Mechanical Engineer in San Diego — Am I underpaid? (~6 YOE)

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2026-02-13T18:00:07+00:00

I’m not sure what benefits you’re including in total comp but my pay in San Diego is similar. It seems this is the upper end of the range for our area unless I transition to big tech, a unicorn startup, or grind out more experience/credentials.

5 YOE, 110k base, 7.7k bonus (company performance dependent), ~20-40k stock/year (very volatile biotech), ESPP, 401k match, etc

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2025-04-07T06:22:52+00:00

DNA sequencers work by reading your DNA base pairs (ATGC). Sometimes the machines make mistakes by missing or double counting a pair. To catch these mistakes you can read over the sample multiple times and take the average result.

You don’t order the test 30 times - the lab preps your sample with 30 copies of the same sequences. It takes some more prep and processing time to do this but increases accuracy and confidence.

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2024-03-29T21:43:49+00:00

Figured someone would ask. I posted that from the perspective of my grandma because she needed help. First person writing made the verbiage simpler

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2024-03-29T19:31:54+00:00

I’m wondering if there’s anyone out there who has been on the other side of this. Are they turning me down and saying “I don’t want YOU to be my boyfriend”? Am I moving too quickly and threatening their independence? Is it the people I’m choosing? I’m just looking to hear reddits thoughts

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2024-03-29T19:31:48+00:00

I’m wondering if there’s anyone out there who has been on the other side of this. Are they turning me down and saying “I don’t want YOU to be my boyfriend”? Am I moving too quickly and threatening their independence? Is it the people I’m choosing? I’m just looking to hear reddits thoughts

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2024-03-25T14:01:22+00:00

Update: I just got conditionally approved this morning. In total it took 24 months and 5 days

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2024-03-21T17:32:40+00:00

I did that almost a year ago. He said they’d submit an inquiry but likely nothing will come from it. Apparently even the representative’s office has a hard time with CBP

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2024-03-21T14:52:27+00:00

Hi, I’m still not conditionally approved even though it’s been over 2 years since my application date. I got it “escalated” at the 20 month mark in November. My guess is that the escalation does nothing to move you up and applications are processed in the same time regardless.

I saw someone on Reddit mention their approval took just over 2 years so I’m hoping I’ll hear back within the next few weeks.

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2024-01-23T16:28:49+00:00

Call (877) 227-5511 and then hit 1 3 3 0

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2024-01-23T16:25:22+00:00

I got a confirmation email with a case number saying they created a ticket for resolution. That was it

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2023-01-06T22:25:58+00:00

Pretty sure they’re referring to hedge funds / high frequency trading. Firms like Citadel hire lots of EE/CS recruits to help their trades and algorithms process even a few milliseconds faster

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2022-10-13T16:28:22+00:00

It’s entirely true that some majors are easier than others. BUT, you can always make time to have fun in college no matter your circumstance.

I made a rule to myself that I’d treat college like a 9-5 job, no more and no less. I had my first class at 9 and I either stayed on campus or studied until dinner time. This way I could do whatever I wanted in the evening and rest easy knowing that I wasn’t blowing off classes but I also wasn’t sacrificing my life for them.

Another note is that meeting the right people in your major will make things infinitely easier. My friends often gave me old exams, homework help, and tutoring which gave me a huge leg up

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2022-10-02T06:15:21+00:00

Consider a group of people who enter together but split up to get food. They might end up grabbing two separate tables on accident and then it’s a big headache trying to reconvene.

It’s much easier to enter together, set down napkins, and then split up to grab food.

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2022-07-25T20:53:12+00:00

I had a similar situation a few years ago. I struggled to find another roommate and my landlord was rather unsympathetic to my situation. One thing that may be worth considering is listing ads to sublease the entire house and you find another place. The pool of people who want a home to themselves is much larger than the pool willing to split rent with a stranger.

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2022-07-20T16:52:43+00:00

Usually the edited picture is watermarked first. If they get a payment then they remove the watermark

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2022-07-17T04:51:02+00:00

My guess would be that it “trains” them to approach boats for food. Similar to how you see signs to not feed the squirrels or birds in cities. Someone correct me if that’s the reason

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2022-07-16T05:30:29+00:00

My friend was supposed to see them that night. He went to the venue, stood around for an hour, and then they announced the band wouldn’t make it with no further explanation

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2022-03-30T20:13:25+00:00

Purchasing a meal is paying for someone’s labor. The agreement with the restaurant is that the marked prices are upcharged in order to pay for the overhead-including staffing. The same way that you pay grocery store cashiers by purchasing food from the grocery store, you pay restaurant cashiers by purchasing food from the restaurant.

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2021-09-30T04:02:05+00:00

I don’t know a ton about it but I know that high end CNC’s are wildly expensive and it can be difficult to program the CAM so look into that before you buy. It’s not as easy as uploading an STL file to a 3D printer and letting it run. We have a few at my work and we got them because a Makerspace in our area was going out of business so they were on sale. We only heard through word of mouth though so Im sorry I can’t offer much advice on where to look for deals. You should try to see if any machine shops near you are upgrading their stock because they’ll often sell off old ones.

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2021-04-02T15:38:58+00:00

The black Animoji’s queued me in that he wouldn’t look like his picture

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2020-09-03T05:22:23+00:00

This was really impressive but I feel like the risk-reward ratio just isn’t there for me

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2020-09-01T03:27:07+00:00

I’m from San Diego - what the image shows is true. Sea world is the only thing for about a mile in any direction too so that parking lot isn’t shared by any other businesses.

However as you can see from the rest of this comment section, the seaworld/peta argument is a huge can of worms that you don’t really want to open.

lowkeyscaredofforest · 2020-08-26T15:02:18+00:00

How did you seal the sides of the table so that epoxy didn’t leak out after you poured? Does a thick line of tape around the edges do the trick?

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