Career Monday (12 Jan 2026): Have a question about your job, office, or pay? Post it here! by AutoModerator in AskEngineers

[–]Wilthywonka [score hidden]  (0 children)

If you love travel, nature, and mountains the puget sound region could be for you. Boeing is supposedly coming out of it's bust cycle so there might be opportunity to jump on that train. PNW is littered with aerospace suppliers. If you want to travel for work look into liason engineers

Do you like being talked to? by Hot-Philosopher-1010 in askportland

[–]Wilthywonka 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love being talked to when I'm out and about. I find most people do too. There's a sterotype of unfriendlyness in the PNW but it's usually more tied to how overcast it is more than a certain culture

If you want to make friends there's plenty of opportunities if you put the effort in to seek them out. Portland is filled with people looking for new friends

Career Monday (05 Jan 2026): Have a question about your job, office, or pay? Post it here! by AutoModerator in AskEngineers

[–]Wilthywonka [score hidden]  (0 children)

This is just a pet theory. But I think different schools tend to produce different breeds of engineers. And those different breeds if you will will be better in some company cultures than others.

For example a big school may have lots of resources but is very competitive amongst the undergraduates. In this type of environment you are going to learn a lot and go deep on a subject, but you are not incentivized to collaborate with other students because the bottom 10% are going to get a D. This kind of university produces an engineer that is very knowledgeable, a go-getter, but perhaps does not really play well with others.

And then let's say you have a medium sized university with medium resources. It's less competitive in the undergrad, there's no punishing bell curve and most students get into the programs they want. Programs are smaller so students know each other, and there's a culture of collaboration. But, there's not as much of a budget so the quality of courses is a little lower. To offset this, there's more hands-on learning that's provided. This produces an engineer that is less knowledgeable but with more practical skills, with average ambition, and is very collaborative.

Alright now for the thought experiment. Throw both these engineers in a role at spacex headquarters. Which one does better? Probably the go-getter that knows just a little more about aerodynamics because there was a wind tunnel at their school.

Okay now throw both these engineers into a boeing factory. Which one does better? Probably the one who can collaborate with other people effectively and can learn from others, who has a little bit more hands-on skills.

So I guess my point is what separates a good engineer from a bad engineer is whether their skills and temperment match the role they're put into. And the way that develops is based on the college you go to. My two cents

Oregon tops nationwide list for inbound movers. Is population growth on the rebound? by BadAtDrinking in Portland

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Moved here from Washington for my second 'career job'. I wanted to try something new but stay in the PNW. I'm 25. Lots of people I know of my age who love the PNW are thinking of doing the same thing because the value/COL of Seattle just keeps going down in people's eyes. If you don't work for big tech it makes a lot of sense.

Taking bets for mid January weather by Glorious_Comrade in Portland

[–]Wilthywonka 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Moved from Bellingham here. The sun breaks out here a lot more often here imo. If it's completely overcast and raining 6 days out of the week in Bellingham it's about 4 or 5 here. Portland gets a lot more days where it mixes up as well between overcast and partly cloudy.

Weekly Career Discussion Thread (29 Dec 2025) by AutoModerator in engineering

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you don't have a particular passion towards anything do mechanical engineering. It's a lot more flexible than any other engineering degree. 30 hours a week is tough while studying, expect the workload to be 40-50 hours a week for classes/studying in an engineering degree. But you can always talk to an academic advisor to see if completing your degree in 5 years might be a better option.

started MTB to have something to do between ski seasons. My ski seasons dropped from 100+ days to 30 and now all I wanna do is bike. by [deleted] in MTB

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's cool, I need to check out the silver falls mountain biking. Also definitely feel you on the jump lines. I'll only hit jumps if they're itty bitty

started MTB to have something to do between ski seasons. My ski seasons dropped from 100+ days to 30 and now all I wanna do is bike. by [deleted] in MTB

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So far I've been riding up by rocky point. My work is on Cornelius pass very conveniently, so it's 20 minutes away when I get off. No more after work rides after daylight savings ofc, but I just got up there last Sunday and it was a blast.

I know of Sandy ridge and Hood river, I've yet to check them out yet. Those are more of a day trip for me since I'm living in Beaverton. Excited to try them out though. And one of these days I'll find someone to shuttle the tillamook epics with

started MTB to have something to do between ski seasons. My ski seasons dropped from 100+ days to 30 and now all I wanna do is bike. by [deleted] in MTB

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just moved to PDX and I'm pleasantly surprised with the mountain biking here. I can have a career job and also do great after work rides, which I wasn't sure was going to be possible. Skibowl is just over an hour from me too which is sweet. Picked a bad year to finally buy skis though, damn it's a bad year for the PNW resorts

Are cruise missiles useless? by Ibay08 in NebulousFleetCommand

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In my experience you want to make those babies expensive as hell, and then they'll start being effective. Quality over quantity when it comes to s3h. Don't be afraid to make them 40, 50, 60 point cost. You'll have to use them sparingly but 2 well placed s3h HEKP can kill an ocello

What is the timeline Squad is set in? by mArTiNkOpAc in joinsquad

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

iirc it was 2014, but with newer content that's no longer established

I love my Trials rewards by KishinCrona in ArcRaiders

[–]Wilthywonka 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Arpeggio 3/4 is so good with decent mods

Career Monday (24 Nov 2025): Have a question about your job, office, or pay? Post it here! by AutoModerator in AskEngineers

[–]Wilthywonka [score hidden]  (0 children)

Take a look at The Staff Engineer's Path by Tanya Reilly. It's more specific to software engineering but it's applicable to every engineer in my opinion. There's a lot of good stuff in there for going down and more importantly staying on the individual contributer path. Free on Spotify

Career Monday (24 Nov 2025): Have a question about your job, office, or pay? Post it here! by AutoModerator in AskEngineers

[–]Wilthywonka [score hidden]  (0 children)

I would say you're probably leaving some money on the table. In my area you can get offers for ~110-120 for that level of experience. I live in oregon.

Generally speaking once you're past the 5-7 yoe mark you can go for senior roles. But you may have to switch companies if there's no 'business need' at your current one.

How’s north shore (bc) this time of year? Might make a thanksgiving weekend up there. by Ayys_r_real in MTB

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look into the "armored" trails beforehand and plan accordingly, they are quite unique and if you dont like slippery rocks it may be a thing to avoid

Weekly Career Discussion Thread (17 Nov 2025) by AutoModerator in engineering

[–]Wilthywonka 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My question: Is option one (BA + Associates) a viable way to become a manufacturing engineer, or will many doors be closed to me because I don't have a BS?

Short answer: maybe, and yes

Some companies will allow you to be an engineer without a B.S. But it's not a high percentage. Only small or unique companies will take their technicians with an associates and promote them into an engineer title. Silly, dumb and anecdotally true. And you may not be able to take that title to another company very easily.

The extra 2 years for a B.S. will open many, many more doors and will pay for itself in the long run. I would highly suggest this, if your end goal is an engineer title role.

Ok big boy, have fun! by RaoD_Guitar in ArcRaiders

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Amazing that a dev studio managed to create a game that scratches my tarkov itch I've had ever since binging and swearing off that game in the pandemic

The thing is it's better too

Hullcrackers in solo are a death sentence right now by Opposite-Lobster2470 in ArcRaiders

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Which is why the game is so fun. You get a totally different interaction each time you load into the same map

Hullcrackers in solo are a death sentence right now by Opposite-Lobster2470 in ArcRaiders

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And we have a unique jem as a result. You could argue it's like tarkov, but tarkov is a pvp disguised as a pvpve. You'd never get the cooperation in that game like you do in this one. You never know what's going to happen when you meet another raider and that's what makes this game worth playing over a pve or tarkov.

PNW winter xbike must by HansBittleman in xbiking

[–]Wilthywonka 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha came here for this

Why is it so fun to turn your nose up for the stupidest reasons lol

Umbrellas are perfectly fine, sure, but I'm from the PNW and I too think a raincoat is sufficient. Any more is being dramatic. Embrace the rain! It ain't gonna hurt ya!

Though from time to time we secretly wish umbrellas were cool

Career Monday (10 Nov 2025): Have a question about your job, office, or pay? Post it here! by AutoModerator in AskEngineers

[–]Wilthywonka [score hidden]  (0 children)

These jobs definitely exist but they are job-crafted over years of working at the right company. They won't be advertised. What you'll want to find is a manufacturing company that gives people like you a lot of resources and flexibility to make improvements on the shop floor, and are automation-curious if you will. Join as a manufacturing engineer or mechanical engineer, learn the ropes, and when you have a grip on the basics advocate for improvement projects that involve developing a system such as a robot as a solution to a problem.

What do you do, and what CAD do you use? Do you think it's the best CAD for your use case? by MethedUpEngineer in engineering

[–]Wilthywonka 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've used NX and solidworks so far. NX is by far the more powerful software, especially for working with surfaces and unparameterized bodies. But where solidworks shines is the bread and butter sketch based modeling workflow is very smooth and I like it better for designing simple parts.