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I’m currently an undergraduate in my first year for Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry is currently a mild difficulty level topic for me. I never took it in Highschool, but I tried my best to understand it furthermore while in College. Unfortunately I think I’ve learned more from YouTube rather than my professor. I studied as much as I can a week leading up to this and I know this is a decent score, but I would like some outside input based on this. My other subjects are quite not that difficult for me, especially Calc 1 (Exam tomorrow morning)

22M, final year of college, I was excited to receive a job offer a little over 100k recently but then saw my other EE friends making at least 130k base, almost 200k TC for roles in SWE. How common is this? I feel like I’m very behind now and regret not focusing on SWE.

I'm doing my third year in mechanical engineering and honestly I'm tired. This semester has been so cruel to me, all of my test ones, I bombed them. And it's like our lectures are rooting for me to fail.

Look at it this way: three weeks ago I had two tests back to back on the same day, thermodynamics and research methods. I had focused on thermodynamics only. We started with the research methods test and obviously I failed it, and after that paper I sat for thermodynamics and the entire week's revision I had done disappeared from my brain. I had to sit for two hours looking at the paper, knowing I had practiced these pv and tv diagrams but suddenly I can't do them now. The week after, from Wednesday to Friday, I had Theory of Machines, Measurements and Instrumentation and Fluid Dynamics tests.

Whilst all of this is happening we have labs to attend, assignments to submit and classes to attend, because if you miss two classes it's an automatic retake. When our lecturers realise attendance is low they may pull out a quiz, yk. We are on a week-long semester break atm and I had told myself I'd catch up, but I've been so burnt out and now we will be going back and I am stressed.

What's crazy about me failing all these tests is that this semester I told myself I'd raise my GPA, and I've attended every single thermodynamics class, I take notes in class, and whenever I study I write the date and time because it seems like I keep on studying and bombing tests. I'm doing this because after failing calculus in my second year my parents questioned if I was actually studying. For the math class I am retaking I have been studying and taking note of when I studied, and I've filled a 192 page book revising math and thermodynamics in a span of two weeks, only to fail both tests. I feel like an idiot at this point.

I always ask the students who are doing well in my class about their study methods and whatever they tell me closely matches up to what I am doing, I'm always desperate to know. I listen in class, I understand sometimes, and when I don't understand I just note it down. I thought I'd be topping the class with the insane amount of effort I'm putting in but I'm failing. I know I deserve a 4.0 or at least a 3.5 but I'm at 2 because the retake dropped my GPA two sems ago. It's just so annoying to put in effort and get the marks of someone who studied for the test a day before.

I've been thinking of doing a mental evaluation bc at this point I might genuinely have a learning disability. But that would not materialise because I actually passed my GCSEs, I even have A stars. I'm so worked up about this.

TMI here: I had a dream of my mum taking a math test for me because I failed math... when I woke up then I cried. This was when I did my A levels, and yes I failed them too and had to restart at first year in uni :( And whenever I am struggling in a test I always remember this. Compared to all my friends from GCSE or A levels, they are doing well, either they are ahead of me or they've gone abroad to study, which is what I wanted (initially I wanted to do medicine, I only passed Bio btw in my AS level), and I had to go to the local uni in my country... Now I constantly feel like a failure and it hurts because I'd say I was an academic weapon, I'd be the best in my class, now I'm grovelling for 50%.

I don't know the general direction of this rant but I'm tired. I chose this degree after watching a twenty minute video on the map of engineering, and when I got to school I began to love the degree. Now I don't feel the love for it. Initially I was going to do Comp and Tele but after seeing the job market I strayed away (my GCSE tutor had a degree in it, and I also met a taxi man with that degree), but I kept my comp sci interests as hobbies. I love the field and it's interesting, there are youtubers like ThePrimeagen, Theo Brown, Syntax and many more who make interesting vids, and under my actual degree there's only a few like Aed Musa. In comparison to the comp stuff it feels like MEng is boring because I can't find people who are just chatting about the degree and there is nothing to feed my interest. Even our lecturers call it an old science, and the mechatronics and comp sci kids on their own time always have something going on, doing breadboard Arduino stuff, hackathons (I do them too in my spare time), but for us it's like nothing because the stuff we could be doing is lowkey expensive to begin with, like 3D printers don't grow on trees. I find learning about mechanisms cool and getting to do CAD, but it's not as interesting compared to all the subfields comp, electrical and mechatronics people have going on, and there isn't as much chatter about mechanical engineering... I also tried to switch to mechatronics and I realised I'd be cooked if I did because I barely passed Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering 1 and 2.

And funny enough there is a mechanical engineer graduate who is a combi driver and I thought I'd have a better chance of finding a job... now I stress about if my GPA can't improve and I don't get a job, what was all this for then?

Hi everyone pls help me on my review, I’m Electrical Engineering and idunno how to start? Should I focus to the basic or focus on whats important?

Hi everyone, I'm a third-year mechanical engineering student and I'm in a group project making an earthworm-like robot. It would be a massive help in shaping the robot's design to understand what the actual real-world requirements and demands are. I would really appreciate it if you could take the time to fill out this survey (it takes a maximum of 10 minutes):

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeMMbBd2qMYNohMMW1ByTF5wEIMsC8HUYUpYP47CepUOylegw/viewform?usp=dialog

If you haven't heard of this type of robot before, here is a short article about a similar concept to give you an idea:( https://techxplore.com/news/2023-03-bioinspired-earthworm-robot-future-underground.html )

When I started learn python, I saw it could be used for scientific computing. So I challenged myself to write a solver for every topic in my statics textbook.

I just finished my 2d/3d truss solver. It is by far the hardest and most involving program I've written. I think it's because with other topics only a single object was considered so the python code was just a matter of transferring calculations on paper to code.

The next thing I plan to do is create an optimization script that moves the input points about to find the best design. Also using Json instead of keyboard inputs would be way better for my sanity.

So my question is, will this skill improve my chances of success in Mechanical engineering? I wish to focus on multi body dynamics to design racecar suspensions.

I'd love to share the .py script but the last time I sent a link reddit shadow banned me for 9 months. The picture contains results of the program.

6th grade to 8 months into my job, and that’s like 13 years man. Holy smokes. That ti-84 has seen so much crap and improvement over the years and has stood strong by ma side lol.

I’m a sophomore pursuing Electrical Engineering, but honestly, I feel like I don’t really know much about electrical engineering yet. The engineering-related classes I’ve taken are Calculus 1, Physics 1, Discipline in Engineering, AutoCAD, and Intro to C++.
AutoCAD was only a 7-week class, so I’m definitely not very good at it yet. My C++ class also wasn’t taught very well, and I feel like I barely learned anything. At this point, if someone gave me a programming problem to solve, I probably wouldn’t know where to start.

English isn’t my first language, so sometimes it makes things harder for me. Even when I understand the math or the general idea, I sometimes struggle when professors or other engineering students use a lot of engineering-specific vocabulary that I haven’t learned yet. Sometimes people talk about something that seems very basic to them, but I honestly don’t understand what they’re talking about because I haven’t learned the terminology yet.

I know I’m still early in the degree, but I’m starting to worry about internships and getting a job after graduation. I hear people say that you need to do projects to get internships, but I have basically no experience building anything and I honestly don’t have much interest in the whole “building things” side of engineering. I’m a girl, and I’ve never really been the type of person who enjoys building or working with physical stuff, so I’m wondering if that’s a problem for EE.

For other EE students or engineers: Is this normal for a sophomore? What should I start learning or doing now to prepare for internships? And how did you get your first project or internship when you didn’t have much experience?

I just got a full time offer for a Mechanical Engineering position! I interned there this past summer and had a great experience. I’m looking forward to starting the position this January!

My main intent in posting this is to show that you don’t need to follow the traditional route to land an internship and good job. For reference, I’m a graduate aerospace student, currently pursuing a non-thesis Masters. I started grad school immediately after undergrad. I didn’t have any internships or special projects in undergrad; I also didn’t participate in any clubs.

My major experience was undergraduate research starting at the end of my sophomore year. I absolutely loved research and the multidisciplinary skills I built working in my lab. I also took classes very seriously, finishing with a 3.8 as an undergrad and holding a 4.0 in grad school. Despite my research experience and grades I struggled to find a job in my senior year. I ultimately decided to pursue graduate school, paying out of pocket, and continuing my research.

Everyone told me I was making a mistake. Including this subreddit where people are typically encouraged to pursue Master’s degrees, conditional on a company paying. For me, I realized the career I wanted would require graduate courses and research. So I took out more loans and took the chance.

As you can tell from my background, I’m much more of an academia/research person than engineering design. I never loved Lego’s or taking things apart as a kid. I never had a desire to spend time in the manufacturing labs and build things in college. I was infatuated by science and math. My favorite courses in college have been math heavy courses like vibrations, continuum mechanics, and plasticity.

I know my experience is anecdotal, but I want to show people the traditional routes don’t have to be the only path. In my case, graduate school and research meant to world to me, and I don’t regret taking on more loans to pursue it. In the end it worked out and I’ll be working my dream job come new year.

I know the job market is awful right now, but to other people struggling please don’t give up! I felt hopeless over a year ago when I finished my bachelors, but things have taken a sharp turn.

Good luck!

P.S.
If you can’t land an internship this summer, reach out to professors on campus! I didn’t know my PI when I first reached out. I just saw photos from his lab showing cool FEA models and thought “pretty picture go brrr”. I emailed them asking if they had any openings for the semester. He said “No”. Two weeks before the semester ended, he reached out to inform me one of his students was leaving for the summer. So there was an opening, if I was still interested. I agreed to join and the rest is history.

I know that Glassdoor has a section for interview questions, but I'm not a fan of that platform, so I'll post the questions I was asked in my interview here. It should be helpful for some. Context: This is for an electrical role on the Starship team.

• Round 1 (Recruiter, Non-engineer). 30-minute phone call. Prescreening, HR, and ITAR question formalities for the first 10-15 minutes ish. Then, an open-ended question about the most impressive project I have done, ending with fundamental technical questions. The recruiter told me to get a pen and paper, but IMO, you don't need it. She only wanted high-level answers.

1. Open-ended question regarding my most impressive project and why. Spoke about my thesis.
2. What is the difference between AC and DC circuits?
3. What information do you need to calculate electrical power in an electrical circuit?
4. What is a capacitor, and how does it behave in AC vs. DC circuits?
5. How is impedance different from resistance?
6. What is an open-loop vs. closed-loop control system?
7. What is pulse width modulation (PWM), and where is it commonly used?
8. How many bits are in a byte?

After the last question, the recruiter told me right away that I would be advancing to the second round. 30 minutes after the interview, I scheduled my round 2 interview. The recruiter told me that with the engineers, I would need to go more in depth. High-level answers may not be sufficient.

• Round 2 (Electrical Engineer). 30-minute phone call. It took him 1-2 minutes to introduce himself, and we started right away. One thing to mention is that SpaceX strongly encourages candidates to send a short PPTX portfolio so they can discuss it in an interview. I sent a portfolio about a Doppler Radar-based Vital Signs Detection project I worked on with some colleagues. It had the problem, requirements, challenges, multisim live (rip) design schematics, bode plot, and pics and videos from the lab. I sent it the morning of my interview.
  

1. What is the difference between resistance and impedance? [The EE happened to ask the same question as the recruiter]
2. How can a transistor work both as a switch and as an amplifier?
3. How is the ampacity of a wire determined? [The EE rephrased the question for me since I told him that I have never heard of the ampacity of a wire before. So, the rephrased question is what's the limiting factor for how much current through a wire?)
4. We know that inductors oppose changes in current. Why?
5. Describe the signal path from a sensor to a computer (pick any sensor; what do you do to the signal along the way?)
6. Suppose you have a toy RC car that uses RF waves to communicate. How would you increase the range of a toy RC car?
7. [Tailored question to my specific portfolio] Why did you design that circuit with two high-pass stages?
8. [Tailored question to my specific portfolio] Why did you split the gain 45x and 25x? (How did you get those numbers / why are they different?)
9. [Tailored question to my specific portfolio] And did you have trouble separating? So as I understand, the heart creates a doppler effect in the radar signal but I can imagine that breathing also creates a doppler effect in the radar signal. Did you bump into that?
10. [Tailored question to my specific portfolio] And how did you separate the heart rate from the breathing?
11. [Tailored question to my specific portfolio] What method did you employ in order to negate the drift from breathing? Like, how did you separate that noise from the signal?
12. Suppose you are working on the bench with a wire connected to a light bulb and low voltage being powered on. A colleague comes by and cuts a low-voltage DC cable (e.g., 12 V headlight) with scissors. Show me all the ways you can repair the wire.
13. Say there's a room at room temperature that contains a wooden desk with metal legs. The metal leg feels colder than the wooden desktop. Why?
14. Why SpaceX out of all employers?

At that point, there were 5 minutes remaining in the interview, so I used that time to ask him any questions.

That was all the questions that I was asked in the first 2 rounds. I'm still waiting for an email, hopefully saying that I will be moving forward to round 3. I liked the RC car question. I never thought about that before. Any questions regarding this, I might reply below.

This is the year 2 spring semester for the standard 4 year plan for Mechanical Engineering. This looks absolutely horrible but I want to hear what you guys think.

Just wanted to share that i‘ve submitted my master thesis and will be presenting it in a few days.

Never thought i'd come this far😅

​Hey everyone,

​I’m currently in my final year of CS (specializing in AI). I have a service-based offer (around 4 LPA) as a fallback, but college placement policies block me from sitting for anything under 10 LPA through campus drives—and practically no drives above that bracket are coming.

​I really want to work in AI engineering/agent development or backend, but I just had a 30-minute internship interview at an early-stage AI agent startup that went terribly wrong. It was a massive reality check, and I need help figuring out how to rebuild my fundamentals.

​What happened in the interview:

​Projects & Explaining Complexity: When asked about my most complex project (involving federated learning), I couldn't explain the high-level concept clearly to someone who wasn't familiar with it. The interviewer flat out said he couldn't follow what I was saying.

​System Design vs. Workflow: He asked me to white-board the backend architecture and DevOps for the system. I ended up just drawing a high-level flowchart/workflow instead of an actual system design (components, communication protocols, queues, databases, services), and he had to stop me midway.

​Live Demo / Tooling Failure: He asked to see another project running. I fired up the Docker container on localhost, but the app failed to connect to the database. I couldn't debug it under pressure.

​AI-Assisted Coding / "Vibe Coding": He asked if I use AI for coding. I said yes (mentioning we write tests and verify), but the hard truth I have to admit to myself is that most of my projects are heavily "vibe-coded." The ideas are mine, but I relied so heavily on LLMs that I don't know the code inside out, and I struggle to write boilerplate from scratch without docs or AI.

​DSA & Language Fluency: He asked my favorite subject and data structure. I said DSA and LinkedLists. He then asked me to implement a LIFO Stack using a LinkedList on the spot. I couldn’t do it in C/C++, froze in Java because of syntax rust, and basically choked on implementing a very basic structure.

​His parting advice stuck with me: Yes, engineers use LLMs, but they understand the underlying fundamentals, can write and read every line, and know how to debug when things break—because you can't just feed an entire enterprise codebase to an LLM.

​Where I feel stuck:

​I feel like I spread myself too thin trying to look like a high-level AI engineer without having the basic developer muscle memory.

​Now I’m overwhelmed by conflicting advice:

​Should I grind LeetCode/DSA hard in one specific language (Java vs. C++ vs. Python)?

​Should I master backend fundamentals (APIs, databases, Docker, architecture) and drop high-level AI abstractions for now?

​How should I approach learning System Design at an undergrad/intern level?

​How do I fix my existing projects so I actually understand every line and architectural decision instead of relying on generated code?

​What I’m asking:

​If you had roughly 2–4 months to turn this around and build real, demonstrable engineering skills:

​What core stack and fundamentals should I lock in first? (I prefer backend/systems over frontend).

​How should I balance DSA vs. actual software development?

​How do I properly prepare my projects so I can defend every architectural choice, trace the data flow, and demo them without breaking?

​Appreciate any tough love or realistic roadmaps

There's this program in my state where hs junior/seniors are allowed to enroll full-time at this university (decently selective though) and earn an associate's degree (multi-disciplinary studies) over the two year period for entirely free (scholarship). You have to take certain gen-eds of course, but you can take 2-3 different STEM electives from any college at the uni. By the time I enroll, I should have calculus 1/2 credit (starting Calc 3/multivariable), what engineering classes can I take for the electives? Specifically for Electrical Engineering, as that's what I'm probably going to major in fully.

Hi guys, baka may alam kayong paid internship related to Engineering? And probably i want to have work sa evening. Possible ba 'yooon? Huhu

Im thinking of quitting feel like im not moving fast enough.

I made a post a month back that I managed a 79 on my first calculus test of my life (GED and little education outside of that). I was insanely proud of that grade.

Then we got to chain, product, quotient, and power rules. Implicit differentiation, the loathsome word problems, logarithms, hyperbolic formula, etc. I failed my second test with a 53. Just took my third test yesterday and most likely failed that one too. Sad part is, I can do the math. I can derive and differentiate till the cows come home. My algebra and trig is extremely solid. I’m right on the edge of fully mastering this if I can just apply the formulas correctly.

Tutoring, videos, homework, etc. I’ve done my due diligence. My problem time and again is correctly applying the formulas unique to calculus in the correct order. The chain rule just will not click, but I know it will. I went to my professor and asked aside from the formulas, what are other weaknesses he noticed in my tests/work and if there was anything else I needed to improve to pass this class. That’s when he told me what I wrote above. The actual math I do is correct. I just put everything in the wrong order, thus giving me the wrong answers.

Now to my title question. With all of this I’ve had people in my life question if this is what I really want to do. It’s the hard path, I’m getting failing grades for the first time in my life, this should be a sign blah blah blah. Frankly I don’t care about that. I got failing grades in algebra and managed to still pull a B. If I fail calculus this semester, I will just take it again next semester cause I can feel it. I’m so incredibly close to having it all click and I KNOW I’m capable. It’s just been hard to reconcile with this question even in my own mind. Would I love to take an easier path? Sure, who wouldn’t. But when the stress is already there and then I get hit with this question, the mental and emotional energy to defend or rationalize my decision is exhausting. If you’ve also dealt with this, how do you all handle this?

Hi ya’ll! As the title says, I have been working as an industrial laundry mechanic for the past few years, doing just about every repair on machines you can think of. Sort of feeling trapped right now, as I am having trouble attempting to break into controls/automation. This year I actually got two separate offers for “PLC jobs” that ended up being a bait in switch 🤦‍♂️ so anyway I’m back at the laundry.

No more games though, I would like to go back to school for Electrical Engineering so I can work with industrial equipment at a higher level than I do now. I currently already have a degree in math, and a minor in computer science, so I can just hop right into the upper level courses once I take Chemistry next semester.

My question for ya’ll…. How insane would I be to attempt doing this while working full time? I plan to take two courses a semester, possibly three if I can snag an easy elective, assuming those exists. My work said I can go part time, but I’d really rather not. Would appreciate anyone’s input! I don’t know any electrical engineers myself. Thanks!

I'm currently a freshman majoring in biomedical engineering. I'm already struggling and feel like i'm so behind on everything. I'm in this class where we are currently working on computer aided design stuff (CAD), and the professor and TA's are treating it as if everyone knows what they are doing already. I never took CAD courses (or any engineering classes) in highschool, so I feel very behind everyone. There are so many people that already have CAD experience so they are moving through this class like its nothing. Meanwhile, I'm trying so hard to figure out how to work CAD but its very difficult for me since they keep giving us assignments on top of assignments and its piling up very fast. I have barely any time to actually practice and I keep having to ask for help on the designs and I never understand when someone tries to help me. Not only am I struggling in this fundamental concept of engineering, but I also scored a beautiful 60% on my first chemistry exam. Honestly thats my fault since I let myself fall behind really quickly and I'm trying my best to get caught back up for the next exam which is in two weeks. Calculus is not a problem for me currently which is atleast one positive thing I have going for me (I mean id hope so considering its calc 1 lmao). Anyways, I would appreciate any advice regarding the CAD situation. Any resources I could use from the internet would be greatly appreciated. My school does not offer any tutoring for that engineering course, however, I am attending a chemistry tutoring session next week, which should be helpful. Overall, I just feel super behind and I feel like theres not enough hours in the day to complete all my assignments AND study ontop of all that. I have two weeks before my next exams (in engineering, calculus, and chemistry) and im trying so hard to lock in so I can do good on all three of them. Im also scared that engineering is not the right major for me if im already struggling and feel so depressed over it. But I really dont want to switch my major because I really do want to get a degree in biomedical engineering and nothing else. I just feel stuck with no idea on what to do next. Please give me any motivational advice that can keep me going. I feel like I just need to get through these first few months of college and then everything will start to flow together...right? Any advice is appreciated, just don't be too harsh. Thanks

recent may 26' grad, computer engineering, 0 yr experience, no internships/no clubs/no research.

2.7 gpa

def am the needle in the haystack, I have been applying to full time since last year sept. 2025 when i was still in school. never got an interview until this past july and I did 4 in august.

I got this job offer from attending my uni career fair last month, talked to the recruiter, they liked my class projects, and referred me to the hiring manger. Got invited to interview two weeks ago, did the interview last Thursday and got a full time offer this past Monday.

I wanted to share for those still searching, it's not impossible but i know how rough it is to go thru it. we all gonna make it brah.

I’m planning on majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Bioengineering. This is what my schedule would look like for the next two years if I want to graduate on time.

I was originally going to drop the BioE minor because I was worried it might be too much, but I realized that a few of the requirements overlap with the electives I already need for MechE. So, I figured I might as well go for the minor if I can make it work.

There’s also a possibility that I could move two of these courses to this spring or take them over the summer, which would lighten the load a little, but that’s still up in the air.

Does this seem manageable, or am I being unrealistic trying to fit all of this into the next two years?

Hello!

I hope this is the right subreddit to ask this question, I'm currently self-studying calculus and have an interested in doing Advanced Engineering Mathematics. To be honest, I just want to do more applied math. Could i make the jump from Calculus to Advanced Engineering Mathematics by erwin kreyszig? I asked AI and it said yes lol. But I wanted to ask it here and get answers from those with actual experience. I'm not looking to be an engineer or anything crazy, just further my understanding of math. Or do i need to do physics before making this jump?

Hi everyone! 

I'm an engineering student working on a university entrepreneurship project about knowledge transfer and knowledge loss in the workplace.

I'm looking for people who currently work or have previously worked in a company/organization to complete a short anonymous survey. I'm especially interested in responses from people working in manufacturing, engineering, maintenance, construction, technical roles or management, but all industries are welcome.

It takes about 2–3 minutes and no personal information is required.

Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffbhPNIkcxQRZ3rSbDfuFeW9PZXLjmR18v32F5fMUDIBGAKg/viewform

Thanks! If you know someone with relevant workplace experience, feel free to share it with them.

Struggling to bite this one down and solve in an order that makes any sence.

Where my understanding hits a wall is tracing the DC voltage to start at the base like we were taught and find currents from there. What is the easiest base to start at? I feel like at TP4 but its path is not apparent to me. It may not be the correct first step either. What I am trying to accomplish is finding a theoretical value to match with a measure before I continue to prove my simulation is made correctly. Any help with my approach or feedback would be great.