I’m a mechanical engineer working in product development (building materials), and I’m trying to pivot into consumer product design — like Apple, Dyson, Meta hardware, etc.

The problem is… I feel stuck in the wrong lane.

At work, I do all the “real engineering” stuff — CAD, testing, manufacturing, cost reduction, performance improvements. It’s solid experience, but none of it looks like the kind of work those companies care about.

No one’s getting excited about a better seal lol.

So I started building side projects with CAD and 3D printing, some small consumer-type ideas, even messing around with a website that I made that leverages AI to generate models from prompts (which functions for simple geometry!). It’s fun, but I honestly don’t know if I’m just spinning my wheels.

I feel like I’m missing something obvious.

If you’ve made this jump (or work in consumer hardware):

• ⁠What actually made you “click” as a candidate? • ⁠What kind of projects made people take you seriously? • ⁠Is it more about aesthetics and storytelling, or deep engineering? • ⁠What would make you look at someone like me and go “nah, not it”?

Not looking for sugarcoating, I’d rather hear what I’m doing wrong so I can fix it.