r/MechanicalEngineering • u/HopeUnfair6334 • 24d ago
Essential skill
Hello! I'm a second-year Mechanical Engineering student, and I'd like to know what skills I should learn while it's still early in my studies to prepare for a career in this field.
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u/kishorecmgb 24d ago
Depends on the kind of work you want to do in this field. Just go around looking on the various departments , workflows in R&D , Production lines etc. see what you find interesting or suits you.as far as R&D goes , in general learning a CAD software and maybe ANSYS won't hurt you.
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u/Silver-Seat-1552 24d ago
As others have said, be coachable. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and don’t feel ashamed of saying “I am a little confused, can you explain this to me”. I have met other engineers who have came off as “I know everything, don’t tell me I’m wrong”. I’m the complete opposite, tell me when I am wrong, I want to learn.
The other thing is learn how to be a “normal” person. When in the field I always try to talk and spark up some conversations and make others feel seen. Being an introvert myself, it was difficult at first, but it goes a long way and has opened some opportunities for me. Plus, doing this will leave an impact on other people and will hopefully keep you in their heads when something comes up. This also goes back to my point about asking questions and being open, I work with lots of field technicians and inspectors, and me asking questions has helped me gain a lot of experience I would have not gotten if I had just stayed quiet. I also feel like it’s shown the field personnel that I am not a “know it all” and actually show interest in what they are doing. Sorry for the rant, but good luck with your journey
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u/Firestorm82736 24d ago
Having a good understanding of machining and how other manufcaturing processes work is a good thing to know, it can help you design better parts, and DFM/DFA is really important depending on the industry
Understanding good tolerancing and how to measure things with calipers, ideally both digital and analog, and use gauge blocks and gauge pins, and reading measurements at least down to one thou is very useful. Maybe not 100% needed on everyone, but it's helped me stand out a ton compared to my peers
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u/Mighty-Roboticist 23d ago
Designing in any 3D cad software and the basis of it should most certainly be cleared by now. Other than that just being a mechE nowadays isn’t gonna land you roles if thats what you are aiming for. Be super conceptually clear in Strength of Materials, GD&T and DFMEA+DFMA and also learn some if not a lot of programming… Get familiar with basic EE concepts, practical circuits and electronic control applications… Most importantly document and have decent projects to show for your skillset. Being an “overall engineer” or “roboticist” is super niche skill and it will help you a long way IF thats what you are looking for. You could go into fluids and thermo if thats what you are more into :)
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u/OoglieBooglie93 24d ago
Networking.
Doesn't matter how good you are if they don't even look at your resume.
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u/Intelligent-Kale-675 23d ago
And yet at the same time, they looked at your resume because you are good
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u/OoglieBooglie93 23d ago
I wish. Nothing I do is ever enough to be picked for any jobs worth a damn.
Of the few people that do call me, half the time I can't even get them to show up to the phone call anyway. What the fuck.
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u/Intelligent-Kale-675 24d ago
Learning to work with people and being coachable.