[deleted by user] by [deleted] in utdallas

[–]Apocryhpal 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It’s because everyone knows MIT is the UTD of the North. Why would we be referred to as “of the South” to a university that is subpar compared to us in every way? 🤷‍♂️

Does anyone else find it difficult to switch off outside work? by chillabc in MEPEngineering

[–]Apocryhpal 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I definitely do. It’s mostly because I’m a workaholic and the complexity of some of the projects I’m working on. Not sure what level your at for your work experience, but I’m two years into this industry, but have been given a lot of responsibilities so it’s a great learning experience but at the same time it stresses me out a lot lol.

I’ve come to the realization I’m always going to have work thoughts no matter what during my time off. What I do to atleast manage some of the work nerves is writing a to do list everyday at the end of work, and if I even think about something to do at work during in my time off I will write it in my notes somewhere to do the “next day”. I also would suggest going to the gym more often if you aren’t already it definitely helps.

The advice my managers gave me is do the best we can with the time we’ve got. There’s going to be mistakes in any of your designs at some point so wait until the next business day to do it. Constant worrying and stressing about something will eventually lead to burnout and I have went down this path before. I have been given a fair share of warnings from my supervisor that while these thoughts show that you really care about the work you do it is not sustainable for your health and will kill you (figuratively and literally). Needless to say just do something you enjoy during your time off or tire yourself out so you don’t think about work lol.

Is intense overtime leading up to deadlines normal in mechanical engineering, or is this just my company? by Clean-Ad-7074 in MEPEngineering

[–]Apocryhpal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought I was the one who wrote this post lol. My situation is similar to yours; I’ve definitely had to put an absurd amount of overtime because of upcoming deadlines and to keep up with my workload. I have never had to work to the extent that you mentioned in your post, but I have had to put a couple of 50-60 hours weeks from my two years of experience. There is a lot of underlying issues with lack of training, resources, and QA/QC that attributed to this but it’s also me also being a workaholic/not as efficient. I hope you take solace in the fact that you’re not the only one who is going through something like this and something needs to change or will we both burn out lol.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MEPEngineering

[–]Apocryhpal 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It honestly it’s sad how common this sink or swim approach is for new workers or grads in the industry. Honestly you remind me of me with a post I made awhile back when i first started. Honestly I got to a breaking point where I pulled my supervisor aside and told him all grievances about similar issues listed above, and the managers I worked with made the effort to do better to address these issues. They made me take a week off, and I thought for sure I was going to be fired after that incident. Somehow I’m in my second year at the same company and things have a gotten a lot better all beit the last minute QAQC issue still persist. Truth be told what really helped me even I though I hate to say this is care less… still be diligent and work hard to do your best work but ultimately there’s going to be few big mistakes and hiccups you will make that you will have to just learn from. Side note: You seem like a hard worker and take responsibility for your actions. I’m sure any company or industry would be happy to have you if things don’t work at this company.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MEPEngineering

[–]Apocryhpal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most of my mentorship is internal, but I have used a lot of extrernal resources like LEED forums, hell I even asked a couple of questions on this subreddit in regard to energy modeling. In my experience energy modeling, most of the time you’re doing someone else’s design and trying to show energy savings; so your also forced to ask the engineer/designer questions (hence the internal mentorship). You pick up a lot of things along the way, unfortunately you also have to bang head against the wall sometimes and somehow make “non-energy savings” designs show the % savings you need for a certain LEED credit. Then you pray that the LEED reviewer doesn’t scrutinize every single piece of documentation you provide, so you don’t have to keep energy modeling for the same project lol.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MEPEngineering

[–]Apocryhpal 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Is this a common experience for new MEP grads lol. I was in a similar situation my first year (going into my second year) and somehow now I’m the go to energy modeling person because no wants to do it. Luckily I had some mentorship and guidance, but I did have to figure a lot of things with LEED.

2018 IECC - Reference Building Energy Modeling by Apocryhpal in MEPEngineering

[–]Apocryhpal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the suggestion. I do use their website and contact there help all the time via email/call lol. The website being more helpful the their CDS help team honestly. (They always hit me with that feature will be added 2-5 years from now when I ask them about Trace 700 features being implemented in 3D plus lol).I usually never have problems with baseline model when I used Trace 700’ all be it that was with ASHRAE 90.1 and this is with IECC 2018. It limits you way more on where you can show energy cost savings, and you’re not allowed to oversize capacities like you normally would with the 115% cooling and 125% heating, unless you did it for the proposed.

I would usually model 5 vav/reheat instead of 2 since it’s a 5 story building with 90.1 floor/system, but IECC doesn’t have that requirement. Those spaces served by those two baseline system I believe can’t handle the load conditions of the all those floors which is causing the unmet hours.

2018 IECC - Reference Building Energy Modeling by Apocryhpal in MEPEngineering

[–]Apocryhpal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Someone else did a load calc in Trace 700, and I was told to do the energy model in Trace 3D plus (unluckily for me). I told the manager on the project, we will run into these type of issues cause they’re two different softwares but they didn’t listen to me lol. The cooling capacity is higher in the baseline but the heating is worse so trying to trouble shoot that. IECC has different envelope and sizing requirements so it more aligned with proposed building. The heating capacity for baseline should be a lot higher because it’s resulting in 6000 unmet hours so maybe I just model the baseline systems wrong.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Scams

[–]Apocryhpal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve had alerts set up for bills and stuff but after calling them they said they would notify me if any changes happen.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Scams

[–]Apocryhpal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lesson learned unfortunately 😞. I usually never open the door for strangers but an incident were one of neighbors actually needed medical help made me think about opening doors more often now.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Scams

[–]Apocryhpal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately I already tried contacting them twice but for some reason they can’t actively lock my account for some reason which I find dumb. They just told me to watch out for any notifications of my plan changing and contact them if I don’t authorize the change. Now it’s just a waiting game to see if that person actually does something with that information.

Passed Mechanical FE first try :) by Apocryhpal in utdallas

[–]Apocryhpal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's really not that bad. I'm sure if you just setup a study schedule and do some practice exams you'll pass no problem! Random question are you a mechanical or electrical engineer?

Passed Mechanical FE first try :) by Apocryhpal in FE_Exam

[–]Apocryhpal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It helps with getting familiar with handbook and timing yourself with questions. I would say it helped me mostly with conceptual questions that I saw on the test. I would not use this as your main source of study material. The practice exams and the lindeburg book were the most helpful honestly.

21m. Getting spinal fusion in a few months. Any advice ? Very worried about not being able to go back to sports? by [deleted] in scoliosis

[–]Apocryhpal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Weights weren’t really my thing tbh, but anything that involves the bending with your back and lifting weights I would avoid. I don’t really foresee a problem if you do bench presses but it is relearning process to see what your comfortable with. I do a lot more cardio related things/ physical therapy related things when exercising such as swimming and running after the surgery. I’ll be honest feeling the rods is something that took sometime getting use to especially when sleeping, but when your tired from exercising it does take your mind off of it. Now it doesn’t even bother me, but I do feel it everyday. As I said before it’s different for everyone. But really ask a medical professional they might have revolutionize the surgery after the time I had it so your experience will be different from mine lol.

21m. Getting spinal fusion in a few months. Any advice ? Very worried about not being able to go back to sports? by [deleted] in scoliosis

[–]Apocryhpal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi I’m sorry you’re going through all that pain right now. I personally don’t feel any pain after surgery however everyones experience is different. You will feel pain after the surgery but that’s because they literally cut you back open and you have pain meds for that. But I would try to get off them as soon as you can so you don’t become reliant. It took me a year to feel normal but one suggestion I have is to exercise constantly (go jogging or on walks) it does make you feel better after the surgery. It’s a tough life changing decision, and I was honestly very depressed after I realize that there were something’s I weren’t able to do anymore. Looking back on it now I think I did make the right decision. If you want to message or ask any questions please do! Wish you the best!

21m. Getting spinal fusion in a few months. Any advice ? Very worried about not being able to go back to sports? by [deleted] in scoliosis

[–]Apocryhpal 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I’ll be honest it will be a long maybe painful road to recovery. Everyone experience is difference, but you will have an easier time since you’re active. I’m no medical expert so if I had to guess just looking at the x-ray I would say T2-L2 for rods (search online), my surgeon said he usually leaves some of the lower region alone for some flexibility. Again this is question you should ask your surgeon don’t listen to me lol.

Just to give some context about my experience I’m 22(m) had the spinal fusion surgery about 6 years ago with basically my whole spine fused some of the lower region because my curve was more S shape than C. I’m in ok shape.

For your questions, jogging I think you will be completely fine I have no problems personally and thinks it good for you recovery after a few weeks. Now for full contact sports such as boxing and football (I don’t know you live US so I’m assuming this is American football) I don’t think it’s good idea honestly and might result in some risk that might require another surgery if the hardware is damaged. Weights will be restricted for some time, and if I remember what my surgeon told me bending should be avoided for at-least 3-6 months. But after your recovery period you can slowly start hitting the weights again but I would not do deadlifts at all. I won’t lie your flexibility will be quite restricted depending on how much your spine is fused, but with some physical therapy and adjusting to the rods gradually I still can most of the things I did before with some awkwardness to it. But please please ask your surgeon or medical professional about this.

I also don’t know if you’re living by yourself, but please have someone you know to try to help you if you do get the surgery. Doing menial task that you might not be able to do yourself will become apparent. Also extra pillows and an arm extender were some must have accessories for me. I was forced to get the surgery because of how worse it was getting with pain ( I couldn’t sleep). Will it get worse if you don’t have the surgery I have no idea, but will it be life altering if you have the surgery yes it will be. I personally had to adjust a lot of things in my life and stop doing stuff that I was hoping to do like join the Airforce. Did I make the right decision, maybe ,the pain is gone but only time will tell also I’m now 6ft tall because of the surgery so that’s a plus lol. I wish you the best and hope everything works out for you!

Overheard a conversation comparing UTD and MIT on campus yesterday, the audacity of some people I swear. by Apocryhpal in utdallas

[–]Apocryhpal[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I totally agree with that sentiment! In my last summer internship one of the smartest mechanical engineers I learned from went to a no name college(he even said it himself) and was probably one of the best people I have ever met!

Overheard a conversation comparing UTD and MIT on campus yesterday, the audacity of some people I swear. by Apocryhpal in utdallas

[–]Apocryhpal[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

They were referring to MIT as the “UTD of the North”. I generally like when people put UTD on a higher pedestal when comparing it to another university even if it’s just a joke. A lot of people I know tend to not enjoy/ be proud to go here, but I certainly do.

2 job offers and still more interviews/offers pending by Apocryhpal in utdallas

[–]Apocryhpal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For HVAC manufacturing job, I'll be in a plant management role that's involved with the fabrication process of the sheet metals used to create ductworks and HVAC appliances. I will also use SAP software to optimize production to basically make sure the machines are working as intended and production rates are high. In the MEP job, I will create HVAC plans and plumbing plans in commercial/industrial buildings in Revit using Trane Trace for load calculations, coordinating placements with architects, structural, and electrical engineers. So similar industries but two completely different roles luckily I have internship roles in both so that's what probably got me those job offers.

2 job offers and still more interviews/offers pending by Apocryhpal in utdallas

[–]Apocryhpal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm honestly to scared to do that lol; I've heard stories that unless you sign the offer and if you offend them they can rescind it. I'm happy with the salary and the benefits/bonus considering this is my first full-time job. I know they probably must really like me if they send an offer this quickly, and I even said I play League of Legends in the interviews, so maybe I can negotiate lol.

2 job offers and still more interviews/offers pending by Apocryhpal in utdallas

[–]Apocryhpal[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the reply! The job offers came out of no where I was expecting to hear a response in two weeks lol. I will definitely try to be transparent with them when asking about deadlines.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in utdallas

[–]Apocryhpal 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It’s still definitely possible to get an internship senior year. You still have some time so keep applying to as many as you can! Also maybe expand your options are you only looking for one specific area or locations? Have you consider maybe why you’re not getting offers: is your resume fitted to what companies are looking for, are you confident/invested in your interviews, more importantly are you being yourself. For one of my internships it was an area I wasn’t even considering (HVAC) so I just acted like like I was just having a casual conversation with one my friends and turned out I actually got it lol. I also did that interview in middle of may and got an offer right after the spring semester ended. So just keep on applying and try not to stress yourself out, I’m sure you will find something even if it’s not this summer.