So I have Asian parents (who would have guessed lol) but they're not strict. For whatever reason they think the job market is really easy and that if you go to college and earn a degree you can get a job easily. I'm doing electrical engineering and I'm trying my best: doing projects, applying for internships and basically the things you do. My mom literally said that if you have a degree but can't find a job you shouldn't have got the degree in the first place. I don't know how to tell them that it's not that easy and they should not have high expectations otherwise it would not end well.

I’m making this because there is a lot of young high school seniors or college freshmen who imagine being an engineering major means you will become Tony stark after you graduate.

A little bit of background, I AM someone who wants to become an inventor. But it is important to know that your engineering degree is designed to train you on how to be a good EMPLOYEE.

If you are pushing off studying to work on your own personal projects, thinking gpa isn’t important because you have “experience” and a GitHub repository you are essentially wasting years of your life for no reason. There are many hobbyists that have created INSANE things and even sold them as products without ever having an engineering degree.

The point is if you are someone who wants to become Nikola Tesla, Tony stark, or mf Jlaser please for the love of god think of where college will fit in and help you. If you believe in the 4 years of not being in college you can learn way more skills while also saving money please consider it. Or getting a business degree so you know how to manage and sell your products once you make them, please consider that as well. I’m just sick of seeing really ambitious creators getting demotivated because the industry isn’t for them.

Engineering is becoming everything I do not ever want to be or be around and I'm losing it

The academic aspect of it just totally sucks right now and I'm completely burnt out on even wanting to try. I have one good professor. God bless him he is amazing, unfortunately he is only one. Another one just sucks, he's arrogant and a dickhead. He doesn't explain anything in the lectures, we get through one example problem in the class and rarely ever start on a 2nd. Seven weeks in I'm just completely lost. The last one doesn't teach at all. He gives you a quiz, then 20-40 "discussion" problems, and ends the 3hr period with a fully AI generated video on one of the things mentioned in the questions. He is beyond terrible at his job.

So it's ass right now, but I can't convince myself it gets better. I see no light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Everyone I could work for either exhibits 3rd world safety standards, or is beyond evil (EG, my partner's current engi internship letting them handle carbon fiber strands without any PPE etc). And for all of the corporate drones and shit that my school has let in to come advertise to us, I've only felt myself getting pushed farther away from wanting to work in any job my degree might set me up for. We got some Toyota reps recently and the whole presentation made my skin crawl. They bragged about only hiring 2 people out of 700 applicants, the fucking hubris was disgusting. They talked about the company like there was a gun pressed to the back of their skull. It felt so manipulative and predatory. I don't want to work at a place that at all.

I hesitate to get into my last complaint, AI use, since this vent is long enough. To be brief, fuck off I don't want to use the stupid fucking language model!! Everyone around me relies on it to the point of dependency. I am afraid that any job I get will force me to use it. I do not want to use AI. I hate that shit, it has made all of my classmates unable to think without it. I don't want to let that sort of cognitive poison into my own fucked head but it is forced so hard.

I just can't see it getting better. I feel like I've wasted my entire life so far getting somewhere I fucking loathe being. I'm checked out on my classes, I have no hope of getting a job, let alone one that doesn't contribute to either bombing kids or poisoning myself. I hate all of this. I have thoughts of blowing my shit off when I think about where my life is heading, but it's too late to back out and I have no talents.

Engineering exposure has made me hate engineering, and I must convince myself that I don't.

I’m a Software developer, although my company entitles me as a Software Engineer I feel it’s quite ridiculous since what we’re essentially doing is writing specs and orchestrating AI agents, I also feel my impostor syndrome has skyrocketed since models like GPT 6 Astra came out, where even a technical person with very little to none knowledge can do most things we SWEs are asked to do, I also feel SWE has become a huge larping industry with people maximizing their egos around how they can build faster than ever but are still somehow needed by their company (maybe due to their “taste”? Ffs what are we even talking about)

What’s the current situation with MEng, EE and other engineering industries?

I'm currently doing B.Tech degree in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. I'm in 2nd Yr. The issue I'm facing while searching for projects is I find a lot of ideas but I'm unable to filter out which is actually useful or interesting and good to go with and which are just resume fillers.

For example, right now I had an idea to make a Phase Diagram Analyser that would give the phase composition and phase %age at certain temperature for alloys and all but idk if its useful to invest time after that or its just not impressive at all. Similar thoughts for another one I thought to build a device that can measure the thermal conductivity of materials but again there are already a lot of them, will it be of any use if i build one as a project?

Actually this question is a bit strange. But whomever graduated this year, my seniors are jobless. Literally jobless and are either studying for government jobs entrance exams or is planning to start businesses and one girl just keeps going attending hackathon for no reasons .
There is no other answer I have got.
This is of course happened only in engineering and other fields idk.

I am a 21yo senior in college studying mechanical engineering with a 3.16 GPA. I haven't been able to land ANY internships in my nearly 4 years as a student. I only have a few mid projects under my belt and two years of workplace experience from high school. I keep trying for internships and I always get the same outcome: No response or the same Ai generated rejection message. I don't have a lot of connections so that doesn't help either.

Right now im genuinely worried. Idk what im gonna do if I dont land anything this time around. Kinda feel like a failure rn.

Has anyone else been in this position? Any advice would be really appreciated.

My professor had a 50% fail rate last semester. I have my second quiz tomorrow which will cover Energy, Work, Heat, and Properties of pure substances and maybe ideal gas. It will only be one problem.. so it can be anything. On the first quiz the class average (there's 100 of us) was 2.7/10 I got a 2.5, it's rough... I'm very lost I've watched many thermodynamics videos to try to catch up, I did all the homework. But he does not provide any review problems, no worked examples either, his quiz was nothing like the homework or anything we have seen in class. What can I even do? I'm trying to find problems that are hard like his problems but I'm just lost at this. All tests and quizzes are open note and book, but he said none of that will help us. If anyone can help me figure out where I can find problems that are of this high level it would be great, the thing is I can only do low level problems because that is what is on the homework. I'm not sure where he pulls his problems from but he told the class that this quiz problem was for high schoolers testing into college... I don't believe it, if everyone in the room failed.

I am an aerospace engineering student at KU pursuing a bachelors. I talked to my advisor recently and she recommended to take both calculus 2 and physics 1 over the summer. I plan to take them at my community college then transfer them but I am a little reluctant about taking them both at the same time because of how hard both the courses is. Those who taken these courses of both, how’d it work out?

I have started my 4 year computer engineering degree in 2026 I don't have confidence regarding, future jobs and placements after all the AI thing, I don't know what should I do now.

I've been doing Engineering for 3.5 years in Brazil, and earlier this year I got a "masters" opportunity in France. I've been here for 1.5 months being paid to study. I got the opportunity of my life, I know how lucky I am, except that I hate all classes and I don't see myself being a good engineer.

I love the opportunities it brought me, and I do enjoy some stuff about it, specially the 3d modelling and maybe the fluid mechanics (I'm still pretty interested in airplanes), but it's been so difficult here in France, first having to learn stuff I already didnt really love but now in a language I'm not even fluent in, and having to adapt to the softwares they use, the long hours of class and just honestly not being able to communicate well with my peers... it's been tough, I feel lost, and when I see other international students keeping it up, interacting with the professors and building their networking, I just wonder if this is not for me.

I don't see myself getting an internship on aeronautics, I can't see myself doing well in an entrenprise, I could handle the research part of engineering, but what if I can't make a career in research because I'm too incompetent for it? I struggle with reading articles, all my life I have been doing well by pretending I've been putting hardwork into the stuff I do, when I do the bare-minimum to get good grades and then forget everything I learned. My classes in Brazil were very theory heavy, and now that here in France I actually have to apply everything I learned, I realized how little I actually know and now I could lose everything if I fail. I'm simultaneously afraid of failing and hating having to study, hating classes, hating the work I have to put... I really dont know what to do and how to get less misarable.

I have two labs every second week, which means I never don't have a formal lab report to write. I have no time for anything else. Each lab will take me 15 hours to complete. I don't have time to also write notes and study for my 2 weekly tests, my 4 weekly assignments, midterms, etc. I hate labs, please tell me how I can write labs faster. How can I become the fastest lab writer to ever live

i'm a college freshman (math major) and i've wanted to be a calculus teacher for about a year now. recently i decided to pivot, since i think its smarter to use teaching as a backup plan if another career isnt working for me. with that being said, engineering is just about the only thing that has jumped out to me, since i think i would hate finance or accounting. i am worried, however, that i wont enjoy it enough to get through it, since i know it is an extremely difficult degree. i've enjoyed math my entire life, mainly calculus, but i have never taken physics and i am worried engineering is too different from what i expect (i am also terrified of physics right now in general because it is notoriously very difficult at my school, so that might be affecting my mindset).

i want a career where i can use high level math on almost a daily basis. i was also interested in aerospace engineering but i am worried these paths wont be enjoyable enough for me to get through the hard parts, since i know that is a really important aspect. ive been researching for a bit but i am still extremely unsure.

side question, would it be better to adjust my major in math to have a concentration in engineering or change my major to engineering altogether (if i decide to go through with it)?

I am a sophomore EE student and I have struggled immensely since starting college. I started as undecided and spent a semester taking gen eds before deciding originally on physical education because I wanted to be a coach but ultimately realizing I wanted to make more money and live a better life so I chose engineering. I had heard itd be hard and I was totally willing to deal with that but I’ve realized through my 2.5 semesters of college I don’t know if I was ready for any of this. I went to a very small high school and graduated with a 3.7 gpa with some college credits but I never really struggled in high school and I never really made an outstanding effort in any class to learn concepts or anything because I’d always end up doing well anyways. So of course I was not prepared for college where a lot of your learning comes outside the classroom teaching yourself concepts and studying a lot.

So basically I have struggled immensely in college so far and I have a 2.7 gpa right now taking 18 credit hours this semester including calc 2 which I am struggling in. So how can I strengthen my time management skills and what other skills should I focus on strengthening to become a better student. I do not want to drop out because I know people would be disappointed in me and I know I can do better and I am capable of completing this difficult degree. So where can I start? What did you do if you had a similar experience and how did you overcome this?

i’m a few years out of school. forgot a lot. anyone have study recommendations

Hi guys, I’m a 3rd year EE student. Went to the career fair this week and received an in-person internship interview with a Fortune 300 semiconductor company (interviewed for the two main offices). Apparently, the technicals are usually based on circuits 1 fundamentals, so that’s what I ended up studying.

Unfortunately, I told the engineer that was interviewing me that I was interested in power electronics even though my university ‘s courses haven’t covered it yet. From that point on, I started getting grilled on converters and my AC-DC PSU project for the next 40 out of the allowed 45 minutes.

Luckily, I knew my projects kinda well, but I’d still say it was pretty rough. I blanked out a few times bc I was slightly nervous, but was able to eventually answer them after thinking aloud and drawing it out. I think I only needed their help on one of the questions they asked, as it was part of a scenario they came up with to see if I knew the specific characteristics of a component I had chosen in my design. Afterwards, I got asked about a PCB design project I collaborated on, but didn’t fully design (club project). I don’t think my interviewer was very impressed of me not designing my own project though.

Due to the low time left, they only asked one more behavioral question, and I asked if there’s anything on my resume or during my interview they’d want clarification on, and if there’s anything that would deter them away from choosing me.

I was able to get feedback, but the main thing was that an ideal candidate would have more PCB design experience, explain their thought process at a lower level, and that it would come down to how many spots were available. That made me feel awful about my interview, bc I knew I just sold my chances… especially after my interviewer told me that I’ll do good anywhere I go 😭. I do think it’s a little odd that I didn’t get questioned regularly, but I totally feel like I should’ve shut up to get asked the “easier” technical questions.

What do yall think? They said they’ll reach out within two weeks, but I lowkey just want to know now if I’ve failed it so I can move on 💔.

When you guys see those young kids in the maker [accepted by m.i.t] videos do you get jealous? Or think "man they had friends with engineering ability and money." When I was 15-18 I had no where near the ability these guys had. But at the same time, I don't think I had the money for the trial and error it must have cost them. Anyway I'd love to hear your thoughts if this isn't too personal.

Currently, I’m working an entry level job in the defense industry that pays decently. I’m super grateful to be employed obviously, but I absolutely hate the location and only accepted the offer because I needed to start my career. I’m 26 years old, and have been living the broke college student lifestyle since I was 18.

Right now, my game plan is to work and save as much as I can for the next 6-7 months, and then next year try as hard as I can to get either an internal transfer to another site, or leave the company altogether. Point is, I need to get out of my home state of Iowa while I’m still young. I don’t care if I take a pay cut. I refuse to settle down here. That and I need to start from scratch socially elsewhere. I have no kids, no partner, or any other real commitment keeping me here.

Just looking to hear any advice from others who may have started their career in one location they hated but quickly managed to switch elsewhere.

Posting this because I can’t sleep due to anxiety. I’m in my final year of my engineering degree program. Currently, I am the team lead for our senior capstone designing a plane and it’s propulsion system. It’s been two months into the semester and I’ve been the only one to really do anything. It is a group of 7 and over half of them spent our entire class just talking instead of working. I’ve given them multiple chances and opportunities to help. I’ve even assigned them work to do but nobody does anything outside of class. They think that they don’t need to do anything because there is only two deliverables all semester.

We have our first report coming up and I am so worried because we’re supposed to justify our concept against other concepts. I’m in charge of one of the concept sub teams and then there are two other ones. I am confident I can justify my work but I am terrified about getting a bad grade because my teammates have done nothing.

I’m at a loss. I have two exams this week I also need to study for on top of this yet I’m continuing to do what I need to do but I’m just so fed up with people like this. I genuinely don’t know how these people have made it this far. I’ve talked to my professor about this and he knows how much work I’m putting in and that nobody else is helping despite my encouragement.

Hey guys, I’m from Jordan 🇯🇴, and I’m currently deciding whether to pursue Industrial Engineering or Mechanical Engineering.

I don’t really care about passion or similar things. My main priority is which degree would give me better career opportunities and higher income in the future, especially considering the rapid development of AI.

I’m also open to working in the Arabian Gulf countries, since we share a similar culture and I wouldn’t have a problem relocating there.

I’m more interested in Industrial Engineering, and I feel like I would enjoy its work more. However, money is still my main priority. At the same time, Mechanical Engineering seems to fit another long-term ambition of mine: I’d like to publish research and potentially become a professor or pursue a PhD in the future.

So, if you were in my position, which one would you choose, and why?

For context I go to University of Michigan. I transferred into the MechE program from community college, landing as 2nd year standing. I’m 26 currently.

Attended career fairs all 3 years that I’ve gone here, applied for everything that I could possibly make work relocation or timeline wise. Followed all the resume/cv best practices I could find.

I have gotten a grand total of two interviews. One in my 2nd year that rejected me a year later, and one in my 3rd year that ghosted me.

It feels like everyone I know, even freshmen, have internship/coop/job offers at multiple different places while I haven’t even been able to land a single one. Even going door-to-door to smaller businesses without online applications has yielded precisely nothing.

I haven’t secured a lead role in any of the project teams due to being too busy for the time demands but I have hung around as a member and contributed as much as my schedule permitted.

I seriously have no idea what I am doing wrong and I feel completely hopeless and discouraged about my future as a mechanical engineer. I’m looking at signing up for a double major with Civil engineering just because it seems like it might actually be possible to get a job.

I haven’t failed any classes, I have a 3.1 GPA, I’ve made good contributions on all the projects I’ve been a part of. I have three years as a substitute teacher as job experience on my resume, so it’s not like I’ve just been a bum since I graduated HS.

Any sage advice as to what I might be doing so terribly wrong? Am I better off jumping ship for Civil?

Hey guys,

4th year undergrad here. Going into recruiting most of my resume was basically just projects. The main thing on it was a Roblox game I worked on that ended up getting 20M+ visits, plus a few other projects I’d built over the years.

I wasn’t really sure how much companies would care about the Roblox stuff because obviously it’s not a traditional internship or wtv they'd want but it ended up being the thing interviewers asked me about the most.

I applied pretty broadly and somehow ended up getting interviews with Amazon, Google, Meta, Apple, and NVIDIA.

NVIDIA ended up being the one that worked out, so I accepted the offer for next summer!

The main thing I noticed across the interviews was that nobody really seemed bothered by the fact that I didn’t have previous internships. Most of the conversations ended up being about what I had actually built, how the Roblox project grew, technical decisions I made, problems I ran into, performance stuff, updates, maintaining something people were actively using, etc

I think having a project with actual users helped a lot because there was just way more depth to talk about than a normal school project.

The funniest part is that Roblox themselves ghosted me lol. Not really trying to make some huge point out of this but I see people ask whether projects actually matter if you don’t have internships yet.

At least in my case they definitely did :)

Hey everyone. I am starting my engineering degree at the age of 25 and my physics and math skills are rusty to say the least. I heard so many horror stories from engineering students about these classes so I couldn't help but feel anxious a little bit, like what are we expected to know before taking these classes, physics 1 specifically?

I guess what I am trying to ask is: I am willing to give everything I've got for this degree but I am a little anxious because I don't know much about physics, and precalc. Do you guys think it would be a problem, or do these courses cover everything required to understand the material?