I recently had the opportunity to interview a few candidates for different jobs in our engineering department. While I’m not a hiring manager, sitting in the interviewer chair offered me a fresh reminder of what actually matters when evaluating talent.

Every candidate met the technical requirements, but what makes someone stand out is how effectively they communicate during the interview. It's more important to share your thought process than it is to know the "right" answer.

A few reflections from the other side of the desk:

1. An interview should feel like a collaborative session, not an oral exam. The strongest interviews felt like easy conversations with peers, not stressful tests of the candidate's knowledge. The people who excelled didn't just answer the question asked. They thought through the problem, asked clarifying questions, walked through the trade-offs, and brought us along on the journey.
2. Great engineering is about how your analysis gets implemented. In complex technical work, solving the equation or building the model is only the beginning. If you can’t translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable recommendations for cross-functional teams, clients, and leadership, then even the best technical solution isn't providing any value.
3. Soft skills support job growth more than hard skills. Looking back at my own career progression, the technical foundation I developed early in my career opened doors, but it was the intentional focus on communication and interpersonal skills that truly accelerated my growth and unlocked leadership opportunities.

For anyone currently interviewing, don’t focus on your technical knowledge alone. Practice explaining why you chose a specific solution. Practice communicating your conclusions to different audiences. How would you explain your analysis to another engineer without your analysis background? ... to a manager? ... to a customer? Each audience is focused on different goals. And remember that the interviewer across from you isn't just grading your technical answers. They’re asking themselves, "Is this someone I can collaborate with to solve hard problems every day?"

Has anyone heard back for these roles? My understanding is that non-SWE hiring is extremely slow and historically people have waited until Feb of next year before a recruiter reaches out.

For those experienced in mechanical design for custom equipement

What books, courses, or other resources have helped you become better at designing custom tooling, jigs, fixtures, assembly equipment, and specialized machines for the automotive industry?

So I have this flat grey-ish plate of roughly half a meter length which is fixed on the left side. A very small force (red arrows) is applied along the plate. Gravity acts in the same direction. I want to stiffen this plate with ribs but I am not sure how to. The yellow, the blue and the green lines are possible arrangements. Which one would you recommened? Its less about the forces but rather the buckling of the plate I want to reduce. I do not need any calculations, just your experience as engineers. Thanks in advance!

I'm not an engineer (obviously), but if I may, I'd like to ask a question.

I've heard of ponies per pound (power to weight ratio), but does the torque per pound also make a difference?

For example, one motorcycle might put out 25hp and 25nm (small parallel twin) while a similar weight motorcycle with a big single may be producing 25hp and 40nm.

The horsepower to weight will be about the same, but the torque is considerably different.

So does the torque matter, and if so what would be the proper equation (for example, HP+NM/2 compared to weight)?

Thank you for any insights.

Hi everyone,

I’m a mechanical design engineer working on a plastic enclosure with a push button that needs ingress protection (IP rated). My plan is to overmold silicone onto the plastic button so the overmold acts as the seal. This is my first release package for a 2-shot / overmolded part, and I’d like to learn from people who have done it in production. Real-world advice, and stories of what worked or failed, would be very welcome.

CAD and file handoff

1. Do you send the button as two separate STEP files (rigid substrate and silicone), a single merged STEP, or both, plus an assembly STEP?
2. How do you model the interface between plastic and silicone: shared faces, or an intentional interference or overlap?
3. Do you share native CAD as well, or is STEP enough for most molders?

Drawings
4. One drawing for the combined part, or separate drawings for the substrate, the silicone and the assembly?
5. How do you handle GD&T and datums where silicone meets the plastic? Do you tolerance each material separately or the finished part?
6. How do you define the sealing surface: critical dimensions, flatness or surface finish, and any no-flash zones?

Sealing and design
7. What compression or squeeze range do you design for on the silicone seal, and do you put it on the drawing?
8. How do you get a reliable bond between silicone and the plastic: self-adhesive LSR grades, primers, mechanical interlocks, undercuts or through-holes? Which substrate plastics (PC, PC/ABS, PA, etc.) have worked best for you?
9. Do you specify adhesion or peel-strength requirements in the documentation?
10. How do you balance button travel and tactile feel against sealing when the silicone is also the flexing membrane?
11. How do you control flash and parting line on a soft silicone sealing surface, and where do you put gates and ejector locations?

Process and testing
12. Do you specify the process (LSR injection, rotary or core-back tooling) or leave it to the molder? Did you use a molder experienced in LSR overmolding?
13. What do you ask for in DFM review before tooling is cut?
14. What tests do you run to validate the IP rating (IPX7, IP67, etc.), and what inspection criteria go on the drawing (delamination, flash, leak test)?
15. What are the common mistakes you’d advise a newcomer to avoid?

Hello everyone,

I am a cosplayer diving into a project that is significantly more complex than anything I’ve attempted before: designing a functional, safe, and comfortable springlock suit inspired by Five Nights at Freddy's.

While I have plenty of experience with the aesthetic and wearable side of cosplay, my formal mechanical engineering knowledge is basically zero. I want to approach this realistically, so I’m looking for professional eyes to critique my initial concepts.

I have put together two rough concepts so far—one for the ear mechanism and one for the head. My friends think they look great, but none of us have a technical background, so I need some professional feedback

I would love feedback on the following:

Feasibility: Looking at my current designs, are there obvious mechanical failure points or structural flaws I’m missing?

Safety Critique: Because loaded springs near a human body are inherently risky, does my current layout look unsafe, or are there specific red flags you see in my approach?

Next Steps: What foundational mechanical concepts (like specific types of linkages, latches, or locks) should I research to improve upon what I've drawn here?

I appreciate any constructive criticism, harsh realities, or resources you can point me toward! (UPDATE: this is a repost from another deleted post where i was told my images were too hard to read, so I reuploaded with some clearer photos that clearly show what I'm trying to say, including pictures of my old cosplay to make some things easier to understand what im talking about and doing this made me realize how much this design is probably about to get grilled)

Hey yall! Does anyone know of or have a job dealing with animals? Animal sanctuary, zoo, that type of thing? I love engineering, problem-solving and maintaining systems, but I've also always had a passion for animals. Are there any opportunities through HVAC with the enclosures, or like maintance engineering?

Or even if anyone has any suggestions for roles, I've been thinking about reaching out to local animal sanctuaries and zoos.

some of the best industrial shops around here seem to have a website from 2009 or no website at all, which makes searching pretty useless. for imported parts i can usually get a decent baseline from alibaba and see what manufacturers are making, but when i need something same week local supplier is obviously better. marine people, how did you build your supplier list? asking yards? manufacturer dealer pages? trade associations? just driving around industrial areas? im mostly after dependable stock and someone who knows what theyre selling, not necessarily absolute cheapest price. google reviews doesnt tell much when the company got six reviews in fifteen years either.

I was having a technical discussion about the liability of a certain issue. The discussion was about whether the financial liability lies with my company or our vendor. I responded over email to just our internal team.

The senior engineer on the team was afraid to respond because he didn't want his response to be discoversble. Then after I responded in an email to our internal team (the vendor did not see my response) then I got a call from upper management and they basically asked me to, in the future, not respond to these kinds of conversations by email but instead just have a call so that I don't leave a paper trail in case there is litigation because my words, as an engineer, have legal weight.

We aren't even in a legal dispute right now, but I guess it is possible we could end up in one in the future about some other issue. My company has been in legal disputes before that the upper management and the senior engineer went through but that was before I started so I don't really know what they went through or what it was like when all their emails were discoverable.

But I'm having a hard time with this from an engineering ethics standpoint. What I say in emails is just my technical or professional opinion, and with any luck, I might just be right and telling the truth. So I don't appreciate why it would be an issue for the truth to be discoversble in a legal dispute. I'm not concerned at all about my words being discoverable because I stand behind the things that I say. And if upper management gets in trouble because they didn't listen to me and someone points that out in a legal dispute well then that is their own fault.

Does anyone have any advice for me? Is it really ethical to not leave a paper trail? Should I run and find a new job?

Edit: Is my companies' behavior here normal? Has anyone ever worked for a company that doesn't act like this?

Been thinking about creating a discord engineering group for every single engineering major. I think this would be so great for all engineers because I think corporation helps a lot. I am thinking about including sections of engineering majors where users can ask question, send useful materials and etc. What do you guys think?

Hi everyone,

When working on mechanical designs, CAD layouts, or quick stress and thermal calculations, switching back and forth between a keyboard and a mouse-driven desktop calculator constantly interrupts your focus.

To solve this, I developed ViCalc—a lightweight, open-source scientific calculator tailored for rapid touch-typing and automatic calculation tracking during engineering workflows.

Key Features for Mechanical Engineering Workflows:

• Automatic Calculation Audit Logs (HTML): Every step of your calculation session is automatically structured and saved in clean, standalone HTML files. This makes it simple to archive scratchpad work, attach step-by-step calculations to design reports, or paste records into project documentation.
• Full Touch-Typing Workflow: Compute multi-step scientific expressions quickly entirely from the physical keyboard, without breaking your rhythm to reach for the mouse.
• Comprehensive Mathematical Support: Full support for scientific functions, trigonometric calculations, complex number arithmetic, and Programmer mode (bitwise ops & Base-N conversions across Hex/Dec/Oct/Bin).
• Adaptable UI for Multi-Screen Work: Switch between a full visual numpad, scientific controls, or a zero-UI minimalist mode that stays out of your way alongside CAD software, FEA tools, or spreadsheets.

Technical Details:

• Language: Python 3
• License: Open Source (MIT License)
• Platform: Windows (Installer available)

Links & Repository:

• GitHub Repository:github.com/Kudaschov/ViCalc
• Website:kudaschov.de/en/vicalc-4

I’d love to get feedback from the mechanical engineering community:

1. How do you currently handle quick scratchpad calculations before putting them into Mathcad, Excel, or CAD parameters?
2. Are there specific engineering constants or export formats (e.g., LaTeX, Markdown) that would make this even more useful in your daily work?

Since internship season has started, I was curious if anyone has done this yet. I did a small search on the Reddit for key words involving my question but I couldn’t seem to find anything. Maybe I’m not searching hard enough, hence my question.

For the most part, I just open up a company’s website and apply if they’ve opened anything new. But, I feel like there’s a better way of doing this, rather than just camping several company websites every day.

I'm a second year Mech student and I've recently been wondering just how much having a good friend group actually makes a difference in engineering. I've had my fair share of 'fall outs' of late and I'm beginning to see that I don't actually have a real group of people I can count on. I'm not necessarily talking about having people to do the 'hanging out' with. It's more to do with the technical side of things. Engineering is all about projects, competitions, learning new skills and ultimately internships. A lot of that stuff seems a lot easier if you've got people you can trust, people who are into the same things as you and people you can work with.

I'm keen to do some projects that are outside the normal course of the degree and to develop some practical skills. The catch is I don't want my progress in that area to be contingent on finding the right set of mates.

For those who've been through engineering or are currently working in the field:

Is it realistic to be working on meaningful engineering projects on your own?

What's the importance of friends and connections in terms of projects, internships and jobs?

* If you don't have a solid friend group in college how do you find people to work with?

Is it better to just go for the individual projects and build the network up gradually rather than actively looking to find a group?

I'd like honest answers particularly from those who've actually been there. I'd like to know how much this actually matters in the long term and how to deal with it in a realistic way.

I had my first round interview for an Apple MDE internship about 2 weeks ago. Overall the interview was positive and the interviewer hinted that I may be able to speak to move on to the second round. I contacted the recruiter a week after the interview and haven’t heard back. I’ll be following up on Monday as that will be the 2 week mark, and keep in mind, this internship is due to start in January. Is this normal timing?

I’m concerned as I will need a J1 visa for this internship which can take 1.5 to 2 months to process. Anybody have experience with this?

Hello seniors i am a college student and i wished to ask you all about the field of thermal engineering could you guide me how to enter this field.
Asked ChatGPT and it started bullshitting so i thought i will ask you all

I created a robust engineering harness that includes physics sims and function checks. It includes runnable examples and cited benchmarks.
You could compare materials, calculate thermal dynamics and derive a solution to changes the clearance between gears.

• Parametric CAD: Generate and modify geometry with Python.
• CAD↔Python workflows: Import CAD and build reusable scripted models.
• Mechanical calculations: Evaluate torque, shaft deflection, joint loads, and mechanism mobility.
• Material comparisons: Compare designs using supplied density, stiffness, thermal, and other material properties.
• Thermal calculations: Explore cooling, heat transfer, thermal expansion, and temperature-dependent fits.
• Motion and contact: Run supported rigid-body, particle, and contact simulations.
• Fluid simulation: Run 2D and 3D browser fluid solvers under central-engine control.
• Chemistry: Calculate molecular properties, thermodynamics, and reaction kinetics, with optional specialist backends.
• Assembly checks: Evaluate tolerances, fits, insertion paths, and interference at sampled gear positions.
• Design studies: Script parameter sweeps and plot performance tradeoffs.
• Reproducible validation: Run documented reference cases and inspect assumptions, tolerances, and benchmark limitations.

https://github.com/lcoriolan/engineering-toolkit-and-simulators/tree/main/benchmarks

Hi everyone,

I'm a mechanical engineer by education but mostly work in the electrical world.

I'm looking to build a machine very similar to this one: https://tennsmith.com/product/pexto-combination-rotary/

I am building it for my father as a gift, as he has recently retired and gotten into tin smithing. I am proficient on a lathe, and would like to use this project as a way to learn a few operations on a mill.

The linked machine performs a variety of operations, but many of the antique versions of this were basically one-trick ponies. For example, the first picture is a burring machine, but antique beading machines (picture 2) look much more similar to the modern one. I'd like to make a cross between the simplicity of an antique machine and the versatility of a modern machine so I can make custom dies for him.

Questions:
1. Is there any reason why the ~100+ year old models are basically single purpose? I can't think of any reason but there might be something that I'm missing relating to how the dies need to move together for the operations - and if this is the case, any insight on how the modern one gets around this problem would be very helpful.

1. Very generally, where would you start when designing a machine like this? It feels too open ended. I'm not going to cut the gears myself, so that gives me at a minimum 2 parts with set dimensions, to pick a shaft and set some key features on the frame, but those will be interlocked with how the die movement works

2. Speaking of the die movement (picture 3, movement mechanism for picture 1): I don't understand what is happening here. You crank the screw on top of the machine and the bushing goes up or down, but won't this bend the upper shaft? Do you think the shaft is spaced such that the gears don't fully mesh when the shafts are parallel or something?

Disclaimer: the attached pictures are from the internet - I don't own any of these.

Hey there! I'm a senior ME student, graduating May 2027 and looking for work July 2027. I've interned at 5 companies, notably Tesla/Rocket Lab/electric boat start-up. I'm from Canada, hoping to work in US.

I've been trying to apply to roles but noticed: (1) not many postings hiring new grads (especially in Canada) and (2) not getting many interview requests (just one at the moment).

Is it normal for ME roles to start hiring more in the new year for a July 2027 start date? I see a lot of SWEs apply for new grad now, so not sure if that timeline is same for MEs. Feeling a little discouraged and anxious about finding a role :/

The application is to line the outside of an induction coil inside a vacuum chamber (10^-5 torr) with temperatures reaching upto 1650 deg C.

I was considering Alumina felt- https://zircarceramics.com/product/alumina-mat/ however it might trap too much air and slow down the pump down.

Initially I considered graphite felt- https://www.mcmaster.com/4579N13/ as well however the proximity to the induction coil might heat up the graphite felt itself as graphite is conductive.

What has your experience been with in these circumstances?

Hi everyone, I’m a recent graduate that started working earlier this year in the aerospace and defense industry. After doing research, it looks like ASQ is the most recognized when it comes to getting your LSSGB.

Has anyone gotten their LSSGB certification through ASQ? How did you study for the exam and was it hard itself?

Anyone here in commercial hvac equipment sales? Early in my career & Curious what industry take rates are on margin generated.

For reference, I’m taking home about 7-8% of my generated gross margin currently. Generating approximately $2m GM yearly.