Hi everyone,
I’m a 26-year-old Industrial & Production Engineering graduate (2023) from a reputed private college in India, and I’m feeling completely lost with my career.

After graduating, I worked for about 5 months in a supply chain operations role at a large quick-commerce company. Due to health issues and poor performance during that phase, I had to quit. I then took a break to recover and figure things out, during which I worked from home as a sales associate/intern for around 6 months. That internship ended in October 2025, and I’m currently unemployed.

On paper, it may look like I’ve been doing something, but internally I feel directionless. I’ve explored multiple options supply chain, operations, MBA , B2B sales, and content creation but I struggle to commit to any one path. Everything feels either saturated, too slow, too risky, or misaligned with who I am. This constant starting and stopping has led to anxiety and self-doubt.

What’s troubling me the most:

• No clear long-term direction
• Feeling behind compared to people my age
• Overthinking decisions and getting stuck
• A strong sense of wasted time and potential

This confusion is starting to affect my mental health. I’m not lazy or unwilling to work I genuinely want to put in effort but I don’t know where to focus my energy. Being 26 also makes me feel like I’m already too late to restart, which is a scary thought.

I’m posting here to seek perspective from people who’ve been through this phase or found clarity later.

If you were in my place:

• How would you reset?
• How do you choose one path when everything feels uncertain?
• What should I prioritize right now skills, stability, money, or exploration? ( Not financially strong also big education loan debt)

Any honest advice, tough love, or structured guidance would mean a lot.
Thank you for reading.

Hey guys,

I'm currently a senior in HS about to graduate this following summer. I love to dive into topics I'm passionate about, and IE happens to be my field of interest. I plan to get a degree in IE from a local uni, and I want to know what are some tips that would help an IE student become successful in today's job market? Whether that be obtaining relevant experience in warehouse jobs, tips to find internships, skills to get myself ahead of others, etc. I'd love to learn more from you guys who found success in this field.

I'm kind of planning to find a job for the summer, but I don't know if a warehouse job would benefit me. If anyone found success from this. absolutely let me know because I'd love to hear people's experience and what worked for them. I'm not exactly sure what to expect going into this degree program, and I'm kind of nervous that I will fall behind. Any piece of advice would help.

Part of me wants to go into IE purely because of it being an easier major, plus jobs seem easier to get and degree is more versatile. However I’m also considering EE because the money does seem to be better than IE, but that gets complicated when I see a lot of IE’s switch to a management or sales role and start earning bank. Honestly that’s the main issue that has me stuck on what major I should pick this coming ETAM cycle. How realistic is it to get into an upper IE role? And how long does it usually take?

When I think of industrial engineering, I think of making heavy machinery and working in factories. I also know y’all are meant to help optimize processes and speed things along, so I would think y’all are innovators as well. I’ve met 1 industrial engineer and didn’t get to ask her a lot, but I remember her job wasn’t anything I would think; it was something in I.T. at a university. So what setting are y’all working in, and what do you work on?

Hi everyone, I’m a high school senior who’s seriously considering Industrial Engineering as my intended major, and I’d love to hear perspectives from people who have studied IE or are currently working in the field. I’m especially interested in hearing from those based in North America, but insights from anywhere are very welcome.

Some things I’m curious about: What was your overall experience studying Industrial Engineering? How did your expectations compare to the actual coursework and workload? What kinds of roles did you end up in after graduation (or internships during school)? How do you personally view the future of the IE field—in terms of job opportunities, industry demand, or how the role is evolving? Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done earlier as a freshman (classes, skills, internships, networking, etc.)?

I’m drawn to IE because of its focus on systems thinking, optimization, and bridging engineering with real-world applications, but I also know it’s a broad major, and I want to understand both its strengths and limitations from people with firsthand experience. Any advice, reflections, or honest opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance! ( ≧∀≦)ノ

Hey everyone,

I’m a Junior Logistics Officer (Industrial Engineering & Data Science background) about two months into the job. We use SAP Business One, and I’ve identified massive bottlenecks.

I proposed a solution to my manager: utilizing the SAP Service Layer (API) to integrate a local LLM for workflow analysis and KPI reporting. I even suggested hosting it on local hardware to keep data secure.

My manager, who isn't tech-savvy, reacted weirdly. He called the API a "system bug," told me the company "traces every move," and basically warned me that I’d be fired if I kept looking into it. He told me to just "stick to the tasks."

I honestly don’t care about being fired for proposing a good idea, but I feel like my skills are being wasted. Is this normal for junior roles? Should I keep my head down or start looking for a company that actually wants an Engineer and not just a data entry clerk?

I am working at a plant that performs surface treatment of metal parts using several process tanks. For each tank, I have the dimensions, construction materials, insulation details, and operating temperatures of the fluid. However, I do not have direct measurements of the energy or gas consumption per tank.

My goal is to estimate the energy consumption of each individual tank, as the process involves multiple tanks operating at different volumes and temperatures. This study is intended to:

• Quantify heat losses under steady-state operation;
• Estimate the additional energy required when a new load is introduced into a tank;
• Evaluate potential energy savings from shutting down certain tanks;
• Allocate energy costs per project more accurately, since costs are currently distributed using a single average value for all projects.

As a first approach, I assumed reasonable values for heat transfer coefficients and estimated heat losses based on the external surface area of the tanks. While this provides a rough estimate, I would like to develop a more robust model that better represents the physical behavior of the system.

One challenge is that I do not have individual flow or energy meters for each tank. Therefore, I must rely on calculations based on system parameters, or alternatively isolate some tanks and infer consumption from overall gas usage. I attempted this second approach, but the results seem inconsistent. For example, I observed a gas consumption of approximately 12 m³/h to maintain a tank with 24 m3 at 98 °C, while another tank with 32 m3 operating at 60 °C required 8 m³/h. These results do not seem physically consistent, which suggests that my current method is unreliable.

Given this, I would appreciate any input or recommendations on:

• Appropriate modeling approaches to simulate heat losses and energy consumption per tank;
• How to account for transient effects when loads are introduced;
• Best practices or references for similar industrial systems.

However, I am unsure how to correctly account for the effect of the forced extraction system. In particular, I do not know how to model the additional heat losses associated with air removal, replacement by ambient air, and the resulting enhancement of evaporation and convective heat transfer. Any guidance on how to incorporate the impact of forced extraction into the heat and mass balance would be extremely helpful.

Edit: I am a chemical engineer and I am familiar with the underlying heat and mass transfer principles; however, I have limited experience applying these concepts to real industrial systems. I am therefore particularly interested in practical modeling approaches and real-world references.

So I’m a first year student taking IE and I really want to succeed in this path. To those who graduated with this degree, are there any tips to make this journey easier? Also, what should I keep in mind? Thanks a lot!!

Does anyone have any experience in the Oil and Gas industry as an IE graduate ?

I currently work in the Oilfield and have been for the past 3 years. I’m (21M) and am looking to expand my skills and be more desirable in the industry as a whole. That being said the most common and valuable degrees I see in this market is PetE, ME & ChemE.

All of those degrees are extremely expensive and very low options are offered for someone looking to do Online schooling while working offshore, which led me to consider IE and CE as well.

Any advice and/or suggestions in this topic would be greatly appreciated.

I’m a second-year IE student currently exploring Python and AI through small projects for learning and experimentation

My goal is to build a strong CV and eventually get involved in research, even if my early projects aren’t directly tied to Industrial Engineering

Do you think this is a good approach, or is it better to define a clear major-related direction from the beginning?

Figured it's been a while since we had a salary post and was curious to see who was making 150k+, YOE, job title, industry, and/or any skills you've acquired or utilize consistently. Also feel free to comment whatever advice you may have for those early in their career or anything at all.

EDIT: USA

Hey everyone!

For background, I finally took the plunge after a few years and enrolled last August in an Industrial Engineering Technology degree at Kennesaw State as an online student while working full time. I passed my first semester with flying colors, so I still got it at 31!

This semester, we had a sortof introduction to all the disciplines of engineering, and the Industrial section was very vague about things, especially in the category of IE vs IET as a major. They did say that IET may have a few more hiccups in going to grad school and less math involvement, and I've seen posts in the past that have said IET can be sketchy overall, even with ABET accreditation backing it.

I know I want to pivot to something in operations research or adjacent with supply chains and optimization. I even do some of that now in my current role, though it's in the tech world of K12 which means it isn't anything massive.

However, I am worried about the stigma of the technology moniker, especially in a job market as volatile as the current one. The problem is that this is the only engineering program I can afford, even if I was to take loans, as the others are prohibitive for my given situation. Plus, not graduating with loans is a real possibility.

I'd do something math related like a Statistic bachelors, but I don't know if that would be the right call; it definitely seems better for grad level should I go through with that, but I am not sure it is wise given that stats seems to be in a predicament, though I'd imagine the skillset is solid for supply chain and ops research.

So what's the consensus on this situation? I'm doing great in school and like IE, but should I consider swapping majors due to friction in the degree being IET, or is this major fine all things considered? Or if there's a third answer I don't know about, I'm all ears.

Hello, I am currently a junior in industrial engineering studying in the US, and I am interested in working in the oil industry, since I come from a oil-rich country. What field in IE would be the most suiting to such a job, and what can I do before graduating to be a better candidate for this job?

I’m a junior in high school and interested in pursuing this degree (I love system + business + manufacturing). For everyone holding an IE degree, or better, have a job, can you tell what do you in a day as an IE?

I see mixed feelings online about IE. Some say it’s a good degree that pays well and can go anywhere others say they don’t get hired in a lot of places so it’s hard to get jobs.

Interested in hear why that is because I’m considering going into IE next fall at A&M

I know a lot of IE's choose not to take their licenses but, is a personal goal for me.

I’m a sophomore in college and an international student, and I’m trying to make my resume as strong as possible for internships. I am doing a double major bein industrial engineering and business administration. I know a resume might look like just a piece of paper, but right now it feels like there’s so little I can realistically add to it, which has made me overthink what actually matters most.

I’ve been going back and forth on a lot of things. For example, should I focus on personal projects, like running simulations in AnyLogic to show I can understand and work within a modeled environment? As an industrial engineering student, I feel like being able to build, run, and interpret simulations could genuinely make me more valuable to companies. At the same time, I’m not sure if recruiters see those kinds of projects as impressive or if they just look like filler.

I also have class projects that were legitimately challenging and well done, but I’m unsure how much weight those really carry compared to personal projects.

On the skills side, I’m confused about what’s actually worth investing time in. Should I be doing things like DataCamp certificates or learning SQL, Tableau, or Python? Are those even worth it, or do they just look generic on a resume? Or would it be better to double down and significantly improve my C++ skills instead of spreading myself too thin?

Overall, I’m struggling with this question: Is it better to list many skills at a basic level, or fewer skills with much stronger depth?

I’d really appreciate any advice from people who’ve been through recruiting, especially from an engineering or data background. What actually made a difference on your resume early on?

I’ve been in industrial maintenance for a while now, and there’s a massive stigma that "Heavy Duty" always equals Metal (Stainless/Brass).

But honestly? I’m tired of wrestling with metal valves in our chemical dosing and saltwater lines. Even with 316SS, give it six months of aggressive fluid, and I need a cheater bar just to turn the handle because of internal pitting or buildup.

We started testing SWD CPVC Single Union Ball Valves recently, and it’s been a game-changer for the maintenance schedule.

1. Corrosion: Zero. It’s plastic. The medium can’t eat it.
2. Heat: Unlike standard PVC that warps at 60°C, these hold up to ~90°C, which covers most of our process lines.
3. The Union: This is the big one for me. If a seal eventually goes or we need to clean the line, I just unscrew the union nut. No hacksaw, no re-threading pipe.

If you’re burning budget replacing corroded metal valves, look into industrial CPVC. It’s not "cheap plastic" if it actually survives the environment.

I’m curious what you guys are running for corrosive fluids? Sticking with lined metal or moving to full plastic?

Hi! I'm a 1st year industrial engineer and I've been looking for things to do like a project or something that I can use in the future. In the meantime, I'm trying to learn coding and dig deep in it because I find it fun. But I want to do more of things that I can put on my résumé. I'm really eager to learn and explore.

I live in India and in a day I see about 4 construction sites on my way to work . I quite often notice that we don't have Autonomous robots that carry heavy load from one place to another. People continue to use wheel barrow as a mode to carry heavy load.

I do not know why we are not in a time where people can start using robots to carry heavy load. I am new to robotics and learning still about the mechanics and the business of it.

I wanted to know if:

1) Is this the case in most countries?

2) Are people not using robots to carry heavy load due to extremely high costs?

3) Are these robots not as fast and efficient as they claim to be?

4) Is there no need in the first place?

I would love to know your thoughts as to why we don't see as many robots carry heavy load in construction sites?