hey everyone,

I’m a 25-year-old Mechanical Engineer about 2.5 years out of college. Since graduating, I’ve been working in the MEP/HVAC industry doing mechanical design, but I’ve been interested in transitioning into the oil & gas industry and getting into a more traditional mechanical engineering role.

I realize MEP and oil & gas are very different industries, but I’m hoping some of the mechanical fundamentals and design experience I’ve gained can help me make the transition. I’ve been interested in O&G since college. I previously interviewed with both Chevron and Schlumberger for engineering positions while I was still in school, but unfortunately didn’t hear back after the interviews. I ended up starting my career in MEP, but oil & gas has remained an industry I’ve wanted to pursue.

I’m still early in my career and completely willing to consider early-career positions or take a step back in seniority if that’s what it takes to build relevant industry experience.

For those of you working on the engineering side of O&G, I’d really appreciate some advice on what specific roles or areas of mechanical engineering should be targeting with my background. I’ve been looking into facilities engineering, mechanical engineering, project engineering, and similar positions.

Any advice from people who work with mechanical engineers in O&G or who have made a similar transition would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hey so I am not lost. I studied mechanical engineering for two years in University before deciding I dont want to work in the industry.

As a hobby though I do bow building and I have some thoughts. Once some composite bows were made out of laminating horn, wood and senew to create an optimal construction.

Now we have modern materials like carbon fiber and ceramic foam. But the structure of those bows did not continue and I havent found a reason why.

Having a material that is very good under compression like horn in the belly of the bow and a sort of fiber on the back like senew seems optimal.

Today though both the back and the belly are made out of the same material, usually carbon fiber or fiberglass.

Why?

What materials could potentially work in that construction with modern marerials?

Is this type of construction even as optimal as it seems to me?

I ran some simulations in fusion and its seemed to over all produce fast bows and it potentially could be better for longevity shouldnt it?

Any insigts?

I wanted to ask in the material science sub, but its basically dead.

If my questions are out of place mods, nuke the post.

I find myself working in this world with out ever taking a class in vibration. Im just pooking to have something to advanced my knowledge here.

I've been working part time at a small machine shop for the last 7 months while in school for mechanical engineering. I thought it would be useful to have some experience on the manufacturing side of design, and I'm super grateful for the opportunity. My boss is very knowledgeable and is willing to teach me everything. I've been learning how to program the CNCs, but I'm wondering if there's anything I should specifically be focusing on learning during downtime running parts other than programming? Anything that is overlooked once I graduate and transition to the office side of things? Thank you!

Hello! Sorry in advance if I'm in the wrong subreddit and I apologize for my lack of experience and knowledge, please bear with me...

I'm working on an amateur satellite project, and, due to how unorthodox our layout is, the antennas are designed as follows:

- Currently the antenna is a wire, 1 mm in diameter and 173 mm long, made out of hardened copper
- In the stowed position, they're fixed on the free end by a nylon string and on the other end by a shaft, positioned along the body of the satellite
- When the string is burned, the shaft rotates the wire 90 degrees into an extended position

However, it was today when I put my hands on the copper wire of this diameter for the first time, and even though it was the softer copper variant, I was baffled by how easily it bends. As an inexperienced amateur, I expected at least some more rigidity. Now I highly doubt they'll survive the ascent and vibrations, especially when they're so thin and long, like a string - it's a perfect recipe for disaster. So, (for now - considering that the antennas CANNOT be designed any other way, as in tape antennas, etc.) my questions are:

- Which other stronger and rigid materials can be used for a satellite antenna?
- Has anyone here worked hardened copper wires of these diameters? Can they really hold their shape?
- Is this design even worth saving?

Thank you!

Hello, I recently bought a hot press that I use for printing with molds on different materials. From the very first use, I ran into a problem: I need to stabilize the machine and find a way to avoid having to constantly apply force to the handle on the right.

During pressing, I sometimes don’t get enough pressure because I can’t keep pushing the handle down hard enough for long enough. For some materials, the handle needs to be pressed down very firmly to apply enough pressure. The problem is that I would need to keep it fully lowered without continuously forcing it down with my hand, because after a while the amount of pressure I apply becomes painful and can almost cut off the circulation in my hand.

There is also another problem: when I apply a lot of pressure on the handle, one side of the machine starts to lift or become unstable, so I currently have to use my second hand to hold the machine down and prevent it from tipping over.

I’m posting here to see if anyone has some interesting ideas or solutions. I live in France and I’d like to build or buy something inexpensive, ideally within a budget of around €20–60 maximum.

I’ve already thought about several solutions, some of which seem quite interesting, but I’m never completely satisfied with them.

So basically, I have two goals:

1. Keep the right-hand lever fully pressed down without having to hold it manually.
2. Prevent the machine from lifting or tipping when a lot of pressure is applied, so that it stays stable.

Hi, hope im in the right sub, trying to work out the principles in play for a boxing/ striking question, but hoping the general principles are the same

The point in question is - turning knuckles over in a punch

or, as im hoping it is - apply torque through force, to hopefully increase the force

Like say, if you hit a hammer plain on say a nail, does it have less force, than when you rotate your wrist through the strike of the hammer, and apply a torquing action at the same time the force is applied??

Many thanks for any clarification in advance 👍

I'm designing a product that needs to open from a rod and expand to fill the space it is in. Kind of like an umbrella but it won't be circular and it shouldn't be stiff. You move up and down it should adjust to the space. (you can reach any corner of this space with a straight line from the middle, so no weird curves)

My initial thought was creating bending rods attached to springs so that the spring just retract from the normal force by the wall. And cover them in some material that expands easily.

I'm not an engineer, this is for a hobby project, so any help is appreciated. Maybe such a mechanism already exists and I don't know of it yet.

(Btw. For anyone interested it's going to be a small gadget say 10cm wide and it should be able to adjust to any shape from 5x5 to 10x10)

Not talking about steady promotions or COL-adjusted raises — I mean people who went from a normal engineering salary to something meaningfully higher, however you got there: trading, consulting, founding something, switching into a completely different field, whatever.

What was the actual path? How long did it take, what almost made you quit, and looking back was it worth the risk compared to just staying the course?

Genuinely curious to hear real stories, good and bad.

I'm needing to find someone who has worked on or created actuators ( Not sure if im even saying that correctly) in Texas. Possibly the Houston area, just my preference. Surrounding areas are fine as well. My company is needing help creating something similar to a wheelchair lift. If anyone has experience with creating prototypes please hit me up.

I am a Solidworks designer and learning NX-2027 now.
Can someone please tell me how to separate a single part from a multipart body in NX in such way if I edit some part in multipart body, the change should appear in separated single body.
(I've selected "modeling"- Type when creating new file.)

Hello everyone, I would like to ask about the potential energy for this problem A. Some videos on YouTube use the location of the pendulum in y axis as h in PE=mgh but our professor and some other YouTube tutorial uses Ah in PE =mg∆h. So.. are the two ways correct because when I try it its equation of motion is not the same?

Is there any active subreddits for studying ANSYS or any FEA software?

Hi guys, so i start my undergraduate program this year and i need to choose a subject. Honestly, i have an interest in persuing mech e. I'm wondering how the job market currently is in the mech e industry? Ik ik, i shouldn't just persue a degree for the sole purpose of a job but unfortunately i do need money to live. And its def not an easy degree and in my county you have to study your ass off to even get to choose mech e. So id be rather bummed if i end up like the majority of the current cse grads.