Mechanical Engineering Graduate Advice

This video is a compilation of advice I wish I had gotten when I graduated.
I really hope you can find something in this video that helps you out in your early career.

Enjoy, and comment any questions or suggestions you have so others can learn!

If you are new to the channel I have been a mechanical engineer for the last 20 years with the last 5 being as a freelance consultant. I have always been in design engineering and spend pretty much all my time engineering, making, or tinkering. ;)

[KR-itlr]

Starting my first Mechanical Engineering job in a couple days.. You put every worry I had in my head at ease, Thank you!

[alirezas.m]

That was actually really insightful as a mechanical engineering intern I realized a lot of things that I do and take for granted were actually important stuff and wrote them down so I can look back later and have something to say. 🙏

[StreetCornersHD]

This video was recommended at a time I really needed it, thanks for taking the time to make this

[briankal]

Thank you! I wish I had taken your classes during my undergrad. This video is everything I need to hear today.

[mitchnelson]

Great video. So true. I’m an ME and this hit home big time. Great advice.

[michaelarnao]

love this video. Very relevant and sounds exactly like where I am at now. Great content!

[stevedesantolo]

Well worded, Chris. Solid contribution to those coming up through the engineering pipeline. My favorite insight on this topic came from a WSJ cartoon; "Actually, I've found that 90% of success isn't showing up, it's shutting up." Stated differently: Never miss a chance to be quiet and listen!

[dcuzzo]

I’m currently going into my junior of mechanical engineering. Currently at an internship and I feel so lost. This was definitely a good pick me up. Especially about the grades, I always feel like I’m just squeezing through my classes

[kyordannydelvalle]

As a recent graduate searching for jobs (only being one month searching), i needed to hear these words. I thought I did not have enough skills to enter at this career or the impostor syndrome is hitting me strongest after graduation. At least I will keep what I always was good at, my willingness to learn anything new especially skills or things that I may not be familiar with.

[HippedOakCZ]

This really helped man :). I havent graduated yet but Im finishing my masters thesis and I just got full time job, because company i had internship in was not doing great so they did not offered me playce thjer. So Im boarding new job in a month and I feel like I know nothing. Imposter syndrome is awfull. Im super excited, but kinda not sure what is it going to be like because Im kindy shy and insecure, but im sure / I hope its gonna be ok. Sorry for my English

[EricBrummer]

Re: Sponge... take notes! You're going to encounter hundreds of things that may come up once and 2 years later you have the same or similar problem. Depending on the job and work culture and your level, you may get 50, 100 or more emails a day. Your company may have a great quality system with tickets for issued that came up that detail the problems and fixes, or it may just be you and your good notes keeping track of things to fix/fixes that were implemented/key contacts. Your job may have you working on one complicated thing for 5 years as your team refines it to maximum function vs cost, or you may be cranking out 100s of smaller designs a month and have no recollection of the stuff you did a month ago. Then, when someone has an issue a year later, you have to task switch to it, remember it and troubleshoot. Whether that's paper notes, OneNote or other software.

[araw]

Hay super helpful I'm someone that's getting ready to go back to school and to get a degree and I've seen good engineers that can speak machine operator who have arm sleeve tattoos and an energy drink in Their hand and super chill and I've seen the tie and slack types that only leave their office to give someone shit and as someone that's been there and done that I know that I want to go for a degree and I know what kind of engineer I want to/will be that can say "well this material may yield better longevity, profits as well as ease of manufacture" when speaking to bosses or finance guys and talk with machinists and operatorslike "yeah dude I can see why that would be a pain in the ass ill look at the prints and I'll talk to X about loosening the tolerance or maybe changing something so you and Paul aren't fighting to get everything within tolerance all fucking day."

[aznick]

Was hoping you'd give some advice for getting that first job, our son graduated with ME degree in December and just gets rejection letters. He's put more applications in since graduating than I did in my entire working career.

[alexj]

Can anyone go to school for engineering and pass and graduate.

Or is it harder

[wyattb]

I haven’t watched the video yet but I want to get a job in the space industry somewhere. I love rockets and spacecraft. It would be my dream job to work with Blue Origin, SpaceX, or Rocket Lab. The problem is that I have internship experience in HVAC and manager roles. I have done some design and fabrication but it’s not impressive. I do have rocketry experience from a club. I feel like I am experiencing imposter syndrome after being turned down to many applications and after seeing my peers get jobs in NG, L3Harris, Honeywell, and RTX.

On a positive note, I still have time left to do work that is great for personal growth. I’ve asked people that have been successful say that they have been through something similar and have been aware of it. They’ve made adjustments to their goals to achieve on a regular basis whether it’s learning Ansys on spare time, or finding ways to apply theory to 3D-printed structures. I hope this is helpful to someone that is feeling the same way.