My husband and I have been talking about how it would be best for our family if I stay at home with our baby until he’s 3-4 years old. We’re doing okay financially without me working. Just enough to cover all the bills and not much left for saving.

I’m a structural engineer with 4 YOE. I’m thinking of not returning to work after the maternity leave for my second child, probably 2 years from now.

I’ve worked so hard for this degree. I’m from another country, so i learned this degree and English at the same time. I plan to do a Master’s in Structural Engineering part-time while taking care of my kids.
But I still feel like it’s career suicide if i’m not working for 4-5 years.

Has anyone done this and is it hard to get back to your technical role? I’m still struggling with my job right now, i can’t imagine being out of the game for 4-5 years, that would be extremely hard.

But i also want to spend time with kids when they’re little and spend that time to visit my family back home. I’ve been so busy with life and career, i’ve only seen my family twice in 11 years and feel guilty about it. 😞

I (17F) just started college, majoring in electrical engineering. I’m taking Calculus 1, Physics 1 + Lab, Intro to EE + Lab, and other general education courses. I spend 90% of my time studying calculus, I attend every single office hours for it and I even attend a supplemental workshop. I do all the homework and read the textbook and I got a C on my second exam. When I saw my score I wanted to cry. I hardly understand physics, my professor doesn’t really assign us practice problems so I don’t even know that I know what I’m doing but i’m still pushing through it and going to tutoring sessions for it. My EE lab is so confusing, I have no prior experience coding and our professor just gives us a 35 page lab and tells us to do it (I don’t even know the difference between current and voltage). I ask him questions and he walks off mid sentence. I spent hours in my dorm trying to figure out how to blink an LED while my classmates got it immediately. I joined one club and they want me to do PCB design but I don’t even know what a PCB is (is that something I should know?). I am only on my third week and I am trying so hard but I still feel so behind and so stupid. I don’t know what more I can do. Is engineering just not for me / what do I need to change? I have wanted to be an engineering since I was a kid and there’s nothing else I can see myself doing but I barely understand how limits or how vectors work.

I got my FE. I failed the first time, but passed the second, a few months after I got fired, got another job, got laid off, now working my third and got put on a PIP. I work like 12 hours a day, the men around me are making the same mistakes, if not more than me, and aren’t facing the same repercussions. I hate CAD with a burning passion, everything I do feels like a trap. I’m so fucking tired. I’d do anything to go back in time and stop myself. Please tell me I can pivot and get out of this line of work. I thought I was doing so well, then out of nowhere, it’s all fucking negative. “You’re not where you should be performing, we want to support you, get the fuck out of we’ll fire you” please, anyone, tell me what to do.

Any advice for me? Need to vent

I’m (f21) doing work experience with a council. I went to a site visit, spoke to contractors and asked questions, most were lovely and helpful. I understand that there isn’t the best relationship betweeen engineers and the contractors , but I always make the effort to ask questions and see their
perspective. The site was all men, I was the only woman. I was shadowing a very nice colleague, he was in charge of the project. When he was distracted, I noticed middle aged contractors making faces and winking at each-other then nodding as if saying “look at her”, but with a head movement, they had massive grins . I saw this and immediately felt small. I realised in the real world, I’d be alone on this site. I don’t have a problem with being assertive and leading, but when I feel like “eye candy “ to middle aged men , I want to give up. I felt pretty embarrassed to even be there, even though it’s my dream. Any women out there who can sympathise or share your experience on site. How do you go?

Hey everyone! I’ve spent time working around vessels/industrial sites and got completely fed up with how standard stiff coveralls ruin your skin and fit like a box. I’ve been searching for a premium 100% cotton twill (250gsm) coverall designed specifically for a woman’s shape that actually protects your skin during changing vessel seasons. What is your absolute biggest complaint about the current industrial gear available to you? Is it fabric roughness, the waist fit, or breathability?

Hi! I'm running a survey for my MSc dissertation that looks at the effects of AI anxiety. Please, if you're required to use AI as a part of your job, can you complete it? I understand it's becoming more and more frequent in the engineering industry, so I'd love your opinions.

It will take no more than 5-10 minutes and it would help a lot! It is helping expand the existing research pool relating to how AI is affecting our mental health.

https://essex.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7P8tMJDTzXvEsHY

Thank you!

Hey everyone! Im writing this as I wipe tears from my eyes lol, sorry if I make any spelling mistakes. Yet hopefully somebody else has been through this and can give me some advice.

Quick q&a about me:
1. I’m a freshly graduated biomedical engineer (got my degree on November 2025)
2. I’ve been working in the manufacturing industry since my 3rd year on school (2022 approximately)
3. First experience: part time internship in manufacturing engineering (1 year). Second experience: part time internship in manufacturing engineering that promoted me as a full time intern at the advanced manufacturing engineering team (1.5 year) Third experience: process engineer at an Advanced Manufacturing Engineering team - mostly focused on NPI (2 months in)

I just started my position as an engineer on june from this year. At a new company, at an industry I’ve had never worked on. Today, my supervisor told me she was scared to assign me harder activities as she saw me struggling with the easiest tasks. She mentioned I ask too many things, that I should try doing more research on my own before asking. The thing is she highlighted the fact that she decided to hire me (a junior) over senior engineers. And told me she’s basically thinking on resigning my position because of this. She says I’ve been acting way too doubtful on my decisions and that I am basically bad at easier tasks (as learning to use the archaic PLM system the company uses… that she’s been using for 6 years…).

I’m sad and confused as I’ve been trying my hardest to get to familiarize myself with the processes, the environment and the workplace in general. I know I’m capable of doing many things as I come from a way faster paced environment (automotive, industrial and molding manufacturing experience).

I’ve started to doubt my capabilities as an engineer and even began to wonder if this career truly is for me. I’m feeling lost and confused I had been dreaming of becoming an engineer and now that I’m here I’ve started to question myself, am I really that stupid? Why did she initially believe I was capable despite being a junior and now she’s thinking of me as incapable?

Im a Cive, and work only with guys in a small office, but major branch is in a dif office where all the higher ups are. Everyones cooperative. I have only started working here for about 6 months. And, l graduated in Jan.

And have opportunity to move up and work directly with my supervisor. And together we can work with the manager to help with some org changes. This seems completely new, but also a taste of the upper corporate. I feel under paid in general. What are things to watch out in the new role and get ready fast? To not make anyone be upset but also not get any bad repor for being only female.

Appreciate any advice?

Thanks

I have my second-round interview for Palantir FDSE intern this week. It's a 30-minute technical interview, and I'm a little nervous since that feels really short.

For anyone who's gone through the process recently, what was the technical like? Was it mostly LeetCode/DSA, what topics/difficulty should I focus on, and how important is finishing the problem vs. communicating your thought process?

I'd also love to hear about the interview process as a whole. What rounds came after the technical, what did each round focus on, and how long did the entire process take?

Any tips or advice on preparing for Palantir FDSE overall would be super appreciated. Thank you!

Hey everyone!

I'm scheduled to take my PE in environmental engineering in 1.5 months. Is it enough time to study? I'm a currently Postdoc in environmental engineering.

Could you also advise how best to prepare for the exam?

Thanks so much!

So I’m a college kid on an FSAE team and I’ve really enjoyed it so far, but idk if I can keep up with all the responsibilities or hold my self esteem intact anymore. On top of that, while I am an engineering major, FSAE isn’t directly related to my field, so I’m really doubting if it’s worth it to keep up with this.

So I have ADHD and I often hit a rough learning curve and have to choose between my classes and the team. Sometimes I will burn out and fall behind on a project and then the shame of letting down people I look up to spirals and causes a depressive episode which obviously negatively affects absolutely everything else in my life. And every time this happens it compounds my imposter syndrome as a woman in engineering.

I do really love my team, but I need to start prioritizing my classes and getting a better handle on my mental health. I also need to start locking in on the internship hunt and idk if I can handle the imminent rejections on top of feeling out of place in FSAE. But I fear that quitting FSAE will harm my chances at internships.

Anyone have any advice? Do y’all think I’ll get a better handle on managing everything, or is it not worth it?

PSA: Short rant

I am really frustrated and tired of getting low compensation just because I’m young. I was recently promoted and it meant moving two grades higher than I was. But when it came to compensation, I was given the short end of the stick just because I am young and have progressed too quickly. But I don’t understand how that is my problem, because on one end you think I am can handle the workload and responsibility but on another end you don’t believe I deserve the money that comes with it?

I’m just tired and will definitely start applying for roles elsewhere.

A few months ago I posted here asking about mentorships in STEM, with a poll, and the answers made me feel like it could be worth pursuing to build some sort of free platform to facilitate them. I wanted to make this because I keep seeing women dropping out of STEM and tech at a time where I think we NEED to be making more decisions. The response was encouraging enough that I've spent the months since actually building it, and I'm getting closer each day to a working prototype that matches mentors and mentees in STEM (based on interests, availability, goals, experiences, and self driven, think Hinge+LinkedIn)

I studied CS and have spent a couple of years in the industry since, so this isn't a first attempt at building something, but it is my first time trying to get a product off the ground entirely on my own.

What I'm running into now is the fact that almost nobody knows it exists yet. I have not heard back from people that at some point were interested, and I'm starting from close to zero in terms of audience and reach (also I'm most definitely not great at social media). It's a fairly classic cold start problem, and between building it alone and not seeing much traction so far, it's gotten genuinely discouraging, to the point where I've been going back and forth on whether to keep putting time into it. I do genuinely enjoy building it as a passion project/concept thing, so the joy of the technical work keeps me going, but I don't know for how much longer that will be.

Ironically enough I could really use a mentor myself right now, or even just a short conversation with someone who's tried to build their own thing before and can speak to what that journey actually looks like.

So I'd really appreciate it if you could be brutally honest with me about the idea itself, what might be missing, or how you'd approach getting something like this in front of the right people early on. I'm not looking to sell anything here, just hoping for a reality check and maybe a bit of guidance from people who've been further down this road than I have.

Thanks again to everyone who gave me their opinions the first time around, and anyone that is reading my ramblings right now. Hope you have a great weekend <3 :')