r/MechanicalEngineering

I'm currently making 100k as a process engineer without a college degree, but I should be hitting a wall in the next few years, and I predict I'll never get past 150k. I have a goal of getting to 250k a year and have been thinking of going to college to gain more skills. The problem is that entry-level jobs in my area for mechanical engineers are only around 70k a year. Would my 10+ years of designing and manufacturing experience help me bypass entry level jobs? Do mechanical engineers also hit a wall in the mid 100k range? Would college even be a worthwhile investment of my time and money?

I recently went back to school to get a masters in Mechanical Engineering. My undergrad (2008 grad, eesh) is a Bachelors in Materials Science and Engineering, and I somehow never needed Fortran during my undergraduate or the 17 years that I’ve been working as an engineer.

However, the most recent class that I’m signed up for (Finite element analysis) just sent out the syllabus and it says that we absolutely need to know Fortran for the class.

I’m considering dropping the class and adding a Fortran class, but is this language still a thing? I never took Fortran in undergrad because my mom is a software engineer from way back in the day and said Fortran is worthless. She’s not a mechanical engineer though so what might be worthless for her stuff might still be relevant in mechanical engineering. I don’t know of any uses for Fortran in my current job though.

Is this requirement going to keep biting me in the ass if I don’t learn the language? I can use it as an elective (it’ll count towards my degree) but there are more interesting classes I can take instead, so I’d prefer not to if I don’t have to.

So what do you guys think? Am I going to keep seeing this requirement going forward?

Genuine question about where this profession is going, not just a moan, although it is partly a moan.

I spent last week doing the following. Chasing a connector supplier for substance data. Reformatting a declaration from one template into another because two customers want different formats. Filling in a customer's bespoke Excel questionnaire that asked for information already contained in a declaration I had sent them. Updating a spreadsheet that tracks which parts have which documents.

I did roughly one day of actual engineering. And the thing is, none of that admin work is optional or stupid in isolation. Each individual task has a reason to exist. It is just that collectively it has grown into a second job that arrived without a job title.

The obvious answer is that this is a systems problem and should sit with a compliance function or a data system rather than a design engineer. Except in a company our size there is no compliance function, and the reason it lands on me is that I am the only person who knows what is actually inside the product. The knowledge and the admin are genuinely coupled, which is what makes it hard to hand off.

So two questions. First, is this the direction of travel for mechanical engineering in regulated products, and are younger engineers essentially signing up for a hybrid role now whether they know it or not? And second, for anyone whose company solved this properly, what changed? Did you hire someone, buy a system, or just accept it and staff up engineering to absorb it?

I've done a Cooperative Bachelor- its a German system, 50/50 working and studying together with a company. I was more or less a design engineer at a aerospace company.

Afterwards I did my masters degree in mechanical engineering, but with a broad focus. In my thesis I worked with automotive traction battery system and found my way to a company that developes battery modules and components. My role switched between R&D development, project engineer and technical project lead.

I am now searching for a new job and am really struggling with finding suiting jobs. Most jobs are either "simple" design engineer jobs. For which I am both under and overqualified. I also find many project management roles for leading really big projects which I am definitely not suited for. Other jobs are systems engineering, but for really complex specific systems- I would need to learn a lot before being able to do this job :(

This job search is killing me

I start my new job next week and most of my communication for onboarding has been through HR. However, I am not sure if I should an email to my manager and introduce myself? Or should I save it for my first day? I just don’t wanna seem rude

Hi everyone! I was just thinking ahead, I am interviewing for a very entry level position. They are offering 65k-70k base salary. However, they have good coverage, and office is close during holidays Christmas and NYE. The work is hybrid so its 2 days in office. Since I am new to this job market and about to graduate this December. I wanted to know if it is a good/ manageable salary for a single person with no debt.

Hi everyone
For context I’m starting my masters in Mech Eng in the UK next month
I’m interested in careers in larger companies like Rolls Royce and Dyson, but a career in MI5 looks super interesting
I’m going to have a look at CAD, FEA, CFD, but are there any things I can start doing to put myself in a strong position?

Most mechanical catapults suffer from severe initial jerk followed by exponential force decay, requiring massive structure to survive peak loads while underutilizing the rest of the stroke.

I recently published an open-source passive transmission called RopeComb that addresses this by dynamically altering mechanical advantage throughout the stroke using a counter-folding pulley array.

The paper preprint is on engrXiv (https://doi.org/10.31224/7913), and the interactive kinematic solver + open CAD files are available at ropecomb.com.

https://i.redd.it/pgtu01mt3akh1.gif

https://preview.redd.it/m9avca7v3akh1.png?width=1250&format=png&auto=webp&s=fc0696cdbe77d2cdcdfeabea0717c29ec559468b

https://preview.redd.it/lthhnb7v3akh1.png?width=1278&format=png&auto=webp&s=8e2b28b109ce30535053304466c48a0fcb2db13a

Key takeaways from the kinematic model:

• Near-constant acceleration profile: Flattens the peak-to-average force ratio, maximizing velocity gain over shorter rail lengths.
• High energy transfer efficiency ($>70\%$): Converts heavy carriage momentum directly into projectile exit velocity without onboard motors or high-pressure gas.
• High-modulus line utilization: Leverages modern UHMWPE (Dyneema) lines to scale exit speeds past standard mechanical limits purely passively.

Can this be the new king of mechanical launchers ? ... I'd love to get feedback from anyone working on high-speed mechanical linkages or dynamic line systems regarding real-world friction and line-dynamics bottlenecks.
[Patent pending — US provisional application 64/124,997]

Anyone else noticed this? As a student, I’ve interned at 3 different multi-nationals and just started working at another. And consistently I would say the average age of the staff is around late 40s. The interesting thing is this was not the case with the different departments like accounting, legal, marketing, IT, compliance, production, etc.

If you’ve observed this at your firm or past firms you’ve worked at, what could be causing this?

New to the industry and ive been working with a senior engineer. I understand they probably have a lot on their plate but sometimes it takes them weeks to get back to me on stuff. Im constantly needing to reach out or else i wont hear from them. The work im doing now is moving slow since it is all preliminary. We dont have many requirements right now. What has your experience been on a proposal program? What do you recommend i work on in the mean time that can still go towards a program?

I have an associates degree in Mechanical drafting and design. I have 7 years as a mechanical designer, designing fixtures, machine and robot cells and tooling, test benches.

Im in my early 30s and feel like I need to get a 4 year degree especially since I do the same level of work as the other engineers in my group. I was all in on mechanical engineering but it's looking like 8 years of school if everything goes perfectly. The time commitment is daunting. I had a talk with my manager and he thinks it would be better to get a degree that's not ABET accredited, or something less intensive since my experience is so valuable and get a degree for something along the lines of applied engineering or mechanical engineering technology that I could do in 4-5 years. I tend to agree with him but I've been overloaded with information and I'm just feeling lost on what I should do.

What do you guys think? What would you do in my shoes?

Placement vs psu which is best at VITV to prepare from first year

Hey everyone,

I’m a relatively new mechanical engineer and do not currently have a mentor, so I’m hoping to get some advice on a manufacturing/design challenge.

We have a drive dog with a somewhat complex geometry that was historically produced as a forged brass component with corrosion-resistant plating. A few years ago, it was transitioned to a copper-infiltrated powdered metal part. Unfortunately, the supplier has now lost the tooling, and replacing it will require approximately $12,000 in new tooling investment.

Before committing to that expense, I’m exploring whether there may be a more cost-effective manufacturing method.

A few details:

• The part operates in a relatively low-torque application.
• The system is protected by a shear pin, so the drive dog is not intended to be the sacrificial failure point.
• There are secondary machining operations required, including the shear pin hole.
• The component is generally enclosed within the assembly but may be exposed to humidity and cold temperatures.
• Corrosion resistance is important, which is why I’ve considered transitioning to a grade of stainless steel and eliminating the plating operation.

Some options I’ve thought about include:

1. Replacing the powdered metal component with a metal injection molded part.
2. Machining the part directly from brass or stainless steel stock.
3. Switching to stainless steel and eliminating the plating requirements.
4. Revisiting a stamped-brass design.

One complication is that we have a very similar part currently produced from cartridge brass stampings, but the supplier has struggled to reliably add the shear pin hole because the material is relatively thin and soft.

For those with more manufacturing experience:

• What manufacturing processes would you evaluate first?
• Is replacing the powdered metal part with stainless steel a reasonable direction?
• Are there cost-effective options I may be overlooking?
• At what production volumes would you favor machining versus investing in tooling?

Any advice on how you would approach this evaluation would be greatly appreciated. I’m trying to develop a logical decision-making process rather than simply replacing the lost tooling by default.

Thanks in advance!

Rethinking my career choices and wondering if mechanical engineering is good for someone older? So for clarification I’m 36 and realistically I’ll be about 41 when I graduate…is this a good career for someone to enter at that age or would ageism just keep me out and I should just stay in special education? FYI I am good at math always have been, AP math classes my whole high school life so the math and science won’t be a problem but wondering about the entry level door being closed to me because of age…just looking for advice from anyone who’s done this route or doing it now at this age

I graduated in July 2025, but I only started seriously searching for engineering jobs about three months ago. The reason for the gap is that I wanted to honor the last year of my Army Reserve commitment without it causing disruptions with a new job.

During that year, I tried to continue developing my skills. I passed the FE exam and completed some additional CAD and PLC certifications.

My original goal was to land a highly technical entry-level engineering position where I could develop strong engineering skills early in my career. Now that I'm actually in the job market, I'm realizing that may not happen.

I have an interview next week with big engineering company. The position is still an engineering role, but from my initial conversation with the team, it sounds like the job involves more coordination, component selection, working with vendors/suppliers.

I will most likely take the job if I receive an offer but I wanted to ask engineers who started their careers in positions that weren't exactly what they wanted. Were you able to transition into something more technical later? What did you do to make that transition? I wanted to also ask how may one adapt to these kind of role?

I’m a product development engineer and recently worked on a project where our IP team provided engineering with a large number of patents to review. It got me curious how this works at other companies.

Do you receive a list of potentially relevant patents, specific claims, claim charts, design constraints, or some kind of summary?

And who determines relevance? Does IP/legal narrow things down first, or is engineering expected to review the patents and identify what applies to the product?

If something looks problematic, how do engineering and IP/legal work together to develop and evaluate alternatives?

Note: this is NOT a school question, just a generalized “what do you do” post, clarifying to just say i HOPE my wording doesn’t break the rules, im also posting this in r/engineeringstudents just in case

Sorry if i shouldn’t post this here, rules were unclear and i cant really ask this in r/askengineers cuz apparently i don’t have enough karma 😞

Im a current sophomore in high school and i’ve already pretty much figured out what i want to do for college—Im pretty tapped into my love for robotics and coding, but the thing im unsure about is what you guys do exactly.

Im obviously unsure about what exact major but ME is pretty close to what i think i want (Cause if im right you guys also like MAKE robots and stuff and code it(?)) but all I’ve read on is you guys just make ans build stuff, and i wasn’t just sure exactly, idk, get a counter on how many times I’ve said ‘exactly’.

And im not sure if anyone else has minored in Com Sci but i was also tempted to dual major for a LOT of the coding aspect, but idk, just sending this here and hope i get at least one answer :D

I'm looking for an environmental test lab in the USA that can simulate snowfall accumulation (as opposed to ice, freezing rain, etc..) on a fixed, outside-deployed electro-mechanical device above the size of a microwave oven. The closer to Utah the better. Any suggestions? Thanks.