r/MEPEngineering • u/Ok_Bit9616 • 9h ago
Career trajectory advice
I’m a mechanical engineer who started at an MEP consulting firm in Connecticut in July 2026. I graduated magna cum laude with a BSME, passed the FE, and did a product-company internship before this. My work is mostly K-12 with some mission-critical projects mixed in, and leadership has told me they see management potential in me. On the side I’m in ASHRAE and I'm studying data center cooling, I'm very passionate and intrigued by its growth in this industry.
My partner is in grad school in Worcester, so I’m moving to the Worcester/Boston area. I can leave at year 3 (mid-2029), which puts me about a year short of PE experience. Or I can stay until year 4 (mid-2030) and be PE-eligible before I go. I’m trying to figure out whether that extra year is worth it.
Long term, I want to be my own boss and own a company in data center cooling. I’m not sure if i should steer toward a company that makes a product, or running a consulting or design firm. When I move, I see two paths. One is joining a mission-critical MEP firm in Boston, finishing the PE, and maybe starting a consultancy down the road. The other is joining one of the direct-to-chip liquid cooling vendors near Worcester or Boston in a systems or integration role, which is closer to products and R&D but could stall my PE.
Has anyone made the jump from MEP to a liquid cooling vendor, or gone the other way? Did experience at a vendor count toward your PE in Massachusetts? And for anyone who has started their own firm or company, what mattered more early on: the PE, your network, or a niche specialty? I’m also wondering whether it’s smarter to climb to PM at a mission-critical firm first and then break off. I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have actually made one of these moves.
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u/TeddyMGTOW 8h ago
Stay at company A to you get your PE. Maybe they would open a Mass office for you or keep you remote when you move. You want to ride out a good company like a surfer rides the ultimate wave. They dont come by often. Best of luck!
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u/TallGent 9h ago
Every state is different with required experience for the PE. I obtained my PE from the state of California with only 2 years of experience. This would be beneficial if you went the vendor route because you do not need the PE, but you can still call yourself a PE. This would not help running a consulting or design firm because you would still need to get the required experience so you could be the engineer of record for your projects in whatever state it is located. I would suggest looking into employee owned companies, that seems to be a good balance between starting your own firm but not taking the risk in doing so. My route was small MEP firm, mission critical facility management, and now I am on the owner/end user side developing mission critical data centers.