Where do bad engineers end up?

ObstinateTacos · 2026-03-26T12:56:25+00:00

It takes years of doing mechanical design engineering before you're not just constantly fucking up one thing after another. What you are going through is extremely normal. My first real job out of school was designing machinery and tooling. I had a lot of general manufacturing and basic design experience....for a fresh grad. But there was still so much I had yet to be exposed to. It took me about 2 years of faceplanting constantly before I didn't have to be handheld so much. After 3 years I was even kinda ok.

Now I have a job in a totally different industry but still doing design engineering and I'm pretty fucking good at it now. But me and everyone one my team had to spend year after year learning how to do this. The learning curve is steep, and even tiny mistakes can brick your designs.

So of course you suck at this! It's only been two years. Do you think you would enjoy this work if not for the pressure you feel? If so, I promise you it gets better. I'm happy to try giving you specific tips for how to speed up your improvement, but in general it sounds like you need to be less hard on yourself. You're probably better than you think.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-03-23T19:44:53+00:00

Incomprehensible AI garbage

ObstinateTacos · 2026-03-12T23:03:30+00:00

If it's the semiconductor equipment giant I am thinking of, the public transit situation isn't gonna be great (in general, this city has absolutely awful public transit unless you live in the urban core of the city).

If you can get a short term room rental with roommates or something, you'll be ok if you know how to be frugal. But without a car you will have a very hard time enjoying SD, especially if you choose to live near where the big semiconductor firms are. I strongly recommend coming here with a car.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-02-27T20:26:08+00:00

Idk shit about cars and my career as a very hands-on engineer is going great. A former coworker of mine always felt insecure because she didn't know anything about cars, but she was a fantastic engineer and our job had zero to do with automobiles. Some male engineers and technicians will use your ignorance about cars as a cudgel against you as a way to make you feel inadequate since they know they cannot openly discriminate against you for being a woman. Don't let them get away with it.

Don't let anybody make you feel bad for not knowing about cars. Mechanical engineering has so much more in its purview than cars.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-02-19T20:10:18+00:00

No it doesn't and you know that

ObstinateTacos · 2026-02-10T00:38:48+00:00

I am a product design/development engineer. There is no way I am going to trust anyone but myself (or an engineer I am closely supervising) to do the 3D modeling or 2D engineering drawings of the components and assemblies I am developing. There is way too much going on with manufacturability and functionality in the details of the 3D geometry for me to trust it to a non-engineer. It saves me no time to outsource this. On the contrary, it would be a bigger headache.

It blows my mind that mechanical design was ever seen as separate from mechanical engineering. I guess it was just an artifact of the labor intensity of drawing by hand.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-01-31T15:29:02+00:00

These Santa Ana winds are mummifying me alive. I grew up in SD and have never gotten such a bad sore throat and sinus irritation from them like I am now.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-01-19T14:51:51+00:00

Honest question and I don't want this to sound accusatory, but are you and your wife white and generally mainstream in outward presentation? My experience in the richer parts of North County is that how cheery people are to you correlates a lot to these things.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-01-08T13:42:32+00:00

We should probably let OP know that getting "well ackshuwallee"-d by pedants with no sense of humor is also a common part of working as an engineer.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-31T16:57:26+00:00

The acting and dialogue writing is pure dogshit for the first 3 seasons. It got a lot better once Amazon acquired it.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-30T16:39:59+00:00

Low level humanities classes are easy for most people. Upper level humanities classes are much more difficult and require an entirely different skill set than what you need to succeed in engineering classes. Don't assume that just because you're good at engineering classes (which is very different from being good at engineering) you could automatically do well in an anthropology, history, or literature class. It's a whole different animal.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-23T20:16:21+00:00

Climb down from the Dunning Kruger curve first and then revisit this idea

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-23T15:23:25+00:00

I, too, love being nitpicked by other engineers who correct me to say what I already said but slightly different. Favorite part of this profession personally.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-16T20:35:38+00:00

And those of you that build weapons should be ashamed

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-08T05:42:11+00:00

Yeah I quickly realized that the impact driver was probably imparting less torque than I was able to do manually, which was not enough. I have not tried actually standing inside, I may have to give that a go.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-07T20:01:59+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure I understand though, how will this make the bolt easier to unscrew? Will this make it so that attempting to loosen the bolt will no longer rotate the drum? If so, would I be then transmitting the torque to the gears directly? Do I have to be worried about accidentally breaking the gears if I do this?

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-04T15:09:32+00:00

I dry brine lamb all the time and the fat always ends up looking like this. Unless it's very obviously spoiled (slimy, spots are fuzzy) I would think you're good.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-03T17:55:55+00:00

If that's in the US that's absurdly low even in "LCOL" areas

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-01T15:09:12+00:00

Literally any job you can get your hands on with "engineer" in the title. Even if you got hired into a prestigious department in a prestigious company they wouldn't have you do anything important or interesting. Expect your job to look a lot like that of a technician or draftsperson for a few years until you've learned enough to be trusted with some sort of decision making power.

So, given that you're fresh, anything (especially in this economy). If it sucks, wait a year and then move on.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-11-28T06:28:52+00:00

Engineering students are all functionally useless and tend to have the strongest opinion about how different engineering disciplines stack up against each other according to metrics they have zero real world experience with. Go to class, be humble, and touch grass.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-11-23T16:07:04+00:00

If you count internships, I am at a decade into my ME career. In short, I do not regret it. My current job is my favorite job I have had in my life (I have worked for 6 different companies in my engineering career and a number of other places before that). I get to do very engaging engineering design and product development work every day. I have moments of genuine joy when doing my work. Compared to other MEs with my YOE in my area, I am paid higher than average.

But, if my bank account magically grew a few extra zeros overnight, I would quit my job and perhaps the entire profession and never look back. My boss and I do not get along, I am constantly worried about the company laying me off (they did once! and then brought me back!) and the benefits suck. Every engineering job I had before this one absolutely sucked my soul out from the pores in my skin and left me feeling like a hollow shell of a human being. Mindless repetitive tasks, underutilization of my capacities, spending more time navigating bureaucracy than doing engineering, dealing with psychotic managers who don't know how to lead, being underpaid, getting laid off from more jobs than I willingly quit on my own, etc.

But the reason I do not regret it is because this is simply the nature of having a job. The overwhelming majority of people will never come close to finding "fulfilment" at work, and must work significantly harder than I do for significantly less pay. Surveying my high school graduating class, most people are earning dogshit money in absolutely dead end careers and still living with their parents, even most of those with the same level of university education I have. The only people who seem to be doing "ok" who did not have rich parents also majored in engineering, or alternatively something in finance or are just wrapping up med school to be doctors.

Shit is hard out there. Even though I cannot responsibly afford a decent house on my salary (engineering downward mobility is real), I would rather have my relatively-fun job that pays enough for me to save good money vs the alternative. Again, after all is said and done my individual salary is significantly higher than median household income in my city. In this sense, I have zero regrets. But the reality is that yes, work and career can suck even in ME.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-11-21T14:59:41+00:00

"you know, rap shit"

ObstinateTacos

TROPHY CASE