Anyone else feel like the job market has no category for engineers who do multiple things well?
Eight years into my manufacturing career and I'm still trying to figure out which box I fit in.
I started as a CNC machinist on aerospace components. Became lead machinist by asking why we did things a certain way and building a better fixture. Moved into process engineering. Taught myself Python because our production tracking lived in spreadsheets that were one person leaving away from total collapse. Built a custom analytics platform that operators now run themselves. Designed and machined fixtures still running in production today. Run time studies, capacity planning, ergonomics work.
The job market wants to know: are you a Manufacturing Engineer, an IE, a Data Analyst, or a Machinist?
I'm all four simultaneously and it creates a genuinely weird situation when applying for jobs. Too much for entry level. Wrong credential for senior. Builds software but not a software engineer. Does floor work but not just a machinist.
I've had recruiters find me specifically because of the combination — Python plus cost reductions in the same profile apparently stands out. I've also had applications disappear because nothing matched the expected template cleanly.
Curious if others have navigated this. Did you pick a lane eventually? Did the right company find you? Or are you still figuring it out too?