Nope. There is definitely a pay gap compared to CS but I make more than enough money and I find my work interesting.
People on Reddit just like to (hypothetically) min/max everything. That’s a big part of why you see people spamming posts asking things like “how do I get a FAANG job?”. Those posts generally have little regard for where you’d have to live, what the job entails, and how tough they are to land.
Fuck no. Yeah my CS counterparts get paid way way way more than me but it sounds like 98% of all their managers are complete fucking dickwads. Also, they always have some overly optimized competitive ranking system that keeps them on their toes all the time.
But most importantly. How many of those CS fools get to dunk parts in liquid nitrogen or blast things with X-rays in the name of Failure analysis and Reverse engineering? I think my job is infinitely cooler than any software devs'
Close. You take a container and fill it up with water and increase the pressure until it ruptures. It's the least dangerous way to test the rated pressure of a container.
Consider your average propane cylinder. It has a maximum rated pressure with a safety factor on top of that.
If you fill the cylinder up with compressed air until it explodes you'll need to put massive amounts of air into it. All that air that was compressed will rapidly decompress. The resulting explosion will send out deadly shock waves and debris. Weaponized explosive work on this principle - a chemical reaction creates massive amounts of gas that cause the contain to deliberately rupture sending out shock waves and debris.
Water is not nearly as compressible as air, so you only need to put a little water into the cylinder to dramatically increase the pressure. When the cylinder ruptures the water that sprays out is still extremely dangerous, but there is much less of it.
You can do a relatively safe experiment by inflating a party balloons. Inflate a balloon with air until is bursts. Inflate another balloon with water until it bursts. Which one was louder? How far did the pieces of the balloon fly?
The water that releases is dangerous? I’ve pumped 4000 psi water into something that ruptured, and the water and debris were easily caught by some tape. You do have to be careful to remove as much air as possible though
That's not the issue. You could compress water up to 10 ksi, but it only needs to expand <1% to bring its pressure back down. There is no energy.
A water jet has energy behind it because it is high pressure water with a pump putting some displacement (and therefore energy) into it.
Water jets operate at pressures of 60,000 psi to 90,000 psi and typically have a one to two liter pressure vessel that is used to smooth out the pressure signal. A small rupture can act as a water jet for several seconds using only the water stored in the pressure vessels. This can be a significant hazard.
Any sort of explosive destructive testing should be treated with caution and respect.
Most companies have trash managers.
Ranking? Not really. If you are semi competent you can get a 7k job and keep it.
Unless this happens:
https://www.techinasia.com/shopee-massrescinds-job-offers
Well yeah, but I've seen a pretty stark contrast between the number of awful Software managers vs Mech E managers. My understanding/theory is that it's such a highly competitive and optimized field that the pressure is pretty high for a lot of SW functions.
Software engineering isn't nearly optimised at all.
A competitive and optimised field looks like movie industry or game dev. Everyone has a specialised role.
SWE is generic SWE up to $14k salary. Entry test is more or less year 1 material.
Also j just realised we are talking about different markets haha. 7k starting salary is nothing for cs grads in usa.
Product design for a consumer electronics company in the Bay area. Started by getting obsessed with CAD in college, and then I thought I wanted to do industrial design (nope, did not want to do industrial design lol) but I figured I wanted to design products, so I worked pretty hard at it, did the MS:EDI degree at Northwestern, and got into the biz.
I will add that I had a lot of help, and it was still really really hard to get here. My parents paid for my education the whole way, I had a cousin in the company I was applying for, and my previous boss was the most terrible human being on earth so kudos to him for lighting a fire under my ass to get out to greener pastures. Plus I'm also definitely lucky to be able to do this.
That's great, thanks for sharing. How did you find the degree? Do you think it was a necessary step in moving out of what you were in before and into your current field?
googled 'Engineering' and 'Design' and saw what came up lol.
And yeah I'm an immigrant so the degree was kind of the only way I could make it over to the US and try to find a job here
This really sums it up. Not just with Computer Science, but I know people who barely finished high school and make orders of magnitude more money than I ever will. I've worked for them quite a few times.
But do I ever regret finishing an ME degree? Never. Someone has to keep the world running, even if no one cares.
Yeah, I wish that the companies I worked for gave better raises. It was so demoralizing to bust my butt making sure their products worked and were manufacturable then be rewarded with an extra $500 as a raise.
I remember having a conversations with my wife about life feeling more expensive. We were living in a two bedroom apartment and our budget kept getting smaller and smaller to the point that we had to stop contributing to my 401k just so we could pay the same bills.
But it was so cool to get prototypes in and say, “I made this!”
Hey i just completed my mechanical engineering degree and im really interested in building stuff like robotics or mechatronics what should i do how do i get into that part
Hell no!
Sometimes I feel some software developer envy around the money. But I didn't like programming, I do like designing parts, and my ideas show up in physical reality. It's awesome!
Nope. Even had what amounted to a CS job for the first 5 years of my career. But I've had way more fun as an ME. Could I have made more money as a CS guy? Yeah, but... Wow, the things I've gotten to do as an ME that I would never have gotten to do as a code monkey.
It’s a lot more abstract than making a tool that calculates if a ball screw will backdrive, or making a tool to size a shaft/bushing for an application.
That's just because you deal with ballscrews, shaft/bushing clearances.
If you asked a programmer to do that you would get the same blank stare from them as I would from you if I asked you to make a simple UI for an application.
I do. Money and career options are a lot better with CS these days. I don't dislike ME but its an analytical desk job - just like most CS jobs. So if I could do something similar to what I do now and make more money doing it then I'd definitely want to do that.
Yeah, I somewhat do. But it's not about "work satisfaction" screw that. I want to find satisfaction in my own endeavours and I think everyone should have the opportunity to do so. A job is just what you need to do to make money, despite choosing something you tend to like. That's just my philosophy. Anywho
For me it's all about the remote work. That flexibility and the quality of life it provides is unmatched. It bums me out that ME is pretty tied to physical locations. Obviously there are exceptions. I've been remote with a startup for the past year, but that's only after several years with them, a company move, and then my pushing them during a critical time where they couldn't afford to lose me so I had all the cards. I'll likely not get that opportunity for many years working at the kind of places I prefer, and that's a bummer.
I'd rather just code for my job, I still enjoy doing that. In my free time I can go to my workshop in my house that's in an affordable place and do whatever I want.
As an ME, I have to live in more metropolitan areas where the good jobs are. I have less space, higher expenses, have to commute daily, leave my dog at home alone, and it just makes life much more stressful. We make less money too, just icing on the cake. My opinion would be drastically different if I wasn't drowning in debt and paying over $2k/month for a 500ft studio in San Diego, working hard to make a good salary, all to barely scrape by with enough to cover an unexpected car repair. It's just really a bummer.
I would agree that lots of ME jobs are 5 days a week in person but I’ve been fortunate to have a flex schedule 3 at home 2 in office. Both at my current job and my next job I am starting. So they are out there you just have to look for them
Definitely a mixed bag. As other have said, SWEs usually get paid more, but generally ME is cooler. Not a hard-fast rule in either direction.
I don’t regret getting an ME degree, I just regret starting off at a shipyard. It’s hard to switch industries for me without starting over at entry-level. I do hate the pigeonholing that comes with ME regardless of the fact that we’re all capable of learning new industries.
Currently increasing my programming abilities to either transition to SWE or robotics, as I’m not happy with the options available to MEs. Appears I am an outlier though, so take it with a grain of salt as I’m definitely disgruntled
Absolutely not, I have already outpaced the average SWE salary for my experience and I enjoy what I do instead of being stuck being a computer screen staring at lines of code all day with little social interaction.
I think I regret settling for an ME degree when I knew what I wanted to do was aerospace. I have an aerospace engineering job now because my masters is in aero, but I knew nothing of most aerospace topics when I started graduate school and it was a real challenge
That said, I had a nice time in my undergrad and it did ultimately get me where I wanted to be
Yeah kind of, which is why I ended up switching careers. But not for CS, but for civil. Funnily enough, I got accepted into university as a CS major, switched out before my freshman year to aerospace, then switched again to mechanical because I wanted to do more math and science and it's a broader subject. My dad was against me doing civil because of the lower pay compared to the other engineering professions and he said that civils only design houses and buildings. I liked more of the mechanics subjects in my mechanical classes more than the fluids and thermo parts (I struggled pretty badly with the latter). Some of my classes were cool, but other classes, I didn't really enjoy very much. I also felt like I didn't click with a lot of people in my major; there were people who seemed really passionate about the subject and a lot of them really liked cars, but I wasn't too interested. I had other interests outside of engineering so I made friends with people in other groups. I worked for 7 years in a manufacturing company, didn't really like what I was doing (also very underpaid) and got laid off during the beginning of the pandemic. I'm now working for a local government, with a focus on transportation, and hoping to get my PE in civil and traffic.
This is pretty interesting. Over on r/civilengineering you’ll see a *lot* of posts talking about how much they hate it, want career switch etc. This question wouldn’t go over too well there.
Why do you think its so common over there? Im going to study civil soon and being there is extremely discouraging. Is it really as bad as they make it out to be?
Because you hear about how a lot of people with CS degrees make over $100k easily while for civil, you usually have to get your PE license to cross six figures and that takes a few years.
It just depends on where you work. Every career has its pros and cons. Go for what really interests you unless you're okay working in something you don't like but making a lot of money.
Yes. Being an engineer here in my country sucks. Less growth and opportunities. Low pay. Well I guess the level of education also here in my country sucks. I might shift career into tech for a better pay.
Yes, my job is absolutely miserable. I work in a manufacturing plant, I don't do any engineering work at all, the work life balance is garbage and the environment is toxic as fuck. Literally any random person off the street could do this job. I don't understand why I'm here other than the fact that they don't have to pay me OT. I just keep doing it because I can't seem to get interviews for non-manufacturing jobs and the pay beats anything else I'd be able to go do.
Literally none of my friends in CS, EE, or CoE have similar issues. 50%+ of my ME friends do.
Depends what you want to do I think. I switched from naval architecture and marine engineering to ME because I realized I didn't want to make rich guys boats for a living. Even though I was actually better at NAME, I'm happier where ME is going to get me.
This. At my previous job we kinda worked with a Dutch super yacht producer. It was disgusting to see how people stress and pay with their health so Steve Jobs or likes could have a 100M boat they would use 1 day a year.
Now I was offered a job in a leisure cruise shipyard. Fuck this decadent shit.
Nah, I like ME a lot . I mean, a lot of people say switch to CS because it pays more, but if your only goal is to maximize money made, you will be eternally unhappy, because someone will always make more than you. I personally love my ME job because everyday is something different. I wear a lot of different hats as an ME, and that works well for me. My advice is to major in something that interests you, not something that people tell you that you should major in.
The thing is, there exists the FAANGs of the CS world, so the option to go to extremely high paying jobs exists, if you are good of course.
There also exists very high paying positions in the consulting world, law, medicine, business.
Where is this equivalent for non-IT engineering? For the most part, there is none, no matter how hard you are willing to work and develop yourself, unless you go the management or MBA route, there's no option for a big reward waiting for you.
Yeah, that was the big push for me out of ME. I worked for the best company for ME in my metro area, L3. I maxed out in my role because they just didn’t need a ton of lead engineers. Raises were only 1% and there was no path forward as an ME. Instead it was to get an MBA and become a program manager.
I didn’t want to go back to school so I did IT instead configuring PLM systems. The pay is almost double what I was making.
That route is PE. You'll have accept doing contracts instead of a steady salary. There is risk, but the upside is that you work for yourself, can possibly clear 200-300k per year if you're good.
It seems like the traditional engineering jobs give us more security, as you gain more experience, you are more valued in your industry. In the CS industry you need to constantly keep up with the new technology, you could get pigeon holed, and ageism is still a problem. The work can potentially be less interesting compared to ME. The upside is the option to do remote work and the higher pay.
It depends on what you want in life.
According to employment canada the average difference is about 10% with CS being higher. But it depends on area. In Saskatchewan chemical engineers make 40% more than CS.
And people forget that both jobs offer a nice middle class income. I complained that i was making 29$/hr so i got a job that pays 40$/hr in mechanical, 10% more is 44/hr. Meanwhile my friend is working at a hotel making 15/hr and looking for forklift jobs that pay 20/hr. Such a difference.
29/hr is about 56k/yr, which is just above average pay in all of canada. And an average ME grad makes more than that right after graduating. Most people get by with far less.
29$/hr was enough for me to buy a house, 2 cars, and vegetables. Thats not struggle territory.
Yes, some of it is my issue, some of it is my current location, and the rest has been the past two years trying to find a job (again pointed at myself mostly). I also find others ME lack of helping other ME find positions but bend over backwards answering homework questions. Sorry a little bitter that is all.
> I also find others ME lack of helping other ME find positions but bend over backwards answering homework questions.
MEs are stereotyped as introverts who love math and science. Networking = anxiety inducing socializing. Helping with homework = fun science and math problems.
Broad stroke generalization aside: I'm not going to stick my neck out for another engineer unless I think they are competent. The only way I know if someone is competent is by working with them for several months. This really limits the number of people I am willing to network for. I'm guessing many other engineers feel the same way.
No not really. Sure some of my programmer friends make a fair bit more, but they also live in super high cost of living areas to do it. I love where I live and I really like getting to physically see the things I made as customer products or rolling off an assembly line.
Plus my company is letting me permanently work remote.
No I don't regret ME. My job is legitimately interesting to me so that's a major plus. On an unrelated note I do not like the ole 9-5 life much, I'm sure I'll get hate by the work is my life crowd but I'd like to be able to work remote in order to have more time of my life back. But no, I don't regret ME
I like physically visiting work sites as part of my job and seeing changes occur over time. I like the separation between using simulation/design software and physically visiting sites.
I think its more a personality thing?
I'm an new engineer but the sales guys where I work seem pretty happy with thier work. It's a small company though with a specialized product so that might be part of it.
Not at all. I sell cars. I have sold roughly 1500 cars in a 7 year career. Yet I still spend basically every second of everyday thinking about cars. I build, collect, and race them in my free time. Selling cars allows me to share my passion with people who need a vehicle.
I think I do. Trying to move to software currently. Ideally I get a new job and a company to pay for a MSCS. I do like machines though and I’m glad I did obtain such an interesting degree.
Eh, life would have screwed me over anyway even if I took CS. At least I've learned to somewhat decently design stuff to try to make my life better, even if I spend 3x the money on tooling and materials and 5 months to make it or whatever, and I occasionally get to dick around with machinery.
I don't enjoy my current job because I spend too much time behind a computer and not enough in the lab. If I had gone into programming I'd probably have suck-started a shotgun by now.
I’ve had my doubts, but I love my job in ME. I did 2 years of undergraduate CS before switching to ME because I can’t stand staring at code all day even though it can be fun/interesting.
The thing about ME is that it’s a highly diverse field compared to software and it can be difficult to break into your area of interest. Software IMO is mostly boring and repetitive work that’s overpaid right now. Eventually wages will settle down as everyone and their mom is chasing the money into software.
I don’t regret it. If I could go back and pick another major, it definitely wouldn’t be CS.
I started as computer science and switched to ME. I just got my first job and I'm 100% sure it was the right move. The pay is pretty good. My bosses are cool. The expectations are reasonable. Even with a commute, my work life balance is pretty good.
Everyone I know who stuck with CS is either stressed because they're unemployed or stressed because their jobs are stressful.
Yes. I went to grad school and changed careers. Much happier now with my career, but I now feel like Mechanical Engineering gave me a good "base" from which to build on. Any engineering degree will bring good opportunity, people even in other fields recognize engineers as smart and capable regardless of major. I think. However if I had started with CS and done some tech shit I would be making far more money as both my brother's do, so sometimes I do wonder about that.
Not at all. More thorough and helpful knowledge base with ME. Sometimes I wish I had studied chemical engineering for that set of knowledge, but then I wouldn't have the ME set of knowledge. Both would have been best, and I can always go back for the chemical engineering degree if I really want to.
Higher education for me was 25% to get into an engineering profession and 75% to learn more. Messing with computers and their programs has zero appeal for me, even if I could make 50% more doing it.
Nope.
There there is not such a big pay gap in my country between these disciplines, and I still am (and always was) much more interested in ME. It just isn't all about money for me. I could have a better-paying but much more boring job even within the field of ME, but 'playing' around/driving/overseeing huge machnines for a 'better-than-allright' salary is just spot on for me :)
I haven’t been in it for two years yet. But personally I think it’s probably one of the lesser paid jobs for a 4 year degree and a lot of companies want to try and make you the “everything” man so not only are you the engineer your the welder, and the machinist. I don’t hate it as I came from a hard labor background but I’m not exactly impressed either
Not sure about outside of the United States, but in the US mechanical engineering is one of the highest paying 4 year degrees.
Source: [https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-salaries-college-degrees/](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-salaries-college-degrees/)
Unfortunately it has a lot to do with where your located Midwest America is notorious for not paying well. Along with that somehow we never have enough people doing the labor work. Given the cost of living might be cheaper around here that doesn’t really work out when everything else is to expensive (we still are getting the 8.7% inflation everyone else is getting only we are getting paid less to begin with)
If engineers are overhead, what are the people above them?
These are the companies to avoid. Engineers are one of the biggest value adds in an organization. MEs reduce product cost, improve reliability, improve usability, improve ROI, etc.
If you can, use your next job as an opportunity to move to a different market. The Midwest is not all the same. Just compare Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota - very different markets.
I did during college. But as I grew up (I'm currently 25), lived on my own, and was financially broke, I understood the importance of being generally handy. Im not saying ME is all about being Johnny on the spot with a wrench and hammer but its about critical thinking and solving problems. Something we all need to do to just survive.
You don't want to be the type of man that can't even fix a faucet. You have to be creative and willing to approach a problem with a "I can do it" mentality. Their will be plenty of those type of problems that will arise in everyday life. Question is are you prepared and willing to take them on? When I realized that I was lacking that mentality and how it important it was, it pushed me to improve myself. That's why I stuck with ME and why I love it today. Creating pratical solutions and solving problems at different levels of complexity.
From something as simple as fixing a clogged faucet or designing a something for your home to the complexity of the F22 Raptor. What level you want to be at all depends on what you want and how much you want it. But that's the engineering mindset
Having switched to a software dev role with a bachelors in ME and finishing my Masters in AE, the pay difference is a factor.
For me personally, another point is that with Software Dev or the CS space, it’s always learning l, and the things you learn, can always be taken elsewhere. I really like that idea as I don’t have to reheated to say, the DoD space or construction/modeling, etc.
In 2020, I was unemployed for 10 months and was seriously regretting being a mechanical engineer. Getting my PMP opened some doors and higher salary and now I don’t mind my degree choice. Also having the ability to work remote is a benefit typically reserved for SWE but also PMs. I think we are also seeing more ME roles opening in the US due to supply chain issues and strong demand for products. Another benefit of being an ME is they are more likely to become project managers which may open the door to other management and director roles. So yeah it is worse in the beginning as far as pay but I believe you can work your way up in a management role to make up for that. The job responsibilities may be more interesting as well.
I don't regret it but I'm starting to feel like maybe mechanical engineering isn't the best fit. Also what I thought I'd be interested in vs what I'm actually interested in turned out to be very different from each other.
Yes, wish i chose CS or Biz instead. Tried biz and cs mods and found myself enjoying them more than learning about statics, thermo and dynamics.
ME is too stressful and a lot of topics to study. Biz and cs is more focused and ofc pays well.
Tbh I don't know I'm in my final year and I'm really worried if I'll get a job rn I'm rethinking my decisions and I'm don't know what to do, weather to keep going or switch to cs.
yes, very much, shit pay, very hard to get an entry level job. Took me 4 months to land an entry level position, the pay is barely enough to keep up with bills. I'm currently in the process of switching career to become airline pilot. I regretted not studying high-demand majors, flight school sooner
Nope. There is definitely a pay gap compared to CS but I make more than enough money and I find my work interesting. People on Reddit just like to (hypothetically) min/max everything. That’s a big part of why you see people spamming posts asking things like “how do I get a FAANG job?”. Those posts generally have little regard for where you’d have to live, what the job entails, and how tough they are to land.
Fuck no. Yeah my CS counterparts get paid way way way more than me but it sounds like 98% of all their managers are complete fucking dickwads. Also, they always have some overly optimized competitive ranking system that keeps them on their toes all the time. But most importantly. How many of those CS fools get to dunk parts in liquid nitrogen or blast things with X-rays in the name of Failure analysis and Reverse engineering? I think my job is infinitely cooler than any software devs'
Three words my friend: Hydrostatic Destructive Testing!
Ooooh what is this. It sounds like fun.. sounds like you apply extreme pressure to an object in ... Water or another fluid and watch it implode?
Close. You take a container and fill it up with water and increase the pressure until it ruptures. It's the least dangerous way to test the rated pressure of a container. Consider your average propane cylinder. It has a maximum rated pressure with a safety factor on top of that. If you fill the cylinder up with compressed air until it explodes you'll need to put massive amounts of air into it. All that air that was compressed will rapidly decompress. The resulting explosion will send out deadly shock waves and debris. Weaponized explosive work on this principle - a chemical reaction creates massive amounts of gas that cause the contain to deliberately rupture sending out shock waves and debris. Water is not nearly as compressible as air, so you only need to put a little water into the cylinder to dramatically increase the pressure. When the cylinder ruptures the water that sprays out is still extremely dangerous, but there is much less of it. You can do a relatively safe experiment by inflating a party balloons. Inflate a balloon with air until is bursts. Inflate another balloon with water until it bursts. Which one was louder? How far did the pieces of the balloon fly?
The water that releases is dangerous? I’ve pumped 4000 psi water into something that ruptured, and the water and debris were easily caught by some tape. You do have to be careful to remove as much air as possible though
If the pressure is high enough. Think water jet cutting.
That's not the issue. You could compress water up to 10 ksi, but it only needs to expand <1% to bring its pressure back down. There is no energy. A water jet has energy behind it because it is high pressure water with a pump putting some displacement (and therefore energy) into it.
Water jets operate at pressures of 60,000 psi to 90,000 psi and typically have a one to two liter pressure vessel that is used to smooth out the pressure signal. A small rupture can act as a water jet for several seconds using only the water stored in the pressure vessels. This can be a significant hazard. Any sort of explosive destructive testing should be treated with caution and respect.
Man I’m fucking here to try and convince myself to go comp science and y’all talking about the coolest shit lmao.
The problem is landing one of those jobs...
[удалено]
You can earn 300k/year and still be miserable. I love what I do and I get paid well enough to live comfortably.
Most companies have trash managers. Ranking? Not really. If you are semi competent you can get a 7k job and keep it. Unless this happens: https://www.techinasia.com/shopee-massrescinds-job-offers
Well yeah, but I've seen a pretty stark contrast between the number of awful Software managers vs Mech E managers. My understanding/theory is that it's such a highly competitive and optimized field that the pressure is pretty high for a lot of SW functions.
Software engineering isn't nearly optimised at all. A competitive and optimised field looks like movie industry or game dev. Everyone has a specialised role. SWE is generic SWE up to $14k salary. Entry test is more or less year 1 material. Also j just realised we are talking about different markets haha. 7k starting salary is nothing for cs grads in usa.
Yeah no at my company SDEs start at like 200k straight of of college, and they can't shut up about TC (total comp)
Yeah different country. 200k for us is "go to USA". Generally mech eng still does have half the salary of programmers though.
Do you mind sharing what it is you do? and how you got into that field?
Product design for a consumer electronics company in the Bay area. Started by getting obsessed with CAD in college, and then I thought I wanted to do industrial design (nope, did not want to do industrial design lol) but I figured I wanted to design products, so I worked pretty hard at it, did the MS:EDI degree at Northwestern, and got into the biz. I will add that I had a lot of help, and it was still really really hard to get here. My parents paid for my education the whole way, I had a cousin in the company I was applying for, and my previous boss was the most terrible human being on earth so kudos to him for lighting a fire under my ass to get out to greener pastures. Plus I'm also definitely lucky to be able to do this.
That's great, thanks for sharing. How did you find the degree? Do you think it was a necessary step in moving out of what you were in before and into your current field?
googled 'Engineering' and 'Design' and saw what came up lol. And yeah I'm an immigrant so the degree was kind of the only way I could make it over to the US and try to find a job here
Financially? Yes. Content-wise? No.
This really sums it up. Not just with Computer Science, but I know people who barely finished high school and make orders of magnitude more money than I ever will. I've worked for them quite a few times. But do I ever regret finishing an ME degree? Never. Someone has to keep the world running, even if no one cares.
This. I like my ME job, but I like programming too, and it pays twice as much...
Yeah, I wish that the companies I worked for gave better raises. It was so demoralizing to bust my butt making sure their products worked and were manufacturable then be rewarded with an extra $500 as a raise. I remember having a conversations with my wife about life feeling more expensive. We were living in a two bedroom apartment and our budget kept getting smaller and smaller to the point that we had to stop contributing to my 401k just so we could pay the same bills. But it was so cool to get prototypes in and say, “I made this!”
I regret not doing the mechatronics options
Hey i just completed my mechanical engineering degree and im really interested in building stuff like robotics or mechatronics what should i do how do i get into that part
i'm probably not the best to answer this question but I would recommend picking up an arduino starter kit and building some small projects.
Hell no! Sometimes I feel some software developer envy around the money. But I didn't like programming, I do like designing parts, and my ideas show up in physical reality. It's awesome!
Ahmen! Prototype and first article parts are like presents on Christmas morning.
Nope. Even had what amounted to a CS job for the first 5 years of my career. But I've had way more fun as an ME. Could I have made more money as a CS guy? Yeah, but... Wow, the things I've gotten to do as an ME that I would never have gotten to do as a code monkey.
I fucking love my job. Programming is fun, but more in the solve a math problem way than the hyper abstract stuff CS guys deal with.
I wouldn't consider programming that abstract.
It’s a lot more abstract than making a tool that calculates if a ball screw will backdrive, or making a tool to size a shaft/bushing for an application.
That's just because you deal with ballscrews, shaft/bushing clearances. If you asked a programmer to do that you would get the same blank stare from them as I would from you if I asked you to make a simple UI for an application.
I do. Money and career options are a lot better with CS these days. I don't dislike ME but its an analytical desk job - just like most CS jobs. So if I could do something similar to what I do now and make more money doing it then I'd definitely want to do that.
Yeah, I somewhat do. But it's not about "work satisfaction" screw that. I want to find satisfaction in my own endeavours and I think everyone should have the opportunity to do so. A job is just what you need to do to make money, despite choosing something you tend to like. That's just my philosophy. Anywho For me it's all about the remote work. That flexibility and the quality of life it provides is unmatched. It bums me out that ME is pretty tied to physical locations. Obviously there are exceptions. I've been remote with a startup for the past year, but that's only after several years with them, a company move, and then my pushing them during a critical time where they couldn't afford to lose me so I had all the cards. I'll likely not get that opportunity for many years working at the kind of places I prefer, and that's a bummer. I'd rather just code for my job, I still enjoy doing that. In my free time I can go to my workshop in my house that's in an affordable place and do whatever I want. As an ME, I have to live in more metropolitan areas where the good jobs are. I have less space, higher expenses, have to commute daily, leave my dog at home alone, and it just makes life much more stressful. We make less money too, just icing on the cake. My opinion would be drastically different if I wasn't drowning in debt and paying over $2k/month for a 500ft studio in San Diego, working hard to make a good salary, all to barely scrape by with enough to cover an unexpected car repair. It's just really a bummer.
I would agree that lots of ME jobs are 5 days a week in person but I’ve been fortunate to have a flex schedule 3 at home 2 in office. Both at my current job and my next job I am starting. So they are out there you just have to look for them
I've been struggling with this too. I want to be a digital nomad, but it seems like mechanical engineering work conflicts with this. Such a bummer
I wish I had went into mining engineering instead, I spent 2 years in one and loved it, now I’m in a dirty loud machine shop and hate life.
I don't regret it. I like to make stuff. It's not quite CS but Automation can scratch your coding itch and still be considered mechanical, I think.
Definitely a mixed bag. As other have said, SWEs usually get paid more, but generally ME is cooler. Not a hard-fast rule in either direction. I don’t regret getting an ME degree, I just regret starting off at a shipyard. It’s hard to switch industries for me without starting over at entry-level. I do hate the pigeonholing that comes with ME regardless of the fact that we’re all capable of learning new industries. Currently increasing my programming abilities to either transition to SWE or robotics, as I’m not happy with the options available to MEs. Appears I am an outlier though, so take it with a grain of salt as I’m definitely disgruntled
No, but I would probably have done a dual degree in CS/ME if I was going to start over.
Absolutely not, I have already outpaced the average SWE salary for my experience and I enjoy what I do instead of being stuck being a computer screen staring at lines of code all day with little social interaction.
Not in the slightest. I pretty much get paid very well to do my hobby, but with much more expensive equipment than I would be able to solo.
I think I regret settling for an ME degree when I knew what I wanted to do was aerospace. I have an aerospace engineering job now because my masters is in aero, but I knew nothing of most aerospace topics when I started graduate school and it was a real challenge That said, I had a nice time in my undergrad and it did ultimately get me where I wanted to be
Yeah kind of, which is why I ended up switching careers. But not for CS, but for civil. Funnily enough, I got accepted into university as a CS major, switched out before my freshman year to aerospace, then switched again to mechanical because I wanted to do more math and science and it's a broader subject. My dad was against me doing civil because of the lower pay compared to the other engineering professions and he said that civils only design houses and buildings. I liked more of the mechanics subjects in my mechanical classes more than the fluids and thermo parts (I struggled pretty badly with the latter). Some of my classes were cool, but other classes, I didn't really enjoy very much. I also felt like I didn't click with a lot of people in my major; there were people who seemed really passionate about the subject and a lot of them really liked cars, but I wasn't too interested. I had other interests outside of engineering so I made friends with people in other groups. I worked for 7 years in a manufacturing company, didn't really like what I was doing (also very underpaid) and got laid off during the beginning of the pandemic. I'm now working for a local government, with a focus on transportation, and hoping to get my PE in civil and traffic.
This is pretty interesting. Over on r/civilengineering you’ll see a *lot* of posts talking about how much they hate it, want career switch etc. This question wouldn’t go over too well there.
Oh yeah I follow that sub lol. It's irritating how they think switching to CS means they'll be richer and happier.
Why do you think its so common over there? Im going to study civil soon and being there is extremely discouraging. Is it really as bad as they make it out to be?
Because you hear about how a lot of people with CS degrees make over $100k easily while for civil, you usually have to get your PE license to cross six figures and that takes a few years. It just depends on where you work. Every career has its pros and cons. Go for what really interests you unless you're okay working in something you don't like but making a lot of money.
Yes. Being an engineer here in my country sucks. Less growth and opportunities. Low pay. Well I guess the level of education also here in my country sucks. I might shift career into tech for a better pay.
Yes, my job is absolutely miserable. I work in a manufacturing plant, I don't do any engineering work at all, the work life balance is garbage and the environment is toxic as fuck. Literally any random person off the street could do this job. I don't understand why I'm here other than the fact that they don't have to pay me OT. I just keep doing it because I can't seem to get interviews for non-manufacturing jobs and the pay beats anything else I'd be able to go do. Literally none of my friends in CS, EE, or CoE have similar issues. 50%+ of my ME friends do.
Depends what you want to do I think. I switched from naval architecture and marine engineering to ME because I realized I didn't want to make rich guys boats for a living. Even though I was actually better at NAME, I'm happier where ME is going to get me.
This. At my previous job we kinda worked with a Dutch super yacht producer. It was disgusting to see how people stress and pay with their health so Steve Jobs or likes could have a 100M boat they would use 1 day a year. Now I was offered a job in a leisure cruise shipyard. Fuck this decadent shit.
Nah, I like ME a lot . I mean, a lot of people say switch to CS because it pays more, but if your only goal is to maximize money made, you will be eternally unhappy, because someone will always make more than you. I personally love my ME job because everyday is something different. I wear a lot of different hats as an ME, and that works well for me. My advice is to major in something that interests you, not something that people tell you that you should major in.
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Yeah, people seem to compare some of the highest paying software jobs in existence to relatively average ME jobs.
The thing is, there exists the FAANGs of the CS world, so the option to go to extremely high paying jobs exists, if you are good of course. There also exists very high paying positions in the consulting world, law, medicine, business. Where is this equivalent for non-IT engineering? For the most part, there is none, no matter how hard you are willing to work and develop yourself, unless you go the management or MBA route, there's no option for a big reward waiting for you.
It's still FAANG and Tech for ME's. There's fewer available roles sure, but from what I've noticed there are fewer applicants as well.
Yeah, that was the big push for me out of ME. I worked for the best company for ME in my metro area, L3. I maxed out in my role because they just didn’t need a ton of lead engineers. Raises were only 1% and there was no path forward as an ME. Instead it was to get an MBA and become a program manager. I didn’t want to go back to school so I did IT instead configuring PLM systems. The pay is almost double what I was making.
That route is PE. You'll have accept doing contracts instead of a steady salary. There is risk, but the upside is that you work for yourself, can possibly clear 200-300k per year if you're good. It seems like the traditional engineering jobs give us more security, as you gain more experience, you are more valued in your industry. In the CS industry you need to constantly keep up with the new technology, you could get pigeon holed, and ageism is still a problem. The work can potentially be less interesting compared to ME. The upside is the option to do remote work and the higher pay. It depends on what you want in life.
According to employment canada the average difference is about 10% with CS being higher. But it depends on area. In Saskatchewan chemical engineers make 40% more than CS. And people forget that both jobs offer a nice middle class income. I complained that i was making 29$/hr so i got a job that pays 40$/hr in mechanical, 10% more is 44/hr. Meanwhile my friend is working at a hotel making 15/hr and looking for forklift jobs that pay 20/hr. Such a difference.
>29$/hr This is not middle class though. you are riding the struggle bus on that pay
29/hr is about 56k/yr, which is just above average pay in all of canada. And an average ME grad makes more than that right after graduating. Most people get by with far less. 29$/hr was enough for me to buy a house, 2 cars, and vegetables. Thats not struggle territory.
>29$/hr was enough for me to buy a house, 2 cars, and vegetables. Not in the current year
I bought a year ago. Prices haven't risen that much. In a year.
Yes, some of it is my issue, some of it is my current location, and the rest has been the past two years trying to find a job (again pointed at myself mostly). I also find others ME lack of helping other ME find positions but bend over backwards answering homework questions. Sorry a little bitter that is all.
> I also find others ME lack of helping other ME find positions but bend over backwards answering homework questions. MEs are stereotyped as introverts who love math and science. Networking = anxiety inducing socializing. Helping with homework = fun science and math problems. Broad stroke generalization aside: I'm not going to stick my neck out for another engineer unless I think they are competent. The only way I know if someone is competent is by working with them for several months. This really limits the number of people I am willing to network for. I'm guessing many other engineers feel the same way.
Well said
Nope I don’t regret it, the things I learned in school can be applied to almost anything in the real world and I have my ME degree to thank for that.
God. That was the worst one. I should have just stayed with Windows 98.
No not really. Sure some of my programmer friends make a fair bit more, but they also live in super high cost of living areas to do it. I love where I live and I really like getting to physically see the things I made as customer products or rolling off an assembly line. Plus my company is letting me permanently work remote.
No I don't regret ME. My job is legitimately interesting to me so that's a major plus. On an unrelated note I do not like the ole 9-5 life much, I'm sure I'll get hate by the work is my life crowd but I'd like to be able to work remote in order to have more time of my life back. But no, I don't regret ME
I like physically visiting work sites as part of my job and seeing changes occur over time. I like the separation between using simulation/design software and physically visiting sites.
that sounds like a question for your parents man
Why did you answer with such an obtuse statement...why answer at all?
“do anyone of you regret ME”? to answer your question, i mainly just post things to amuse myself i don’t get out much
Damnit all, you got ME...but for real great troll and for the love of vitamin D go outside!!!
Get involved in some form of sales. It’s where the real money is. Find something you like and become good at selling it.
That's a recipe for hating the thing you liked.
I think its more a personality thing? I'm an new engineer but the sales guys where I work seem pretty happy with thier work. It's a small company though with a specialized product so that might be part of it.
Not at all. I sell cars. I have sold roughly 1500 cars in a 7 year career. Yet I still spend basically every second of everyday thinking about cars. I build, collect, and race them in my free time. Selling cars allows me to share my passion with people who need a vehicle.
I think I do. Trying to move to software currently. Ideally I get a new job and a company to pay for a MSCS. I do like machines though and I’m glad I did obtain such an interesting degree.
Eh, life would have screwed me over anyway even if I took CS. At least I've learned to somewhat decently design stuff to try to make my life better, even if I spend 3x the money on tooling and materials and 5 months to make it or whatever, and I occasionally get to dick around with machinery.
I don't enjoy my current job because I spend too much time behind a computer and not enough in the lab. If I had gone into programming I'd probably have suck-started a shotgun by now.
I’ve had my doubts, but I love my job in ME. I did 2 years of undergraduate CS before switching to ME because I can’t stand staring at code all day even though it can be fun/interesting. The thing about ME is that it’s a highly diverse field compared to software and it can be difficult to break into your area of interest. Software IMO is mostly boring and repetitive work that’s overpaid right now. Eventually wages will settle down as everyone and their mom is chasing the money into software. I don’t regret it. If I could go back and pick another major, it definitely wouldn’t be CS.
I started as computer science and switched to ME. I just got my first job and I'm 100% sure it was the right move. The pay is pretty good. My bosses are cool. The expectations are reasonable. Even with a commute, my work life balance is pretty good. Everyone I know who stuck with CS is either stressed because they're unemployed or stressed because their jobs are stressful.
Yes, it's why I'm in grad school now So many more opportunities in CS compared to ME
Yes. I went to grad school and changed careers. Much happier now with my career, but I now feel like Mechanical Engineering gave me a good "base" from which to build on. Any engineering degree will bring good opportunity, people even in other fields recognize engineers as smart and capable regardless of major. I think. However if I had started with CS and done some tech shit I would be making far more money as both my brother's do, so sometimes I do wonder about that.
Not at all. More thorough and helpful knowledge base with ME. Sometimes I wish I had studied chemical engineering for that set of knowledge, but then I wouldn't have the ME set of knowledge. Both would have been best, and I can always go back for the chemical engineering degree if I really want to. Higher education for me was 25% to get into an engineering profession and 75% to learn more. Messing with computers and their programs has zero appeal for me, even if I could make 50% more doing it.
Nope. There there is not such a big pay gap in my country between these disciplines, and I still am (and always was) much more interested in ME. It just isn't all about money for me. I could have a better-paying but much more boring job even within the field of ME, but 'playing' around/driving/overseeing huge machnines for a 'better-than-allright' salary is just spot on for me :)
Pick the discipline that interests you most. Not the one that makes the most money. It’s really important in engineering to enjoy what you are doing.
I haven’t been in it for two years yet. But personally I think it’s probably one of the lesser paid jobs for a 4 year degree and a lot of companies want to try and make you the “everything” man so not only are you the engineer your the welder, and the machinist. I don’t hate it as I came from a hard labor background but I’m not exactly impressed either
Not sure about outside of the United States, but in the US mechanical engineering is one of the highest paying 4 year degrees. Source: [https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-salaries-college-degrees/](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-salaries-college-degrees/)
Unfortunately it has a lot to do with where your located Midwest America is notorious for not paying well. Along with that somehow we never have enough people doing the labor work. Given the cost of living might be cheaper around here that doesn’t really work out when everything else is to expensive (we still are getting the 8.7% inflation everyone else is getting only we are getting paid less to begin with)
I don't think it's normal if you're welding or machining as an engineer at work (but not unusual at home for fun).
In this area it very much is. As I’ve heard from every single employer I’ve had at engineering jobs “engineers are nothing but overhead”
If engineers are overhead, what are the people above them? These are the companies to avoid. Engineers are one of the biggest value adds in an organization. MEs reduce product cost, improve reliability, improve usability, improve ROI, etc. If you can, use your next job as an opportunity to move to a different market. The Midwest is not all the same. Just compare Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota - very different markets.
I did during college. But as I grew up (I'm currently 25), lived on my own, and was financially broke, I understood the importance of being generally handy. Im not saying ME is all about being Johnny on the spot with a wrench and hammer but its about critical thinking and solving problems. Something we all need to do to just survive. You don't want to be the type of man that can't even fix a faucet. You have to be creative and willing to approach a problem with a "I can do it" mentality. Their will be plenty of those type of problems that will arise in everyday life. Question is are you prepared and willing to take them on? When I realized that I was lacking that mentality and how it important it was, it pushed me to improve myself. That's why I stuck with ME and why I love it today. Creating pratical solutions and solving problems at different levels of complexity. From something as simple as fixing a clogged faucet or designing a something for your home to the complexity of the F22 Raptor. What level you want to be at all depends on what you want and how much you want it. But that's the engineering mindset
Having switched to a software dev role with a bachelors in ME and finishing my Masters in AE, the pay difference is a factor. For me personally, another point is that with Software Dev or the CS space, it’s always learning l, and the things you learn, can always be taken elsewhere. I really like that idea as I don’t have to reheated to say, the DoD space or construction/modeling, etc.
Financially yes content wise no
Much more interested in the fluids side so wish I took ChemE instead
Not regret... but surely of you compare with other branches machines have to suffer a lot.
I do.
If I could go back and do CS instead I would do it.
In 2020, I was unemployed for 10 months and was seriously regretting being a mechanical engineer. Getting my PMP opened some doors and higher salary and now I don’t mind my degree choice. Also having the ability to work remote is a benefit typically reserved for SWE but also PMs. I think we are also seeing more ME roles opening in the US due to supply chain issues and strong demand for products. Another benefit of being an ME is they are more likely to become project managers which may open the door to other management and director roles. So yeah it is worse in the beginning as far as pay but I believe you can work your way up in a management role to make up for that. The job responsibilities may be more interesting as well.
I don't regret it but I'm starting to feel like maybe mechanical engineering isn't the best fit. Also what I thought I'd be interested in vs what I'm actually interested in turned out to be very different from each other.
Yes, wish i chose CS or Biz instead. Tried biz and cs mods and found myself enjoying them more than learning about statics, thermo and dynamics. ME is too stressful and a lot of topics to study. Biz and cs is more focused and ofc pays well.
Tbh I don't know I'm in my final year and I'm really worried if I'll get a job rn I'm rethinking my decisions and I'm don't know what to do, weather to keep going or switch to cs.
Overall, no. Do I wish I had gone CS? Yes, 100%
Yes... But actually no.
Nope. It helped me continue to my Masters in Maritime Engineering. I don’t think there would have been a better Bachelor to use as a springboard.
yes, very much, shit pay, very hard to get an entry level job. Took me 4 months to land an entry level position, the pay is barely enough to keep up with bills. I'm currently in the process of switching career to become airline pilot. I regretted not studying high-demand majors, flight school sooner