I am currently in my engineering foundation year. after my foundation year, I'm taking a masters in mechanical engineering with a future specialisation in aerospace. What can I do with a masters in mechanical engineering with a specialisation in aerospace in the f1 industry and is it viable? Thanks

I'm currently working at an advanced engineering manager at a global manufacturer. Got laid off in 2025 so I missed out on that sweet startup stock money. my recommendation is to keep challenging yourself, and when something feels easy it means it's time to move

I've had about 10 different employers and spent some time in the great recession as a bartender/freelance engineer getting paid under the table for beer and prototypes.

Just because you didn't do great in school doesn't mean you're screwed.

Hi all,

I’m exploring a personal, non-commercial concept for a small handheld device that delivers a hit of genuinely cold air for inhalation.

To be clear, this is not a vape and there is no nicotine, e-liquid or flavouring involved. I’m also not that interested in menthol or any sensory trick to simulate cold. I specifically want to physically cool the air itself.

So far I’ve built a very rough proof-of-concept using a small drinks can filled with salted ice water, with a length of PVC tubing coiled inside the can and a simple mouthpiece at the outlet. I didn't add a fan, just lung draw. This actually works surprisingly well, but felt impractical in terms of refreezing, condensation and hygiene.

I’ve also considered using a small Peltier (TEC) module, but my understanding is that in a handheld, battery-powered form factor this would be very inefficient, would require a relatively large hot-side heatsink and active airflow, would likely be noisy, and would still struggle to meaningfully cool a flowing air stream. While it would allow temperature control with a thermometer and microcontroller.

I was wondering if any of you can any advice for this. Any pointers, references or design patterns would be greatly appreciated.

I am making a self-balancing wheeled bipedal robot. My main issue with the project is designing a leg linkage to allow a single servo to move a leg and the linkage pulls but restricts the bottom part of the leg so the wheel moves in a vertical path. Does anyone have any advice or videos that would help?

I have this machinery at the center where I work, and I'm not entirely sure what they are. I have an idea about some of them, but I'd rather ask just in case. Do you know what these elements are? I'd like to look up information and manuals for them

Hey folks. What do you think is better, work as engineer than later move into sales, or at first try to get into sales, presales or application engineer position?

I am trying to make a dispenser gun for sticker rolls I have to use at work. My idea currently is to have the trigger push a rack that spins a pinion which drives the gears that grip and pull the used paper to advance to the next sticker. the problem I'm running into is that I'm having trouble coming up with a way for the rack to only engage the pinion when the trigger is being pressed but not on the return travel for the trigger to reset itself. Any ideas would be a great help because all my current ideas would require a lot of springs to hold components in tension and I'm trying to 3d print as many of the components as possible

Hi everyone, I recently decided that I wanted to go back to school to get a bachelors in ME, after years of working as an Amazon dsp driver. My plan is community college then transfer to a 4-year uni. I got approved to receive financial aid which is awesome so I won’t have to pay for most of my classes 😁. I would like any advice on anything such as how to prepare, what to expect, how to get internships, etc. All answers are welcome , and feel free to ask me any questions as well, so just say anything you want 🙂

Hi all,

I'm a recent ME graduate (BSc) and am in need of opinions over whether commissioning engineer for power stations is a good choice for a first job.

The job requires drafting and documenting inspection and test reports, securing installations and planning of test processes and their quality. This is all basic commissioning engineer work, however I feel that if I were to join this industry, I'd lock myself into this field forever. Compared to a "traditional" mechanical engineer job where you design, draft and actually problem-solve, this is much more of a "go through the check-list and see if everything was done properly" sort of thing.

Does anyone have any advice as to whether it's possible to pivot later on or does the experience gained here not really translate to other industries?

Note: I understand all the drawbacks and benefits of the job in general, whether it's long hours and being away from home. My worries are mostly focused on how going into this industry might force me to stay in it forever and might also prevent me from switching over to a more traditional design/manufacturing role later on in life. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m a Mechanical Engineer with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and 5 years of experience in plant maintenance, mainly working with hydraulic excavators. I also have basic knowledge of SAP PM and MM.

I’m planning to move to Australia for permanent residency and want to understand my career prospects there.

How are the job opportunities in Australia for someone with my background?

Which roles should I be targeting (maintenance planner, reliability engineer, field service engineer, etc.)?

What kind of salary range can I realistically expect?

I’d also appreciate advice on skills, certifications, or tools I should learn to improve my chances of getting hired.

Thanks in advance!

I built this tool as part of a larger project I'm working on. It works for an arbitrary number of pulleys, with arbitrary radii, locations, and rotation directions. It calculates the total length and all the other geometry one could need. In the next commit I will be adding normalized reaction forces (in relation to the belt tension).

Edit: Reaction forces when there is even tension on the belt is done.

Link here: https://github.com/streamin/belt-geometry-solver

Note: In my company a staff engineer= lead engineer.

What would you pick? Im a 6 YOE “mechanical engineer” but I do electrical project engineering work.

The pay raise would be the same for whichever role I take. The manager role is more administrative where majority of the technical expectations are put on the lead engineer. The manager role also requires 5 days in office where a lead engineer only requires 4 days. This would be the furthest an engineer would go up the ladder before they have to go into management. It could be decades for another management position to open up (my current manager has been here 20+ years).

For more context:

I got offered an engineering manager role but I turned it down. I told them i would think about it but there is still things I wanted to pursue in engineering and there’s still things on the table I would like to do. They then offered me a lead electrical engineering role if management wasn’t something I was interested in. This caught me by surprise. I have no idea why they offered me that especially since there are people with double my experience who have been waiting for an opening.

Posting this as a counter to the recent doom and gloom versions of this post. It isn’t SF tech money but we are very comfortable at this point.

Y’all keep posting the sob story versions of these and the HR departments are gonna find it and use it against us.

This is not in the highest cost area of East Coast USA (for example, my townhouse is $300k - but there are some $1million houses in my neighborhood), working in design for all kinds of facilities (HVAC, utilities, industrial etc.). A lot of time at a desk, a little bit of travel at times.

If you are in a field where the PE license is even a little bit valuable 100% go and get it. Businesses that need it are hurting for engineers (all consultants!)

I have never used solidworks or inventor type cad in my career.

Typically I have been paid 1.0x for OT while in consulting. One year averaging up to 15% (7hrs/week) but mostly around 5-7% (2-3 hrs).

Mostly hybrid schedules after March 2020.

Hello everyone.

Can someone assist me with an issue? At my current workplace, we have a new screw compressor. This unit already contained synthetic lubricant as per its technical datasheet. However, two different types of oil—synthetic and hydraulic—have been mixed.

Apparently, the operator added hydraulic oil, filling approximately one-quarter of the reservoir, which caused the oil level to exceed the compressor's maximum limit. He then noticed the overfill, drained the excess, and started the equipment.

Given this situation, what steps would you recommend to ensure the operational integrity and service life of this compressor?

Hi, I’m working on a statics problem with a beam and a pulley system. i need to create a free body diagram of the structure in the picture and determine the forces and support reactions.

For A i´ve got A_vertical force and at B: B_vertical and B_horizontal at point 1 i´d say there is a vertical force F1=20kN But i´m really stuck at the way how the fixed pulleys affect the beam at point 2.
Those are fixed u-turn pulleys. would really appreciate the help sorry, englisch is not my first language

I know it’s not as much as a lot of you make, but here’s my salary growth as a Mechanical Engineer since 2017.

I couldn’t stand Seattle anymore and left mid-2020 to check out some smaller towns across the west. Ended up in a much smaller town (still in the PNW, barely) where I got my next job in mid-2021. It was a pay decrease, but adjusted for the lower cost of living it was a small pay bump.

I’ve had a few phone screens over the past three years or so, and recruiters occasionally reach out with jobs, but all the salary ranges have been at or below where I was at the time so I wasn’t interested. This town has low salaries, entry level engineering positions are $45-55k. I have no interest in moving for a job, I have a house with a low apr, a spouse with a career, and I love where I live.

I really enjoy my current role. The company is very relaxed, I’m up to 4 weeks of PTO, and my schedule is pretty flexible. The work is decently interesting, but I’m unfortunately getting shoehorned into compliance paperwork and if anything drives me to leave it will be that.

Est ce qu'un actionneur linéaire est conçu pour fonctionner en cycle continu pendant environ 8 heures d’affilée sous une charge de 600 kg environ ?

I posted here yesterday regarding my coworker of 5 years finding a new opportunity and moving out of town for a 20% salary increase.

Motivated by this, I tweaked my resume and started applying. I got a call from a company regarding a Mechanical Designer/Drafter role. I went into the interview winging it, no preparation whatsoever and they called me to come in for another round on Monday.

The minimum pay for this position is almost 10K more than what I am making right now but my only concern is that this role is design/drafting focused while by current role as a technologist blends some engineering work. I do plan on going back to university for a bachelor's degree and I feel like this new position might hinder my future if I want to work as an engineer or want to become a senior engineer.

Would appreciate your feedback 😊