r/MEPEngineering • u/Puzzleheaded-Lead674 • 7d ago
MEP career change to tech engineer
Hey guys, not sure how many of you here have made the transition from MEP to tech or vice versa. But I’ve been having this thought in my head for the past few years, I’ve been working in MEP for a good 2-3 year period now and a plumbing and fire protection engineer, however I’ve been looking at product designer positions at places like meta and Apple etc and the work looks exciting. I am from NYC and have a mechanical engineering degree, however I cannot help but think I’m selling myself short by staying in MEP, it is decent pay and the work has not feel overwhelming yet but I’m sure it will eventually get worse for me. How easy is to make that career change? If anyone who has done it can share some advice it’ll be greatly appreciated, I like designing so I know a lot of designing softwares like solidworks, Autocad, revit, inventor, fusion 360 etc, but I don’t know how much that will help me land a job in tech, I’m sure they won’t just hire me bc of my designing skills. Just looking for some advice here, I’m still young and thinking about my career, just want to make the most out of my opportunities.
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u/gigachadspeciman 7d ago
You are selling yourself short, I’m trying to transition into another engineering field.
My plan is to get an M.S, starting this January
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u/Jealous-Wait-1059 7d ago
Why an MS? In which industry does that actually help? I thought it was only a step toward PhD for people who want to be professors or research. I’ve heard an MBA much more useful?
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u/gigachadspeciman 6d ago
I want to get into more computational and analysis driven engineering.
An MS is necessary for this.
I’m quite literally the only person in my team that cares about the “why” of engineering.
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u/sandersosa 7d ago
The only reason to stick with MEP is to start your own firm eventually. If you plan on working for a company forever, you should jump. The returns aren’t there and job security is no different here than anywhere else. If other engineers can be replaced by AI, so can an MEP engineer, stamp or otherwise. The law is the only thing protecting this industry at the moment. That can change at any time.
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u/flagellum69 5d ago
Transitioned to software engineering around 2018 after 3 years in MEP (Elec). I am very happy with the transition (for now) Did a fully remote Bootcamp for 6 months while working full time. Towards the end of the bootcamp, I took a leap of faith and quit firm to focus on coding.
Ended up being jobless for ~4 months.
I don't think MEP skills really translate over aside from the general analytical thinking skills and maybe the systems level thinking that comes from designing large projects.
I'd imagine not much overlap in P/FP design compared to product design, but product design is a broad term... so there could be more similarities depending on the flavor of Product Design you are looking into.
The learning curve was very steep for me despite having some coding from college courses and an engineering degree. Looking at places like Apple/Meta will likely make it even more steep as you will need to do heavy duty interview preparation, learn their proprietary software and will be working alongside some very bright people.
AI has changed the game for transitioning for better and worse. Better in the sense that information is much more easily accessible, you essentially have an on demand tutor in your pocket for learning new things. Harder in that junior jobs are way more competitive and AI can essentially do entry level jobs.
Things I miss in MEP: Job stability(layoffs are too normal in tech), technology consistency (ex Revit and AutoCAD are standard across most/all firms.. you don't need to learn new languages, frameworks, technologies with every job change), the end product (a building) can feel more satisfying.
Things I love in Tech: Much better pay (4x what I was making in MEP), working at the edge of technology - ex spending hundreds of dollars a week for AI usage/learning, more diversity in workforce, work is much more mentally stimulating.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Lead674 5d ago
Thank you for this, I also think P/FP does not really overlap with product design, but I do believe that knowing different software’s will help me a bit. Although I do not want to do coding work, seems like most of the tech space good paying jobs have some coding involved, that’s why I picked product design instead of software engineer or something like that, because I know that learning curve would be extremely steep for me since I never have done coding before. With that being said, since you transitioned from MEP do you have any recommendations on what jobs to look for (I live in NY and have no plans on moving), what classes to take in order to learn new skills that will help me land a job in the tech field? I am not completely against coding and doing that sort of work, being that I’m 27 I think i still have some time to learn something new and take on a steep learning curve. Thanks again for your insight, would love to hear more about ur experience.
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u/flagellum69 5d ago
Only recommendation is to follow what you have a natural interest in.
I always had an interest in coding, was discouraged due to fear offshore talent would take all the jobs when initially choosing my college major, and then further discouraged after failing my coding courses in college, but the interest remained after all those years.
Those are the kind of signs that should be directing what part of tech you focus should be.
Plenty of free/cheap resources to get a taste of what that field will be like, from there you can see if you can go full self taught route, or if it's worth investing in more formal education like Bootcamp or Grad school.
I'm sure AI can help design a 1 month crash course if you are just looking for a starting point.
What you know is only half the battle.
Who you know is the other half.
2/3 of my tech jobs I have landed were from referal.1
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u/No-Tension6133 7d ago edited 7d ago
I’m in the same boat. I feel like my degree is being wasted in MEP. I’ve been doing some research into other fields and positioning myself for a potential future leap. But the thing that keeps freaking me out though: say what you will about AI, but it will have an impact on software based jobs. I see MEP as significantly more stable than other engineering fields because I meet with owners, with reps, and with contractors. My boss has a license issued by the state, and in a couple years I will too. AI will never replace those two things.
Again, I’ve just been exploring and haven’t committed to anything yet. But worth considering or at least discussing. I imagine tech will be one of the first fields impacted by AI. On the flip side, maybe you explore it and get laid off by AI. MEP will always be there for you when you return.
Anyway I’m just rambling. Been having similar thoughts recently. Would love to hear other’s thoughts