Ask HN: Where are all the mechanical engineers?
Hey HN! I come from a mostly EECS background, but because I work for a tiny robotics startup, I've been doing a nontrivial amount of mechanical design work at my job recently. We've been hiring some really talented mechanical engineers, but I would love to meet more (and ideally hire more folks way better than me!).
It occurred to me that I have no idea if there is an equivalent to HN for mechanical engineers. Do you all have any ideas on where I could be meeting more people? Are there communities like HN with a more mech-e focused crowd?
(Context: we are working on construction robots that build solar farms, and we had a Launch HN [0] post a few months back.)
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30780455
33 comments
[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 67.5 ms ] threadUnfortunately most every time I see an aviation startup, it’s the same silly hot garbage. If I see one more multicopter based autonomous air taxi service, or magical supersonic transport for savage good boys pitched, I’m gonna scream.
(Context - 20+ years experience in product development engineering and new/derivative product launch at a large airframe manufacturer.)
That being said, there is some cool stuff being done (lilium, boom, etc).
Time will tell if one should ditch the software dev hat and put on the engineer hat I guess? :-)
But I think CS people tend to be much more online, since they build the internet and all.
To answer that. It's simple. The pay is bad.
We study for 4-5 years to get an Mech engineering degree and are promised 80K AUD+ starting salary (by many Australian universities).
The truth is you end up in debt whilst being removed from the work force for 4-5 years while studying. And you end up earning 40K AUD a year maybe a random few might earn 80K a year.
You end up in a position where you are highly trained and educated just to do CAD file translations. Surrounded by people who are not trained or educated who earn just as much or more then you.
Most Mechanical engineers (if smart) leave engineering and go to finance/software. I'd agree that the world needs more engineers to build things and make things more efficient and automated but the world wants and rewards administration and bureaucracy.
I understand what you are saying but this is also a comment. No one is obliged to answer someones prompt when commenting.
Also my comment was based on my own experiences and the experiences of my peers. Out of a cohort of 300 engineers by the end of the course 80 to 90% dropped. Now when ever I meet someone who wants to go into engineering I tell them to step back do your own research, consider the ROI and determine if you want to do it because you love engineering or if you just want to make money.
I've worked at companies that had positions and work cultures like you describe. I've also worked at amazing positions with extraordinary cultures and compensation.
I've been told multiple times, by multiple people that "your smart, you should go into finance". Each time it was right before a big crash, where finance bros were looking for work.
Over the years I've focused on keeping myself busy working on new things, learning new skillsets, and bettering myself. It doesn't really matter that specific discipline you practice, if you are the kind of person that continuously adds to and refines their skills and track record of delivering, that person is then able to charge a premium for that skillset. It doesn't matter if your a jeweler, writer, chef, mechanical engineer.
All this to say, I'm a mechanical engineer, I've designed a ton of cool things, I do it every day. I deeply love it, and get better at it every day because I want to.
I have been fortunate to also have risen above the negatives the commenter above mentioned (low pay, lack of upward mobility, working on not fun stuff like file transitions or whatever). I started in a lower opportunity area, worked my way up through those types of jobs, was able to move myself and my family to a higher opportunity area (SF bay area in my case) and now I lead the design and company building efforts l, do thebfun stuff and contract out the boring stuff like file transitions and sheet metal manufacturing to companies in lower cost of living, lower cost to do business, lower opportunity areas.
All this to say I think that each technical discipline you can choose outside of academia focused things, has pretty equal opportunity, it's far less of a factor than the other factors in your career like location and the types of companies you are working at.
"I'm a mechanical engineer, I've designed a ton of cool things, I do it every day. I deeply love it, and get better at it every day because I want to."
is a perfect example to as why anyone should pursue mechanical engineering. It's because you love it and managed to be compensated well.
But it's similar to IT, there are many IT and engineering jobs that pay well, but some of us simply don't get up in them for whatever reason. You could be a mining engineer working in the mines and get paid a staggering amount and not working any overtime.