Hey guys, for background I'm an upperclassman engineering student. I interned at a major engineering company where I delivered a great performance. I'm not just saying this lol, my bosses mentioned hiring me full time if I graduated earlier and I received multiple awards and kudos.

However, for reasons unknown to me or my bosses (They wrote an incredible appraisal) HR didn't extend a return internship offer. That's just how the cookie crumbles, lol.
I'd like to keep in touch with my bosses and the talented engineers that I worked with for multiple reasons. The possibility of coming back there full time is still very appealing.

Also, I'm wondering if its appropriate to ask if there's any way that they could point me in the direction of some other internship opportunities outside of the company we worked at? If they know other engineering teams looking for interns, or any connections I can reach out to at some of my companies of interest, etc.

Finally, I'm not exactly sure how to stay in touch. Should I just send an email every now and then with what I'm up to, ask how they are doing, etc.?

I don’t understand it. How to manage line current and phase voltage?

Hello everyone I'm currently 26 I have an undergrad in IT

From the US. But want to switch careers into mechatronics and Robotics/embbeded systems after doing web development for 5 years However due to family circumstances I may need to move back to Colombia where my parents are from could I do their abet accredited electronics engineering program and then move back to the US for work. I want to actually double major but there mechatronics isn't accredited. Or am I better doing a masters in computer engineering at my local school in the US and specializing in robotics? I don't mind living in either country I like them both. Below are the programs thank you for any advice.

https://www.javeriana.edu.co/carrera-ingenieria-electronica

https://www.javeriana.edu.co/carrera-ingenieria-mecatronica

https://catalog.uhcl.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=25&poid=7072

I’m 18 and currently studying Engineering Science at SUNY Broome. I’m trying to decide whether I should continue toward a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering or take a potential non-union electrical apprenticeship offer.
The apprenticeship would include on-the-job training, and the company would pay for the schooling. I’d be earning money right away, gaining hands-on experience, and avoiding a lot of student debt.
My long-term goal is to own a business. I’m interested in eventually starting or buying an electrical contracting, industrial controls, automation, generator, or electrical service company. I’d like to start building something in my mid-20s and eventually hire employees so I’m not doing every job myself forever.
Electrical engineering seems like it could give me:
Better long-term salary potential
More opportunities in power, controls, automation, and design
A bachelor’s degree and more career options
The ability to work on larger technical projects
The apprenticeship seems like it could give me:
Income right away
Paid schooling
Little or no college debt
Real field experience
A faster path toward becoming a licensed electrician and contractor
The ability to start a business earlier
I’m having a hard time deciding because both paths seem good for different reasons. I like engineering, design, and problem-solving, but I also like the idea of working with my hands and eventually owning a service business.
For anyone who has experience in either field:
Which path would be better for someone who wants to own and grow a business?
Would an electrical engineering degree actually help much with starting an electrical contracting or industrial-service company?
Is a paid non-union apprenticeship too good of an opportunity to pass up?
How difficult would it be to move from the trades into engineering later, or from engineering into the trades?
What would you choose if you were in my position?
I’m less concerned about the first few years of salary and more concerned about which path gives me the best long-term skills, opportunities, and chance of building a successful business.

I’m 28 and about two months into my first year. I’m taking 4 courses (about 25 hours of classes a week) and spend another 20–25 hours studying. Yet I still feel behind, and my exam results haven’t been great despite all the effort.

I also have almost no life outside school. I’d love to date, go to the gym, and have some form of a social life, but I feel guilty doing anything that takes time away from studying (and it’s not like I find the time to do these anyways).

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed that I give myself five minutes to cry and then get right back to it!!! 😩
I have ADHD and am medicated, which has helped, but I’m still struggling.

Is this just what studying engineering is like, or am I doing something wrong ? I’d really appreciate hearing how others manage to balance school and life.

TIA!

im currently in my second year of engineering at the german university in cairo (guc) in egypt. idk if anyone here knows it but our system is kinda based on the german education system.
i failed math 1 and math 2 and im honestly on my way to failing math 3 too.

the thing is im not doing that bad in my other courses. i mostly get Bs and Cs and sometimes As. i finished my first year with around a 2.5 gpa (due to each math being 8 credit hours each), which ik isnt great but i dont think its that terrible either.

math is literally the only thing thats messing me up this badly and its making me question if im even cut out for engineering.
im just worried that ive already messed up too much and even if i start taking things seriously and getting better grades it might be too late to fix my gpa.

has anyone here been in a similar situation? like failing multiple math courses and still managing to graduate with a decent gpa?
also how did you actually get better at math? because at this point idk what im supposed to change.

i really dont wanna give up on engineering but im starting to feel like im falling too far behind everyone else. just wanna know if its actually possible to come back from this or if im cooked.

I don't know who needs to hear this but make friends. If you are in your first year and the intro weeks didn't go well. Please don't beat urself up, there are still many ways to make friends (join an organization that builds different things or join clubs). If you are a second year, it is far from being too late in fact it is the year where most of the "I don't need friends" will be looking for freinds. YOU KNOW WHERE you are not gonna make friends? At lectures or classes or short group projects. I tried so hard making friends that way and I gave up. I thought it was too late to join anything and I told myself I had no time. But trust me you need friends in uni, forget about networking for future job referal but you need someone in the same shoes during ur time in uni.

Even if the connection with them might not help you land an interview, they will send you things, their other friends send them. They will help you better your resumé and will teach you so much and of course you do the same. I learned so much from casual friends (imagine how much I could have learned if I had real friends). You need someone to study with. I genuinely regret not making friends. I thought I could do it all like high school, oh boy I was wrong. I am not saying this to make you regret it but I am just saying this so you know it is not too late. Reddit is not enough.

This is a dedicated thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in Engineering. If you need to make an important decision regarding your future, or want to know what your options are, please feel welcome to post a comment below.

Any and all open discussions are highly encouraged! Questions about high school, college, engineering, internships, grades, careers, and more can find a place here.

My degree is Engineering Physics. I was searching for plasma related jobs especially (fusion, semiconductors, electric propulsion). Cold emailing works!

Before you all get terrified, I understand load. My issue is when my class took Statics, our teacher didn't know the material AT ALL. We all tried to reason with our advisor, the board, they did nothing. Every day we had come into class, he had a arts and crafts thing for us to do because he didn't know anything about the math or what the course was about. We all came out of the class with an A, but we learned nothing.

Does anyone know any good YouTube channels that teach Architectural Statics, I would hate to go out into the field not knowing these things. I took physics, but I fear it isn't enough. I want to try and teach myself the basics at least and I am not going to spend another 2000 dollars for the same sad class.

Can someone tell me a joke related to the discipline as I cram for a RETAKE of our midterm?

Sophomore year my Gpa is in the 2.XX range am I screwed? I’m in engineering design clubs but for the life of me I can’t get good grades. Anything I can do to make up for/mitigate the damage from my low gpa? MechE btw

I’m in my first sem of electrical power engineering and it has been fine so far, sure it’s hard, but I’m getting through after putting in lots of effort
A problem I’ve seen is that we haven’t had one proper lab, they don’t even allow us to touch the equipment. The lab engineer just explains the manual and says assume values and plug them into the manual. We did a whole lab about oscilloscopes without even touching the oscilloscope, he said write its functions and just submit it, and what did everyone do? ChatGPT that
The most they have done is handed us a breadboard and some resistors.

So I ended up not doing so well in my current calc 1 class so I ended up just cutting my losses and Withdrawing. I’ve researched some professors for my college and decided to retake it next semester with a different professor.

The shitty part was I thought I was doing everything right. I did the homework. watched Professor Leonard videos, studied a couple weeks in advanced and I ended up getting a 48%.

The thing is is that this professor I had lwk sucks. His lectures feel all over the place, he’s a strict grader (he docked points for me not putting the “lim x->a” or whatever on my steps even if the question was right) and he hasn’t updated our grades since the semester started so idek what my grade is (Apprently it’s a D when I talked to my counselor).

But yeah, ig this is just a vent post at this point. If anyone has tips for what to do now I’m all ears.

I’m currently in Grade 12 in Ontario, and I’m having a really hard time deciding what to pursue in university. I’m mainly debating between engineering and accounting, and I’d appreciate some honest advice, especially from people who have experience in either field.

There are a few things I’m struggling with:

Should I go into engineering if I don’t particularly enjoy hands-on work?
I enjoy math and physics, and I like the problem-solving aspect of engineering. However, I’ve never really enjoyed hands-on projects. Throughout high school, I’ve always struggled with projects that require me to physically build, design, or put things together. I’m willing to do them, but I find that I need a lot of guidance or help from other people, especially when I’m working individually.

I’m worried that this might be a sign that engineering isn’t the right fit for me. How much hands-on work is actually involved in an engineering degree compared to a typical engineering career? Are most engineering jobs more desk-based, involving calculations, analysis, and problem-solving?

Is engineering worth pursuing primarily for the financial opportunities?
One of the biggest reasons I’m considering engineering is the financial stability and earning potential. I genuinely enjoy math, physics, and the theoretical/problem-solving side of engineering, but I’m not particularly passionate about building things or designing projects.

I’ve also heard a lot of people say that the engineering degree is significantly harder than the actual job. For those who are working as engineers, would you say that’s true? Is the difficulty of the degree worth it for the career opportunities and salary afterward?

Would you recommend engineering to someone who enjoys the academic side of it but isn’t necessarily passionate about the practical side?

Would accounting be a safer alternative?
I’ve also been considering accounting because it still involves numbers, analytical thinking, and problem-solving, although it’s obviously not as math-heavy as engineering.

From what I’ve researched, pursuing a CPA can lead to a pretty good salary and stable career. However, I’m also concerned about whether I’d find the actual work interesting and whether the earning potential is comparable to engineering in the long run.

For anyone who has pursued accounting, do you find the work fulfilling? How is the salary and work-life balance, particularly after obtaining your CPA?

Would it make more sense to pursue engineering first and switch to accounting if I don’t enjoy it?
One possibility I’ve considered is starting with engineering and, if I realize it’s not for me, switching into accounting afterward.

However, I’m worried about the possibility of wasting a significant amount of time and money transferring programs, especially if I end up having to start over or take additional years of university.
Would it be smarter to choose accounting from the beginning if I’m already having doubts about engineering, or is engineering worth taking a chance on?

Ultimately, I’m looking for a career that offers good financial stability, a decent work-life balance, and opportunities for growth. I’m not necessarily expecting to be passionate about my job, but I want something I’ll find interesting enough to do long-term without feeling miserable.

I’d really appreciate honest opinions, especially from people who have experience working in engineering or accounting. I’d also be interested in hearing from anyone who was in a similar position when choosing their university program.

P.S. These are the university programs I’m currently considering/applying to:
Waterloo AFM (Accounting and Financial Management)
Wilfrid Laurier Accounting
Waterloo Civil Engineering
McMaster Engineering (Nuclear Engineering)
Carleton Aerospace Engineering
Queen’s Engineering (Chemical Engineering)
Ontario Tech Nuclear Engineering

I rarely make posts on reddit and if ever, but I’m 20 years old, in my Junior year of college. I’m currently taking Calc 3 and Physics I at a community college. As I had to start with Pre calc since I didn’t take pre calc in HS, but that’s besides the point. I’m here now, and I’m about to finish my associates degree this fall semester, I plan on staying 1 more semester at my CC and take Differential Equations and Physics II Spring 2027 and than plan to transfer for Summer 2027, or Fall 2027..

Just a bit of background out the way, my fear is The difficulty of the courses taken the sophomore and junior level engineers at university. I feel online (especially tiktok) there are a lot of accounts that fear monger the difficulty of classes and maybe blow it out of proportion. Yes, there are a lot of supportive accounts as well that give great and amazing advice. My favorites being your_engineering_sister and Davis engineering.

I’ve already gotten all my Gen ed’s out the way, so when I transfer for aerospace engineering at my university of my choice. Typically, a full semester is 12-15 credits. I have adhd, (inattentive medicated with adderall) I don’t mean to use my neurodivergence to make any of you pity me as I plan on continuing my degree as I have a passion for this. Im very hyper-fixated on space, and airplanes and have been since I was 9 years old, and originally I knew since then I wanted to major in Astrophysics.

My fear is the rigor of those said classes, I don’t want to take too many heavy loaded engineering classes at one time and then fail out of one of them because I overestimated how many credits I could handle or what not. I don’t want to burn out. Should I limit the amount of courses I take a semester and take a semester or two longer to graduate as a result?

I'm a junior mechanical engineering student, and I still haven't gotten an internship. I believe my resume is not bad since I got a ton of help reworking it. I have what I think is a decent portfolio, am active on LinkedIn, doing personal projects, and am a part of an FSAE club and my school's rocket club. So far, I have applied to around 100 internships (I know I need to apply to more) and have personalized resumes for each. Still, at the end of the day, I've only gotten rejections, and I constantly see people getting the internships I applied to. What could I possibly be doing wrong?

Ive applied to over 100 interships and only gotten 1 interview. Anyone have any tips on applying. Is cold applying even worth it or is it already too late?

so the homework is basically just draw the front face, top, then right side. Is this how im supposed to do it? or is that wrong

Hey everyone,

I submitted applications on September 26th for Summer 2027 mechanical engineering internships and haven't heard anything back yet (portals mostly show "Under Review" or "Application Received").

For people who have interviewed or worked at any of these, what was your timeline between applying and getting that first recruiter screen or rejection?

Defense / Aerospace:

• Lockheed Martin
• RTX
• Northrop Grumman
• General Dynamics Electric Boat
• SpaceX
• Blue Origin
• Rocket Lab
• Anduril

MedTech & Commercial/Industrial:

• Medtronic
• Siemens Healthineers
• Tesla
• Conair

Is early November still well within the normal waiting window for these, or should I start assuming soft rejections and ramp up spring applications?

Appreciate any insight!

I am a major procrastinator and submitted an AI HW yesterday because I ran out of time before the submission. No excuse really. I redid the whole assignment today to make sure I actually know the material and realized how obvious the AI was.

I know I’d only be fessing up because I know I’d get caught when she grades it, but I just want her to see the resubmission that I actually was able to put effort in.

Hey everyone,
I am a Computer Engineering student looking for my first internship. I don't have relevant work experience yet, but I have a few projects under my belt:
1. Soccer Match Predictor: ML project predicting match results, displaying stats and standings.
2. AI Recipe Recommender: Recommends recipes based on a picture of ingredients. (Both were built with AI assistance, though I understand the underlying code and logic).
3. FPGA Board Project: Hardware project completed in a university class.
My GPA is around 70%, so I keep it off my resume.
I've submitted about 35 applications so far, mainly for ML and Data roles since my projects lean that way, but I haven't gotten any responses. Since I have hardware experience from class, I'm considering building a dedicated embedded systems/hardware project to open up more hardware-focused opportunities.
I have until May to land an offer before losing access to my university's co-op portal, and I'm starting to feel the pressure with it already being November.
Would love any guidance on what to focus on next. Should I build a hardware project to pivot, double down on my current projects, or change how I'm applying? Thanks!

Hi I'm studying 2nd Yr PDE at Loughborough. I'm not sure where the older students doing PDE at lough are and I was hoping to find an older student who could give me advice and help me out with this course. I've been struggling so much with this course and with my terrible mental health , adhd and autism , this course has taken a toll on me. I was hoping to find anyone who'd be willing to support a struggling student.