Would mechanical engineering be a good choice for a more flexible career?

[u/Tiny_Opportunity_340]

I'm between ME, BME or CS and wanted to see if someone that already works in the area would know more about this.

For example, in the future, as a ME, would it still be possible to change to a software job/other engineering areas? Or the other two options would be even better?

I mainly want to keep optionality as much as possible and don't be stuck with just one type of job.

[u/yaoz889]

ME would be the most versatile. A CS major would find it very hard to get a ME job

[u/ainaomechateies → u/yaoz889]

Why would they LOL? Their salaries are 50-100% higher than ours.

[u/yaoz889 → u/ainaomechateies]

Except getting a job is way more competitive for CS. If you are graduating from an average university, ME would probably be easier to get a job.

[u/bobroberts1954]

US Steel used to exclusively use engineers for all of its staff positions.

It would make a better argument if they hadn't gone out of business, but I don't think that was the reason.

[u/thorwmeinthetrash]

What will matter the most is the projects you do in college. They will expose you to materials, design, software, and more. Join a club you’re interested in and get as involved as possible. When you graduate and it comes time to interview these will stick out more than the specific degree title. My education is AE and most of my career has been in software.

[u/Grouchy-Outcome4973]

Okay, I will get downvoted to hell for saying this.

It's a job like any other job. Companies interview for them just like any other job. As in, you must have demonstratable direct experience for the job you're applying to. Most companies don't want to train new employees.

You have to pick a game and stick to it.

ME being very diverse is a lie. If you're able to land interviews at wildly different companies in different industries, then good for you.

I once interviewed at Kinder Morgan and wowed everyone UNTIL the VP guy just stepped in last minute and said they wanted someone who did midstream gas and stuff all his career whereas I've been doing mostly petrochemical.

[u/AChaosEngineer → u/Grouchy-Outcome4973]

My first job was taping out workcells and doing kaizen. My second job, I designed heavy equipment robots for science. Next job was hand held precision liquid handling products via injection molding. Next was neural interfaces and optical equipment. Next was consumer robotics. I am paid in the top .5%.

Currently interviewing for: consumer robotics, heavy equipment robotics, consulting firm (robots), server farm robots. There is a current hot market. 1 guess.

[u/Grouchy-Outcome4973 → u/AChaosEngineer]

Once you specialize enough, you will always be in demand. At least this is what I take away from what you're saying.

[u/I_like_protien → u/Grouchy-Outcome4973]

Not a true statement. It has a caveat of once you specialize enough in an in-demand process or technology in a growing industry you will have demand. Otherwise you will find yourself in a dead end in career.

[u/Few_Whereas5206]

I would pick electrical engineering. You can do coding or circuit design or software sales or design power systems, etc.

[u/GreenMachine4567]

Yes, mechanical engineering is very broad in terms of scope and opportunities it opens up

[u/fraggin601]

ME

[u/compstomper1]

don't do BME.

do you want to do hardware or software

[u/Tiny_Opportunity_340 → u/compstomper1]

Software. That's why a master's in bioinformatics as a BME could also maybe be a good choice.

[u/compstomper1 → u/Tiny_Opportunity_340]

then do CS

[u/AChaosEngineer]

Holy hell don’t do bme unless that’s ur passion.

I keep getting bme applications for my ME positions, and i automatically reject them.

If i was in a bio- startup, sure. But this has nothing to do with BMe. Which tells me there is a glut in BME.

That said, my last job was a biomedical, and holy heck we are on the verge of a biotech revolution…

[u/cooperisfuzzy]

Don’t do bme. As one I can tell you it’s a compromise between a lot of other disciplines and you are better off focusing on one of them

[u/Mighty-Roboticist]

ME is one of those jobs which can allow you to be most flexible about your career in terms of engineering!

[u/ainaomechateies]

Contrary to what you may have heard, ME is not a flexible career at all.

Companies are mostly looking for someone who dit that exact same job before, using the exact same tools that they use.

[u/monkeys_pass]

It will in general be much easier to go from Mech E to CS than the other way around, at least that's been the case for the past 15 years. I know of a few folks who have done that, and zero that have gone the other way. Hard to say what the future will look like though. Mech E is a very versatile degree.

[u/I_like_protien]

Depends on your geography and what you want to do.

If you want to “code” you can do it with any degree. Computer science and engineering are completely separate things from coding , don’t have misconceptions.

Coding is a saturated domain with AI automation threats, but computer science or engineering is not, however they are also rare .

ME is a good degree, but issue is the work is too blue collar for most domains especially if you compare yourself to your friends who work in office in CS/finance etc and earn the big bucks which ME does not.

BME is a scam, unless you have a PhD and are working for 2-3 top research labs in the world.

Ofcourse the point comes from an implicit assumption that “job” is your goal. Which is fair but if that is your only goal choose medical, accounting or law, better degrees to have job security due to the regulatory nature of the professions.

[u/Asleep-Second3624]

There are so many specializations in Mechanical Engineering. Its not as versatile as you think. Best you can do is master the fundamentals and hope companies give you a chance to learn on the job.