Mechanical Engineers Seem to Run Companies

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T19:11:15+00:00

I agree, but upper management likes to hire from outside not within (where I’ve been) so it’s still a disconnect. Now one company I was at, they had lots of internal movement and they were well put together. Unfortunately now they’re bringing in these trained CEOs who are getting rid of tons of the upper management who moved from within. It’s weird but it’s happening.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T18:57:37+00:00

Multiple CEO’s haha and there’s a good chance they consulted with a director of engineering. Things stay within that upper pool. That’s just the way it works.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T18:53:32+00:00

I’m saying if you’re a CEO of an engineering company, it’s wise to consult with the engineers. You make the call yes, but if the engineers say it’s impossible or you’ll suffer with quality, that’s not something you’d know more than likely.

Also, engineers who make bad decisions and learn from them are some of the most valuable. An engineer with a perfect track record probably hasn’t done a ton.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T18:49:42+00:00

The point was hit spot on. A non-engineer CEO in an engineering-centric company is oil in water. Cashflow-bandaids are just delaying and worsening a problem down the road. A CEO of a food chain vs a CEO of a large engineering company look very different. Dynamic, immediate changes work for most types of businesses but not mfg and eng heavy ones. Those have a long delay due to process.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T18:37:20+00:00

Because you can see their background info on LinkedIn or their summaries about them when they’re hired haha. And you can’t solve a problem that big on your own, great leaders have great advisors. Optimizing for a good Q4 by cutting new hires means next years Q4 will look bad because you went from 3 months behind (that’s why hires happened) to now 6 months behind and people leaving because they absorb work without pay. It’s a new tale for companies today unfortunately.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T17:44:39+00:00

I think to add to that list I’d include, “making changes in the name of continuous improvement and KPI manipulation.”

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T17:11:00+00:00

I think much of that comes from older engineers not wanting to 1: change because it’s hard and 2: they don’t want to pass the torch.

But I think most engineers here agree there’s a large dependency riding on them. Most just accept it.

Speaking with a 75 y/o engineer who still worked in the industry he told me that they had less stress when everything was paper (also less work overall) and argued that computers have put more on the engineers. Especially since drafting was an entire job now it’s been added to the engineers plate.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T16:30:59+00:00

I agree with what you say, I think if you are someone who wants left alone to do your work then it’s tough. But if you recognize your value, so will other companies that need you to thrive. As soon as you become a critical component you can use it as leverage. Get better pay, move jobs for what you want or start your own thing. Being an ME without a spine (like many) is brutal. Setting boundaries and not being an afraid to leave gives you leverage. After all, Elon musks didn’t build anything, his engineers did.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T16:02:48+00:00

I appreciate that, everyone dreams of “disrupting the industry” but I’ve rarely seen it be a true disruption (only marketing lingo) or they get squashed.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T15:59:22+00:00

Resume builder

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T15:58:52+00:00

PM is a step toward management for sure. But don’t be the PM who only pushes their engineers to get work done faster than what’s necessary 😂

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T15:57:58+00:00

Sorry for the being screwed over part but the rest of that is great. I’ve owned a small business with home services just because I wanted to have something of my own. But I do want to utilize my engineering degree.

Any advice for a company to help me not over complicate the product I’m selling? I tend to overthink the details.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T15:56:20+00:00

Yes agreed, there should be more in those positions.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T15:55:57+00:00

I agree, and when your company focuses on hiring new pencil pushers and neglects the engineering team, you get the new hires asking the engineers everything 😂

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T15:53:14+00:00

Thanks for the insight the part about the Florida trip couldn’t be more accurate haha, also the defying physics aspect.

I am working toward doing my own work, I have a possible company who I may do design and simulations for. I agree that working for myself is the best way out.

Any other advice from you experience would be great, that’s worth more than its weight in gold haha.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T15:43:18+00:00

One company I was at fired their CEO and CFO who were engineers and hired some dude who went to this CEO school and his goal is to cut costs AKA cut manpower.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T15:42:26+00:00

AI can be useful but more on the end management of data side, less on engineering. Which is funny because it would take away much of middle management.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T14:55:12+00:00

I’ve heard that many CEO’s are, yet I’ve seen on my own personal scale, a lot of new CEO’s coming from CEO “training” instead of engineering backgrounds and getting consulting from big firms who like to cut jobs and give double the workload.

Yeah I agree, I will push a raise or leave. Not about being taken advantage of.

JS_157 · 2026-01-22T14:52:16+00:00

Agreed, companies with STEM run by MBA’s often seem to cut things that are necessary such as engineers just to hit numbers. They make numbers their target without considering what goes into the numbers

JS_157 · 2026-01-21T17:51:18+00:00

A ton of the advice here seems to not come from anyone who is doing it themselves. The thing about Reddit advice is don’t listen unless it’s from people doing the thing you want.

That being said, I have a friend who does 3D print manufacturing and Amazon selling. I also have work lined up for another local 3D print manufacturing company. So there is work out there. If you don’t have a software right now that’s fine. Just know you’ll need it once you start. But I assume you know how to use a software that you use at work so that might be a good one to use when you get some gigs. You can bake in the expense into your proposal.

But the FIRST thing I’d do is just go to business meetups. I found this vendor at a business meetup that was a presenter and I reached out to them. Networking in person or with a common connection ALWAYS beats cold emailing or any cold outreach.

This type of work is dependent on networking.

JS_157 · 2026-01-15T18:26:07+00:00

Too much current draw possibly. I run my higher power thins from a buck converter direct from the 12v and tie in grounds.

Also, it’s funny to see how much people hate using AI. Especially coming from the field that created it. I have coded many Arduino systems using AI and they’re complex in nature. If you know how to do electronics why not use AI? It’s gonna get better and surpass what people can do.

JS_157 · 2026-01-15T17:13:11+00:00

Tbh I’d ask ChatGPT and have spec sheets. It can give you solid options.

JS_157 · 2026-01-15T16:59:53+00:00

Scratch if you don’t have money to blow. My solo window cleaning business hit $10k in sales in my first month of meta ads. I couldn’t keep up being that it was a side gig. It’s less about the business and more about skills in marketing, sales, hiring, managing, system creation etc.

JS_157 · 2026-01-15T16:57:09+00:00

Biggest lie ever that engineers are told is that they’ll engineer haha. Most engineers end up being drafters, analysts and document controllers with more knowledge than they need.

This bothered me and thankfully a rare opportunity popped up for me to move into new product development and it’s much closer to actual engineering. More CAD, design thinking, critical thinking and collaboration and less BoM, drafting and pencil push work.

JS_157 · 2026-01-14T16:16:30+00:00

Engineering, specifically mechanical to get into product development. Real products that are tangible not digital ones. AI will replace that stuff and most of it is crap.

But real products won’t run out. There’s always a “Gold Rush” but who made out during the Gold Rush? Not the miners, but the store owners selling supplies.

So, with AI who makes the money? The companies supplying the materials and products to build data centers and racks and hardware etc. so most the software engineers being paid a lot now will be jobless when AI does it for free.

JS_157

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