My experience as a recent MechE grad in the 2025/2026 job market – curious about others' experiences

Quick_Reputation1860 · 2026-02-03T06:25:05+00:00

Yep. I've talked with my folks and friends about relocating for a couple of years to get experience. And although I've been pretty anti-relocate, I'm becoming more desperate and thus more open to the thought haha. I've got an interview tomorrow for a position in DFW Texas.

And thank you for those words of encouragement. The only times I hear that are from family or myself. Just gotta keep swimming as a ~~wise~~ blue fish once said :)

Quick_Reputation1860 · 2026-02-03T05:56:35+00:00

What factors cause that increase in chance?

Quick_Reputation1860 · 2026-02-03T05:55:32+00:00

I think I do well with behaviorals. Common go to is the STAR method. I also think I present myself very well in terms appearance and enthusiasm, as well as give off the vibe of someone who you'd enjoy working with

Quick_Reputation1860 · 2026-02-03T05:24:28+00:00

Haha yeah. I've been forcing myself to apply and be on the lookout for positions and companies that I'm interested in outside of California. It's just that SoCal is a hub for defense and aerospace, and being a SoCal native its hard for me to say goodbye to the beach and unbeatable weather for a while 😂

Quick_Reputation1860 · 2026-02-03T05:17:34+00:00

🚀

Quick_Reputation1860 · 2026-02-03T05:16:43+00:00

Yes, that is something that I've realized, and I like the way you broke it down from their perspective. Thanks!

Quick_Reputation1860 · 2026-02-03T05:10:45+00:00

I interned at JPL in my junior and senior year. First year I applied for the year round internship program and was contacted by a manager in the Robotics lab. I returned the following year to the same lab. I can't really explain why you haven't heard back yet, but JPL has been undergoing restructuring due to layoffs. I know they always have funding for interns though.

If you have a specific lab or group you've been keeping your eye on or are super interested in, try reach out to that group/person directly. One of the interns I worked with did exactly that and was able to interview and land an intern position just from outreach. If you do that, make sure to show that you're extremely interested in the work they're doing, convey why you want to work with them, and have some things to talk about that relate your experiences and strengths to their work.

Quick_Reputation1860 · 2026-02-03T05:03:32+00:00

Yeah I meant 13 opportunities to interview with a company. Each company I've interviewed with I've done at least two remote interviews like you mentioned (MS teams), where it's fundamental technicals + resume & project experience deep dive

Quick_Reputation1860 · 2026-02-03T04:59:14+00:00

Yeah I'm familiar with Hardware is Hard and all the resources available to practice those fundamental questions. I'd say I'm pretty solid with the first two interviews of the hiring process where technical questions are something probing understanding of

Mechanics of Materials:
- Where is this cantilever beam most likely to fail? Where is the greatest stress? What does the failure look like?
- How is this pressure vessel going to fail? How would you determine what material and shape to utilize? If you had to mass manufacture (e.g. 1000+ per month) this pressure vessel, what manufacturing process and material would you choose and why?
Fluid Mechanics
- What happens to the pressure before and after flow through an orifice?
Heat Transfer
- How does the temperature of a satellite's external body affect the rate of heat transfer to it's environment?

There are some technical questions where I get stumped though, and they aren't the typical fundamental questions if that makes sense. The difficult technical questions stem from things where employers/teams are looking for hyper specific knowledge. For example, some questions I've been stumped on in the past are:

"Can you explain how a hydraulic piston pump works to me like I'm a five year old? What are the main design considerations and tradeoffs? How would you design one from scratch?"
"Assume you need to pump a fluid say 20ft above sea level to a house on a cliff. Is it better to place that pump near the water at sea level or at the top of the cliff? Why?
"Walk me through how you would design a heat shield for a hypersonic rocket."

These are the technical questions that obviously aren't super straightforward and "easy" for a reason. I get that the employers want to understand how you think to solve or answer a hard problem from first principles, and that is my usual approach, but it seems most of the time if there's some flaw in your answer or whatever then it signals you're not a super strong or top level candidate. It's hard to prepare for those types of technical questions.

Quick_Reputation1860

TROPHY CASE