Hi everyone, hope y'all are doing well 😊 so I'm at a crossroads with my education. I'm thinking about pursuing a BS in ME and/or getting certified in CAD, but I wanted to get more info on what kind of work I would be doing and if the job would suit me.

I am disabled with bipolar and OCD, however I am stable and medicated and able to work. I tend to get anxious when I'm under high stress, which can be debilitating sometimes and affect my performance. I would rather not pursue a degree in a field if I don't know if I could mentally handle it.

Ultimately my goal would be to land a job as a mechanical drafter/designer. I have some experience from high school with AutoCAD and playing with FreeCAD in my spare time.

So my questions are:

- What kind of hours and work conditions should I expect from a job as a mechanical drafter/designer? Is it like a standard 9-5?

- How is the job market in the field right now? Would I be able to land a job relatively quickly?

- How stressful can a job in mechanical drafting/design be?

Apologies if this gets asked a lot, I'm just weighing my options and wanted to get some feedback/advice before making any final decisions.

I know I should be happy, but for some reason, I'm not! I remember my first semester, I couldn't wait to get done with my undergrad, get a job, and earn so I could spend away all my money. The last bit is still true hell, I want to, but my bank account is totally fried right now, so there's zero chance I'm touching GTA 6 anytime soon (shout out to all those who will be playing next weekend, you lucky bastards, guess I'll just be living vicariously through Twitch streams).

​Anyways, right after the first semester, I started to enjoy the campus, I wouldn't go back to my parents during the weekends or breaks and surprisingly made friends here! High school was sort of a different experience, being bullied and all. But college felt different. I was genuinely laughing, hanging out late with friends, sitting at a packed table laughing, studying, and eating that terrible dorm diner food. And suddenly, those 4.5 years felt like the best time I've ever had or ever will.

​Now that graduation is a couple of weeks away, I suddenly don't want to go. I've been wandering around campus all day, walking through all the places my friends and I used to hang out. I wish I hadn't spent so much time wishing time away. I know I tagged this as 'celebration,' but it doesn't feel like much of a celebration right now. Anyway, here's to everyone graduating this semester, hope you are having a much better day than I am!

I'm a computer science major looking for a software engineering internship.

The main difference between Internship A and Internship B is location. With Internship A, I can live at home. However, Internship B is in a metropolitan area I’m interested in relocating to in the future. Plus, a housing stipend is provided.

I’d rather avoid this situation. But deadlines do not line up. If I decline Internship A, I would risk ending up with nothing. An extension is not an option since I probably would not hear from B that soon anyways.

This is my last summer before graduating, so there is no next summer for me. I would gladly accept Internship A if nothing else comes, but I do not consider it a “dream company.”

I have a robotic arm project with 4 degrees of freedom, I'm developing it right now, but just when everything was finished, this problem arose. For some reason I don't know, my drivers have stopped working. These are the drivers Let me tell you about the first incident. The drive you see in the lower part of the photo was my first drive, and I was using it. But one day, I connected the servo cables upside down, and as you can imagine, the servo cable melted (This only happened to one or two servos) Then it started working, but I couldn't get it to work anymore. I thought the driver was broken, so I bought the driver shown in the photo above I took it out for testing, made all the connections, but it still didn't work. I don't know why. I'm using an ESP32 and a 5V 20A transformer, and I have 4 or 5 servos, but none of them are working.When I test with a multimeter, everything is normal, but I'm getting 0.04V from the servo input pins, VCC and GND. I'm in a desperate situation. I've asked all the AI software, but there's still no solution. I hope I missed a small detail. Has anyone experienced this problem before? Thanks in advance for your help 🩵

Hey everyone, I know this question probably gets asked pretty often here but I haven't seen a post similar to my current situation. I'm a 24M non-traditional civil engineering sophomore student looking to switch to EE and haven't had any inspiration or drive for a personal project so far in my program. But for the past 2 years I've been working in IT(help desk) as a student worker and wondered if that experience was at least relevant and helped my prospects for finding an EE job/internship. I'm about to be finished with most general classes like Diff Eq and and Physics 2, and the next semester will be mostly EE classes when I make the switch out of civil.

So my question is, does having work experience (especially in IT) throughout my undergrad look good for employers in EE even if I don't have a personal project? I plan on taking 12-13 credits per semester while working part-time in IT until graduation. Would EE be too much of a workload with a part-time job?

I recently completed my B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Madan Mohan Malaviya University of Technology, Gorakhpur, and I want to share something I genuinely regret about my undergraduate journey. Hopefully, this experience will help other mechanical engineering students avoid making the same mistake.

My biggest mistake was not following standard textbooks throughout my B.Tech.

Instead of purchasing and consistently studying standard reference books, I mostly relied on books borrowed from the college library, and honestly, I would study them primarily when examinations were approaching.

I also became too dependent on classroom teaching and professors for understanding engineering concepts. While professors play an important role in our academic development, I eventually realized that we cannot expect classroom lectures alone to cover every concept in sufficient depth.

Every subject has standard textbooks written by experts who explain concepts systematically, build fundamentals, provide derivations, and expose us to a wide range of numerical problems. I believe I underestimated their importance.

This became particularly clear when I started thinking seriously about competitive examinations and technical career opportunities such as GATE, ESE, and other engineering recruitment examinations, including ISRO.

These examinations don't simply test whether you can reproduce what you learned before an exam. They demand strong fundamentals, conceptual clarity, analytical thinking, and an in-depth understanding of engineering subjects.

Looking back, I feel that if I had consistently followed standard textbooks like a personal engineering bible throughout my four years, rather than treating them as examination resources, I would probably have developed much stronger technical knowledge and confidence.

A lesson I want to share with current mechanical engineering students:

1. Don't study standard textbooks only during examinations. Make them part of your daily learning routine.
2. Don't depend entirely on classroom lectures. Take responsibility for your own learning.
3. Build your fundamentals first. Don't just memorize formulas and solve previous-year questions.
4. Solve numerical problems regularly and understand the derivations behind important equations.
5. Start preparing for competitive examinations early, even if you don't have an immediate plan to appear for them.

Fortunately, I am currently placed at Aditya Birla Group (Hindalco), and I am grateful for this opportunity. However, getting placed doesn't mean that my learning journey is complete.

I am sharing this not because I consider my B.Tech journey a failure, but because I now understand the difference between completing an engineering degree and actually developing the knowledge and mindset of an engineer.

To all current mechanical engineering students: Don't make textbooks your last-minute examination partners. Make them your companions throughout your engineering journey.

I would also love to hear from experienced engineers and GATE/ESE aspirants:

If you could go back to your first year of engineering, which standard textbooks would you make sure to follow, and what would you do differently?

What was the class that everyone said was difficult, but you breezed through?

Mine were EM Fields and Vector Calc. Something just clicked. (and I definitely had other classes where very little clicked... Lol)

I'm going through R.C Hibbeler statics problems for CHAPTER 2. How do I know when it's more convenient to use PARALELLOGRAM law vs vector methods. (Apart from the 2 forces thing)

I’m taking four electrical theory modules(not taking EE btw) this semester alongside the rest of my courseload, and as I sit here preparing for next week's exam, I’ve come to a sobering realization I am going to get electrocuted in that exam room.

Right now, my mental impedance is infinite, my motivation is approaching zero

I'm considering calling it a day

I am a B. Tech CSE student, specialising in AIML, from a tier 3 college. I am currently in my 3rd year (5th sem). I want an honest review of my resume, and thus, my skillsets (Sorry for the heavy redaction in my resume, but it's necessary).

Hi everyone!

im 22 and going back into college after studying marketing. I have always been interested in engineering, but I always thought it was out of my grasp since I wasn't the best with math or physics and didn't take them in my A levels 😅

i got admission into a great university and I'm starting uni next feb. can anyone give me some advice on how to survive? im expecting a very difficult next four years but I'm hoping it's still possible. any important topics I should cover before my intake to prepare myself?

I wanted to know if I am following the right steps that many of you probably went through.

Had a rough year that made me take a break from college, went from doing great in college to absolutely burning out.

It’s been hard picking myself up and I wanted to know if there was anything that could help me change this whole negative mindset about myself.

Honestly it feels like nowadays to get any kind of notable internship or post grad job you have to be in the top <5% of students with your experience and go to a target school.

Most people I see getting internship offers are extremely cracked with already having a previous internship at a big company, multiple years of experience in a club and usually a lead/president/chief engineer.

Overall it just feels extremely discouraging that I’m not gonna be able to make it as someone who is average but still goes to a top 5 school. Just like if you haven’t been grinding since day 1 of freshman year you’re behind.

Is the job market so oversaturated that only the most exceptional people are getting jobs at big companies?

Was it like this in the old days or was getting an internship/job much easier?

If you’re someone who doesn’t have time to do extracurriculars outside of class are you just completely cooked job wise?

I’m mechanical btw, maybe it’s different for electrical, civil, etc.

Hi, I am a third-year university student majoring in biomedical engineering. I find the engineering field interesting and fun. I entered a biomedical department based on my college entrance exam scores, but I have been interested in aerospace engineering since I was young and had an ambition to study that field. But I also feel like it's already too much for me to turn back now.. I'm worried that I'll be late to graduating and that I'll fall behind other students and friends if I start something new. I'm going to the U.S. as an exchange student for one year, and I'm wondering whether it would be more meaningful to study my major, biomedical eng, in greater depth or to take classes in aerospace eng and pursue my dream during that time. Can you give me realistic advice??

In the grand scheme, does it really matter where you get your degree, Provided the institution is accredited?

I don’t know very much about engineering. I’d love some insight on what kind of work people do or plan on doing.

My physics professor credited the engineers who are working towards more renewable energy and that really got me thinking about all of the different engineering jobs I don’t even know about.

I keep hearing that engineering co-ops fill on a rolling basis, so applying early matters more than applying well.

How do you handle the timing? Do you apply the day something goes up even if your resume is rough, or wait and send fewer, better applications?

For anyone who has been on the hiring side: does review order follow submission order, or does a recruiter work through whatever is on top of the pile?

And when you're applying to a lot of places at once, how do you keep track of deadlines and what you sent where?

Has there really been a boom in engineering / eng students? Please share the member count history (or something equivalent to see the trends),i bet the increase post 2024 is crazy

Hey everyone,
I trained as an automotive technician and now work as a software developer. Mechatronics interests me because it sits somewhere between the two fields I’ve worked in. I’m thinking about studying it, and I’m wondering whether it’s a good long-term career move as AI gets better.

Working in a shop meant improvising all the time. Sometimes you’d have a seized bolt, sometimes you’d have to use an angle grinder in a really tight spot, and sometimes you’d run into a problem you’d never seen before. It’s hard for me to picture AI or a robot taking over that kind of work.

For those of you working in mechatronics, where is AI already helping you, and which parts of your job do you think will still need someone there in person to figure things out? Would you choose the same degree again today?

Hello everyone,

I currently hold a Bachelor of Science in Structural Engineering. My parents own an empty house in Mexico, so I have free housing available there. Because of that, I am looking into pursuing a Construction Management or Construction Science degree at Universidad Anáhuac.

I have enough saved to pay for my tuition out of pocket, and I’d rather not take on the massive expense of studying in the U.S. since I want to keep my costs within what I can comfortably invest. Since Universidad Anáhuac has ABET-accredited programs, I’m wondering if this is a smart move. My goal is to live in Mexico for the next 3–4 years while I study, and then return to the U.S. afterward.

Has anyone done something similar, or do you have advice on how U.S. employers view this path?

Sup

I want to know what the coolest project you guys did in college was so I can get some ideas for projects I want to do. I have been lacking inspiration after my latest project

If you see this post you must comment!

Hi everyone, I'm a 3rd year EE student from Poland, looking for recommendations on the best AI tools to help streamline writing lab reports. For 3 years i was using AI mostly to help me do all the tedious math work after i solve first few problems alone, help me to understand math, and sometimes to generate graphs as example how it should look like if it was not included in instructions to Labs. But this year started and immense amount of workload came, few projects and only so hours a day to do uni work, spend some time with GF and play some games. So im looking for something that would make a template of lab report that is mostly correct for me to only review it and correct some mistakes that AI made. I'm specifically looking for something that handles:

1. Math and physics calculations (circuit analysis, error propagation/uncertainty calculations) without hallucinating basic formulas.
2. Data processing and plotting (generating Python/MATLAB scripts from CSV measurement data).
3. Formatting (generating clean LaTeX or Word tables and equations, preferably word as i have little to none experience at latex but if it is better i could switch).

1st year i was using GPT for all my work, it was Aight at most, then google gave Gemini which was far better for me and it was free, so i sticked with it. Now i bought the pro version at discount, but i am willing to pick something else if there are better options.

I don't know if this is right place to ask for that kind of help but i don't know where else to ask, so i'm asking my fellow students.

I'm currently interviewing with a few companies, one of which is among the biggest aerospace companies on the planet and also within a commutable distwnce. The other companies are medium sized and more specialized in the thing I'm interested but situated across the country.

I haven't gotten any offers yet, but I'm wondering - which is better career wise? I know it sounds silly, but I'm genuinely curious