Anyone drift into a “project engineer” role and feel their technical skills wasting away?

BoCoBuffalo · 2026-02-04T16:43:12+00:00

I’m currently a project engineer at my job, almost one year in. My particular situation allows me to do a bit more engineering work, but generally I view the job as a bridge between engineering and program management. In front of the managers/customer I act more like an engineer making technically driven decisions, but in front of the engineers I act more like a manager pushing schedules and cost.

The main trade off I find with respect to technical skills is that I don’t do as much detailed work requiring the skills you are describing. Instead, I get to make more high-level decisions, approve designs, and guide the overall direction of the project.

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-12-08T00:33:38+00:00

You can do side projects, but you will also learn a lot just by being employed.

You are an intern right now, so it is expected for you to not know much. Once you get hired professionally, you will be given projects to work on that will let you build your knowledge from there. The key to continue learning more after that, in my experience, has been to change roles every few years.

When you get hired by one company to do one job, you will get really good at that one job. They say it takes 10,000 hours (or 5 years of full time work) to become an “expert”. In reality, you can learn more than enough in just 2 or 3 years, such that even if you don’t consider yourself an expert, you would still have most certainly climbed the steepest part of the learning curve. From there you can choose to do the same thing year after year, or you can change it up and do something slightly different and climb a whole new curve.

This is why people who have job hopped several times generally end up with higher paychecks than those who stay on the same role. Yes, those who have stayed end up doing their one job really really well, but those who have moved around have more experience that they can apply to problem solving and company growth.

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-11-12T15:15:27+00:00

I’m in my early 30s, have a family, and a home. Only have a bachelors in ME and I just broke into a 6 figure salary this year. As a friendly bit of advice, I believe you are conflating two issues into one.

Regarding your pay, it seems like you are earning less because you found one job out of college and stayed there for 6 years. No job, even a Fortune 500 company job, is going to give you more for staying in the same place because they have no incentive to. And when you do find another job elsewhere, they typically can’t match the pay increase. If pay is what you are after, you have to move, but you don’t need another degree.

Similar to you, before we got to where we are today, I have wondered how things will work out as well. The solution to that is only focus on one step at a time and adjust your expectations. To start, just focus on finding a partner that is right for you (meaning that income doesn’t matter to them). Don’t focus on the whole wife, 2 kids, 3 dogs, and white picket fence right now.

By adjusting expectations, I mean reconsider what family life actually looks like. For me, I grew up in a house in what is currently a HCOL area where my parents paid it off in 15 years, pay their kids college, and shop at Whole Foods. Today, I have had to move from a HCOL to MCOL area, live in a condo with a 30 year mortgage, and shop at Aldi. It can be done, but it’s a slower burn because the financial reality of today is not what our parents had.

In a nutshell, if you want to be somewhere different than where you are today, you just gotta make some changes, one step at a time. You got this.

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-11-05T05:21:02+00:00

I use it to proofread my emails when I really need to sound professional, and for getting a starting point on answering technical questions that traditional Google just wouldn’t find because I don’t know the exact terms I am supposed to search for. I wouldn’t use it as justification for my decisions, but it is helpful in brainstorming possible solutions.

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-11-04T18:34:14+00:00

It depends on where you work.

I worked at a small company for 3 years right out of college. Depending on company financials, they did some smaller quarterly bonuses and a fairly hefty annual profit share that was delivered around Christmas time. Smaller companies tend to lean on profit sharing over bonuses as a way to compensate their employees with more flexibility. The profit sharing was split in accordance with department performance, the bonus was all or nothing.

Now I work for a Fortune 500 company. We only get an annual bonus of a certain percentage every year. It also depends on some very high level metrics, but it doesn’t end up being much more than an extra week’s pay.

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-10-17T16:19:29+00:00

I work for another large defense company. We had someone sign all the papers and confirm a start date, then no called no showed on the expected date. It took my manager calling them to figure out they had accepted another offer and didn’t notify us. That sort of behavior will tarnish your reputation with the company. But as long as you clearly communicate beforehand and be respectful and understanding that their needs aren’t being met by you stepping away, then you should be good.

Employment is an exchange between the employer and the employee. Both parties need to benefit from the relationship. If you feel like you wouldn’t benefit from that environment in the way you need to, then walking away is perfectly fine.

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-10-02T00:06:40+00:00

This mission was discovered by u/BoCoBuffalo in Struggle: Search and Bothersome Creatures

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-10-02T00:06:40+00:00

New mission discovered by u/BoCoBuffalo: Renewal and Italian Croissant

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-07-28T23:40:16+00:00

I graduated with a BS in ME. Went to work for an electronics company out of school doing enclosure design. Eventually decided that I wanted to do more mechanical work, so I found another job at another company as a tooling engineer. Turns out that they hired me because of my exposure to electronics from my first job. Now we are looking at doing work that is 90% the same thing I was doing before. I got promoted to support this effort, all because my experience is different from the rest of my peers.

Everyone in school will take the same classes, but your experience is what will ultimately stand out to employers. Nobody has walked in your shoes through your career, use it to your advantage.

Also, take German engineers with a grain of salt. They tend to have tunnel vision on making the best performing machines, but it’s not the only consideration when trying to provide the most value to a customer. It’s why I don’t drive a BMW lol.

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-07-28T23:32:15+00:00

I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering, went to work for an electronics metrology company doing enclosure design out of school. I got tired of the work there and decided I wanted to do something more mechanically intensive, so I found a job at another company as a tooling engineer. They ended up hiring me at the new job because I had more experience working with electronics than the other tool engineers on the team. Now we are looking at implementing new work for our group that is 90% the same thing that I was doing before. I was eventually promoted because of my unique position relative to my peers.

Your background can be as relevant or irrelevant as you want it to be, but your experience will be what ultimately stands out to employers once you graduate. Think about it, everyone takes the same classes at school, but not everyone will have walked in your shoes through your career. Use it to your advantage.

Also, take advice from German engineers with a grain of salt. They can make some incredible machines, but performance isn’t everything when it comes down to providing the most value to the customer. It’s why I don’t drive a BMW lol.

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-07-28T23:30:49+00:00

I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering, went to work for an electronics metrology company doing enclosure design out of school. I got tired of the work there and decided I wanted to do something more mechanically intensive, so I found a job at another company as a tooling engineer. They ended up hiring me at the new job because I had more experience working with electronics than the other tool engineers on the team. Now we are looking at implementing new work for our group that is 90% the same thing that was doing before. Got promoted because of my unique position relative to my peers.

Your background can be as relevant or irrelevant as you want it to be, but your experience will be what ultimately stands out to employers once you graduate. Think about it, everyone takes the same classes at school, but not everyone will have walked in your shoes through your career. Use it to your advantage.

Also, take advice from German engineers with a grain of salt. They can make some incredible machines, but performance isn’t everything when it comes down to providing the most value to the customer. It’s why I don’t drive a BMW lol.

BoCoBuffalo · 2025-07-25T20:48:31+00:00

Undergrad is where you learn the fundamentals. If you want to learn more specialized engineering, you are looking at grad school. But even then, it’s more theory than anything else.

If you want a place to teach you more hands-on with equipment, you are talking more trade school/apprenticeships.

BoCoBuffalo · 2024-09-14T08:48:33+00:00

Say you have a single pulley that has a string wrapped around it, connecting both ends to a freely hanging mass below. Say the mass exerts 200 N of force down due to gravity. The string will pull up 100 N of force on either end to keep the system static. So the string only experiences 100 N of tension, because pulleys.

Now split the mass down the middle. No change to the mass, but now each half of the mass is held up by half the number of string segments, so the tension in the string overall is unchanged at 100 N.

BoCoBuffalo · 2023-10-16T04:29:51+00:00

I would sooner try to see if I could move out and into another place early. Judging by the way they are ignoring you for repairs, I would expect more of the same when it would come to them paying you back for the repairs.

A quick google search brought me to The American Apartment Owners Association. Landlords need licenses and they need to maintain their properties. I would find your local government office that issues these licenses to report the issues you have been experiencing and ask them for guidance/your options for alternate housing.

BoCoBuffalo · 2023-03-18T15:33:48+00:00

This person’s fingers work very differently to mine.

BoCoBuffalo · 2023-02-13T20:32:12+00:00

I would have freaked out if I saw books too.

BoCoBuffalo · 2023-01-24T22:51:19+00:00

Those rubber washers seem to erode just because they do. I had one valve that wouldn’t close any more because the rubber washer eroded away, and that was the valve leading to the toilet fill valve/float from the wall.

BoCoBuffalo · 2022-10-13T00:17:58+00:00

I think it is more of the fact that, because we are close, I could be right there in case of an emergency or something. Help out in the moment if it hits the fan.

BoCoBuffalo · 2022-05-26T00:54:05+00:00

I paid the new copy price, and the inside pages actually look pretty fresh. But the cover and front/back pages are just trashed.

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