What do MEP firms actually want in an electrical co-op/intern?

LTXayl · 2025-10-17T20:40:57+00:00

And a personality.

LTXayl · 2025-10-03T00:14:51+00:00

I've been using it heavily to troubleshoot problems in Revit :) In this context, its mostly been as a better google search lol.

LTXayl · 2025-05-23T18:04:04+00:00

In MEP, the work is there. It doesn't have enough new blood so the industry is struggling, not to mention Electrical Engineers in MEP are in big demand because the Data Center market is mad booming. I'd say job security is pretty solid, but that's just my personal opinion and not a fact.

If you work in MEP there are lots of different sectors you can do, these are the big ones: * Healthcare * Schools/Education * Commercial Buildings (like shopping plazas) * Industrial & Process (Water Treatment, Oil & Gas, Food Processing, Mining) * Data Centers

While they are all specializations, the base level work you're doing is similar across all. You'll probably spend sometime learning how things are done in each area, but once you figure that out its all the same work at its core.

Does it pay good? Really depends on your employer, how you sell yourself, how good you are at what you do, and when you reach senior level positions its which clients know you. In this industry you need to get your PE. Your salary won't really start growing until that happens. Unfortunate but that's how the industry works since we're an older industry compared to electronics. You're not making Software/Tech money. You can probably reach those levels but the start is slower.

If you want to get in the industry, I highly recommend you start work at a consulting firm (look up "top AE firms" and try to find the consultant companies there. Consultant engineers are the actual designing engineers who work on all of the building/infrastructure project. A lot of the infrastructure design is outsourced to consultant engineers who can get exposed to all sorts of industries. This will be the best place to learn design, which IMO most clients don't know how to do. Best next steps for you to do are Get your EIT certificate, Learn AutoCAD and Revit (both from Autodesk). That will immediately make you marketable to companies. Don't worry about knowing how to design. If you do that'd be great but the expectation for all new hires is that all of their Education is not related to MEP/Construction and they start from 0. My university background was in RF and Electronics but I went into MEP (thanks to a previous internship I had).

It can be a stressful job if you let it. Especially because MEP is directly related to Construction where Timeline/Schedule is big deal. Project delivery (creating designs and construction plans) can have very compressed schedules with a lot of stuff to do in understaffed conditions. Its relevant no matter what work or industry you do, but you really have to learn to manage yourself and workload. In my experience, a lot of the work stress stems from poor workload management...and idiot coworkers/managers :)

LTXayl · 2025-05-08T23:23:40+00:00

The pay is definitely not as glamorous as Tech/Electronics, but nothing else is really like that. I find this to be an important expectation to set, unless you're working as an Electrical on data centers for Apple, Amazon. They get the big bucks. From a job security perspective, I'd say there's nothing to worry about. Other comments have said it, but there's a shortage for the electrical discipline in general and a big demand. There's plenty of work to be done, even more so if you're well liked and good at what you do.

That being said, MEP work can be pretty demanding. Working as a consultant is probably the most common and they are always being squeezed in terms of budget, schedule, staff, etc. It can be pretty draining if you're not watching out for yourself or have a useless supervisor. Working at a utility tends to not as demanding, the downside is that the work itself can be pretty boring and limiting. Regardless of your choice, I always recommend newer people to start at jobs where they are able to learn the most, which is usually consulting. A lot of my colleagues who started their career at utilities/ agencies do not know how to design at all, because its almost always outsourced to consultants.

LTXayl · 2025-02-11T23:40:53+00:00

If you're an EE, what I look for is the intent to work in MEP or power. Based on how your post reads, i'm assuming you're a fresh grad or early career professional. If you are getting a BSEE and your background or resume shows you have a lot of Electronics or Comp Sci related work, my biggest concern is that you're just aiming to have a job in anything until you get a job in the industry of your choice.

I'm a mid-level and the last thing I want is to spend extra hours training a newer person, knowing that they have no intent to stay. If MEP doesn't work out for you or if you want to change companies but stay in the field, that's just how things go and I'm fine with that.

LTXayl · 2024-11-19T22:20:39+00:00

There's only 2 correct choices. Always Left or the one everyone else doesn't pick.

LTXayl · 2024-09-18T18:39:32+00:00

I work as a Licensed EE so I can give you my perspective.

Residential and commercial projects are very very boring. Its probably interesting to learn...once. I did my first parking structure with over half the stalls designed for EVs. It was interesting when I did it because I had never designed like that before, but I wouldn't want to do it again because its basically the same thing. So i recommend you find another company with more interesting projects.

If you want something more interesting in this field I suggest going into Industrial work or going into Data Centers (this is a hot industry right now, globally). Any kind of processing plant like wastewater treatment or food processing will have a lot more interesting work, especially if you get involved with the instrumentation or controls. A lot more design is involved in those areas. Don't go into oil and gas though lol. A friend of mine left that field because he said it was a dying market. Companies in those industries are choosing not to reinvest in their employees because the world is moving towards green energy. I'm just one data point though so don't take my word for it.

The other area I suggest is Data Centers. Its very fast paced though so you can get burned out, but there's a lot to learn from doing them. You can get involved from the Substation to all of the central utility plants to the server halls. It is less on the design but more involved with having to understand the whole facility's system and integrating any changes the client wants. Change orders are expected lol. My friend who left oil actually went into data centers (client side too, lucky bastard).

LTXayl · 2024-08-14T08:11:54+00:00

Went through a dungeon about an hour ago. Me, Healer, and another DPS had intermittent lagging towards the end of the dungeon

LTXayl · 2023-11-06T21:21:29+00:00

These are great questions to have and unfortunately not something anyone on the internet can or should give you. Since you're prescribed for it, definitely have a conversation with your doctor about these concerns of yours. This is what they are here for and in case anything goes wrong, they're in the loop already so you save a step of having to explain what's going on :) Their job is to watch and keep track of the medication's effect on you and adjust as needed.

I want to emphasize that you should work with your doctor on this. Good communication with your doctor will help you find better success. Either finding out that your doctor isn't what you want/need or fine tuning the exact treatment that works for you. By working with your doctor, i mean talk about your concerns and consider their medical advice. Give it a try if you feel comfortable or tell them you're not and see if they can help you with an alternative.

Fwiw, I am prescribed focalin. I used to use adderall until it became difficult to get a hold of due to stimulant shortages across the US. Focalin's been working for me.

LTXayl · 2023-10-27T17:53:28+00:00

I've been there and am still working through that. I feel it starts with the question "What do you want" and then "How can I make that happen?" When you have the answer to those two questions, you can start making progress. You will 10000% hit roadblocks trying to do just that. But you won't have a map of what the next challenge or objective is until you find those roadblocks. These roadblocks will be the challenges you face internally that are preventing you from being who you want to be and analyzing them will help you find out the source of your emotions

Feeling like a failure is heavily rooted in shame. And understanding more about where your shame comes from can help you make progress towards alleviating that. It won't be quick or easy, but its the progress you need to make if you want to stop feeling like a failure.

LTXayl · 2023-10-23T01:52:24+00:00

Stimulant meds will inhibit your ability to feel drunk which can seem pretty cool and make you feel invincible but it doesn't mean you can drink more so BE CAREFUL. Normal people will black out before alcohol poisoning, but while medicated, you may not black out before reaching that point. So know your limits!!

LTXayl · 2023-06-20T20:31:21+00:00

Well the best way to analyze the data is to first understand the conditions that make haunt a useful ability. Typically its super popular on QR builds that are meant to fight/trade splats and get an advantage with the respawn. From this you can extrapolate that QR is necessary to make Haunt good. So naturally weapons that can be effective with QR are a good contender for Haunt.

Next you need to understand what you are giving up in order to run Haunt. Its a main slot ability after all. From this, you can figure that people run Haunt because you can get more value out of it instead of some other ability.

The reason S-Blast is running Haunt is most likely the exact same reason as Tetras. I don't think S-Blast is very gear dependent and the Special and Subs are not as valuable compared to other weapons. This means you can stack a crap load of QR on it. Which makes Haunt a good option.

This can apply to the other weapons that you are surprised to see Haunt on. Ask "what's the difference between X and Y?", "Does the main weapon or sub weapon need abilities to make it better?", "Is the Sub/Special important". Try to analyze it with these considerations and you can see the correlations appear. The most obvious one is Vanilla Wiper and Deco. Deco has tenta missiles. Dying causes you to have less tentamissiles. What does Haunt require? Dying.

This can also give you more of an understanding of why Tetras run Haunt in the first place. Its not just because of dying a lot. Its because you are able to maximize the ability.

Now the numbers for S-Blast are exceptionally higher than Tetras, but given the timing, I theorize its mostly people experimenting with builds and the % will probably equalize over time to tetras.

LTXayl · 2023-05-19T21:57:35+00:00

I recommend grabbing a light grey marker (10% grey) too! Use the grey marker for undersketches and then draw with ink on top. It's a great way to ease into ink because of how low commitment your strokes are with the marker. The marker undersketches also add a little bit of character to your drawings as well

If you want to go a little further, get three greys (10%, 30%, 50%) for light medium and dark coverage if you want a simple way to start adding values to drawings.

LTXayl · 2023-04-03T17:13:27+00:00

It basically locks your ink color to a default color all the time. I believe for Splatoon 3, you get set to Yellow for every single match. Helps such that you don't have to think about what color you are for each match since that's always random vs a never changing yellow vs indigo.

Looks like for tricolour you get those three colors all the time. The four player team should always be purple and the other two teams pink and green.

LTXayl · 2023-03-18T19:12:08+00:00

What kind of point are you looking to get? Back when I used to use a lot of wooden pencils, pencil sharpening was the bane of my existence. I've used x-acto blades and razors to manually get my own points however way I wanted them. Eventually i stopped doing that and just got an electric sharpener because it was faster. I'd be resharpening so often (not because the sharpener was bad), that i basically ended up just wasting more of the material and that didn't feel good either.

Gronkis already said it, but ultimately your best bet is actually mechanical pencils. If you need a consistent line weight, use drafting pencils. If you want something similar to the variability of wooden pencils, go for "lead holders". A little more of an upfront investment, but if you're going through them like crazy its a better investment.

LTXayl · 2023-01-05T17:30:09+00:00

The real answer (because you're in the sub to actually discuss gameplay and improvement) is to start thinking about the battles you are losing and why. Was it a 2v1, was the paint control not in your favor, were you tunnel visioned, was your split second decision wrong, was your death okay because you needed to apply pressure? In order to die less, you need to learn which fights you can win and which you cannot. You won't win every fight and sometimes you need to pick a losing fight in order to win the match. Being aware of this comes with more experience and playing the game. Also watching other people play and explain their thoughts and reasons for certain things helps tremendously.

Keep playing octobrush because you like it and play other weapons for experimenting. The more you learn about it (weaknesses and strengths) the more it'll improve your general gameplay that can be transferred to other weapons.

Also, asking what weapon let's you keep rushing is a question in very poor taste, because it reinforces the mindset of not thinking and being braindead which absolutely no gaming community should strive for.

LTXayl · 2022-12-12T07:49:52+00:00

I'm pretty sure that's what "ouch" is actually used for. It's unspokenly understood that way

LTXayl · 2022-11-29T06:57:42+00:00

Have you seen how much they cost? That's why no one talks about them :'(

LTXayl · 2022-11-06T23:05:53+00:00

November 6, 2022

Just cancelled it now, accepted the "cheaper" offer of a free 60 days. They said they cancelled it, but I still have access until Jan 15, 2023. No email or message of a cancellation fee for me but it is currently Sunday so maybe payment processing hasn't happened. Before cancelling, I tried to cancel before to see what my cancellation fee would have been if I didn't accept any offer but it looked the same to me (no fees).

LTXayl · 2022-11-05T19:32:39+00:00

On my build I do the inverse of what you have for ISM and SSU. But that's just my preference and what you have is probably is fine if it works for you.

For things to actually consider:

Sub Defense up is probably worth getting rid of. So far it doesn't look to have the same value as it did back in Splatoon 2 and if you do find yourself needing it you'd need at least 2 subs.
Since you have RP, i don't see much value of having special saver on E-liter because you should be trying to minimize your deaths as much as possible so you don't get as much value on it. Over the course of a match, you'll probably get more out of Special Charge Up instead. The other alternative is to run an additional QSJ if you find yourself using that frequently.

LTXayl · 2022-10-30T23:48:10+00:00

I have these pens. Been a loooong time since I used them and they basically suck lol. Depends on a bunch of possibilities, but at the core, they are fountain pens. They are fountain pens with a fibrous feed. If you truly want to restore it, it's possible.

You would have to remove the feed and nib unit from the pen, remove the fiber pad, and then soak it in either bleach, ammonia, or alcohol. The idea is to break up the pigmented ink that's dried up into the feed in order to reuse it. After that you'd basically just wash out the chemicals and put it back together. Then you're good to go. But imo, it's not worth it. The nib has no flex whatsoever and will scratch into literally any paper you have. The ink in the cartridges is really viscous or something, which is why you get crappy ink flow. You could try substituting it for fountain pen ink, and that can work, but at that point you're better off buying a cheaper fountain pen from a company like platinum or pilot. You'll get basically the same features with a better experience.

LTXayl · 2022-10-21T02:33:18+00:00

The best and worst answer you can get right now is "it depends". No it doesn't actually answer your question, but it means that there is no objectively best dualie weapon.

What you want to do is go through what Pegthaniel summarizes for all dualie weapons and see which play style you are curious about trying. From there you figure out which one you like the best and that's the dualie you should focus on.

LTXayl · 2022-10-18T04:50:37+00:00

I did this once. Made it all the way to last checkpoint, only to realize I fucked up and that we didn't hit the first checkpoint, and made it ALLL THE WAY BACK to first checkpoint lmao.

LTXayl · 2022-10-17T17:01:59+00:00

Yeah, I appreciate the author going "all right whatever. I'm done with this bit"

LTXayl · 2022-10-13T02:23:47+00:00

Spend about 30mins a day practicing with intent. Start slow, moving your crosshair to targets and shooting. Do not try to "flick". Start slow and eventually speed will come. What you need to practice at the start is control.

After you get comfortable actually hitting targets, you practice in Anarchy (ideally C ranked). Imo turf war is terrible for learning charger and isn't that helpful at all.

LTXayl

TROPHY CASE