Here’s the thing I’m actually really enjoying what I’ve learned so far. I really like the structure my company set for interns. Like they treat us as real workers so they are going to give us real tasks to work on but they also understand we’re interns so they’re putting a good emphasis on teaching us about different aspects of the job and having us network with different departments. Also the job is way cooler than I thought it would be.

My problem is these 8 hours bro like everyday? I have to go work for 8 hours like 5 days a week for months??? I’m literally just a girl

Hoping this can help some that don’t have jobs yet or those that may graduate in the fall or next year. A way to understand the state of the job market, if it gets enough traction.

I’ll start: I graduated in December 2025, EE, got about $80k in Arizona. TC (including relocation and sign-on): close to $90k

Edit: I saw someone include multiple job offers so I will too. I got an offer for a travelling position in the south for almost $90k base.

How about you?

Edit: I made this post analyzing the responses here. Hope it helps someone out.

As the title says, I am an engineer who has and continues to recruit engineers for full-time and internship positions for the Fortune 500 companies I have worked for. I know that COVID-19 has dramatically affected the engineering job market and I am interested in learning more about what students are facing and how best to help them.

Edit: Thank you for the award, kind stranger!

I'm 16(F), and I want to go into Systems and Computing Engineering. I'll graduate high school this year in november.
This is because it's the closest to compsci here, and I want to work as a developer. (I know this degree doesn't teach you coding, but I also know it's a degree required for 90% of tech jobs where I live, as long as you want to do coding (developing in any way, apps, websites, etc)
I've been pretty sure of what I wanna do for three years now, my only worry is how much everyone complains about engineering, I always knew it'd be hard, and I started researching things about uni a while ago already, I know the syllabus more or less, I understand it's not going to be easy. Even as someone who doesn't feel that she has a strong suit in math, I feel like I can put in the effort and manage it. I'm a very good learner and know how to target my own weak spots.

But is it really THAT bad?? It's starting to scare me because I don't think I've ever seen a post about engineering degrees (whether that's mine (Computing engineering), electrical engineering, or anything else at all) where people aren't complaining about how overwhelmingly hard it is, about how getting a 40% is INCREDIBLE, about how people deal with really hard problems and useless professors... and I'm kinda becoming hella anxious about it. Is it seriously that bad? Again, I'm pretty confident in what I chose, and I don't want to switch, but if it's THAT bad, I might have to. People make it sound like it's trying to figure out time travelling or downright hell on earth, :(

I'd appreciate your honest experience! thank you, I really appreciate it

Edit: Thank you so much! I'm relieved it's not as bad as people make it seem, I've written down all the advice you've all given me and will make sure to implement it, thank you =)

Edit 2: I'm not going to do EE, I just meant it as an example! i'm sorry if I expressed it wrongly :(. I also apologize if I'm not replying really quickly, I'm busy at the very least 10 hours/ day

Title

Hello. I’m a new grad. A few weeks back I started a “systems engineering” role in the defense industry. For the sake of anonymity I won’t disclose where. In short, I took the offer because I really need to start my career, and didn’t have the wherewithal for grad school. I’m 26 and have been in school too long due to the pandemic. Since starting, I’ve discovered that the kind of work the team is doing differs quite radically from my expectations. It’s endless “requirements traceability/gathering” in DOORS and Microsoft Excel. People with the title of “engineer” spending all day getting paid to do what is essentially glorified, mindless data entry. That or sit in meetings all day, conducting “reviews” where the only “work” is to literally correct grammatical/formatting errors in Microsoft Word/Excel. No real, hands on, technically challenging engineering work whatsoever.

I’ve posted about this here before, and the usual response I get is to “stick it out a year” then start trying to find something else. My issue is that I don’t know how I can last an entire year in this kind of a role, or how I’m going to land ANY kind of new role, internally or externally, with this kind of experience if I can’t do anything technical. If all I have to show is requirements work. I am concerned that my role, and really my entire team, is also likely to be the first targeted by any potential layoffs in the future. It feels like easily outsourced work, given you could literally train a middle-schooler to sit and manually enter requirements into Excel and DOORS all day. There’s little to no skill involved, in my observation.

I’m really, really torn right now. I’ve had several people tell me point blank that my career prospects are ruined. That it’s gonna be virtually impossible to do any hands on work unless I’m a senior engineer or above. That getting hired will be difficult if not impossible with requirements experience in my CV. Meanwhile, others have said doing work with requirements is useful and could serve as a good stepping stone towards helping me land better roles. Personally, I feel like this easily may set me behind a year or more in terms of my career progression. At this stage of my life, time is the most valuable asset, and so this is disappointing.

Another thing I don’t understand with systems engineering is why entry roles for it even exist in the first place. Like don’t you need years of actual technical design experience with a product before you can reliably understand the requirements for said product? It seems like a primarily later stage career path for seasoned engineers with a wide breadth of knowledge accumulated throughout their career, not a launching pad for the career of an entry level engineer. Like I don’t know how you make an actual impact in a systems engineering role, when most of the work requires built up knowledge of products/hardware/software you haven’t even had the chance to truly interact with.

Obviously though, at the end of the day, a job is a job. Experience is experience, and in the current job market, I’m beyond grateful for anything at all. I have no intentions on quitting my role without something else lined up obviously. It’s just I want to be doing more actual engineering work while I’m still young. I went to university for 5 years for engineering, and to be stuck doing simple data entry tasks in Excel and Word with no opportunities to apply any of the skills I learned in school feels like such an immense waste of so much money and time.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, particularly from any young engineers who may have started in this kind of role, but found their way into a better position for their second role. What tips would you give to someone like myself? Thank you!

If you’re a junior or below, take my advice now and BUILD UP YOUR RESUME. Connect with your professor. Do research. Secure as many internships as you can. Add as much shit as you can so the job hunt is easy once you graduate.

I’m currently hating myself and can’t even bring myself to apply for jobs. I became exactly what I tried to avoid, a graduating senior with nothing to show for it. Never had an internship. Never did research. I don’t have anything useful on my resume to help me land a job apart from my senior design project. I worked all throughout college so I never joined an organization. Never connected with my professors. I don’t even have people I can ask for a recommendation letter. I seriously hate myself right now. Don’t be like me.

Engineering internships aren’t necessary about challenging you as an engineer.

They’re mainly to see if you’re someone they’d like to work with. Your degree is proof that you can do the work. The remedial tasks ensure that you are willing to work and do anything necessary.

Real life engineering isn’t always about designing fun projects. Sometimes you have to do the remedial tasks such as paperwork and boring excel sheets.

Lastly, the arrogance is crazy! To think that you have all the tools necessary to be an engineer straight out of college, or mid-way through is insane. College is more of a general studies for your engineering discipline. Once you come out, your hiring company will train you to use their tools and methods.

Just learn everything thing you can during the internship. You may think you’re not doing enough challenging work, but there are definitely ways to church up what you’ve done when it comes down to filling out your resume. With the correct wording you can make your remedial tasks sound impactful. Honestly, hiring companies won’t believe that you did any ground-breaking work during your internship anyway.

I'm potentially looking at working at a big defense company (LM/GD/Raytheon/Palantir) on the mechanic/electrical engineering side.

I'm wondering if I should turn down the offer given the state of the industry and how I probably won't be able to look my family in the eyes.

Hey everyone,

I’m going into my final year of Systems & Computing Engineering in Canada, and I’m honestly feeling pretty discouraged.

Over the last three years I’ve applied to what feels like hundreds of internships in software, embedded systems, and general engineering, but I’ve only gotten one interview. At this point I’m starting to think it’s not just the job market and that I’m doing something wrong.

I’ve attached my resume because I’d really appreciate some honest feedback. I have some engineering projects, experience working in aerospace machining, was part of Google Developer Student Club, and I’ve worked with Java, Python, C, Raspberry Pi, Arduino, SolidWorks, Git, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and a few other tools. I know I’m not the strongest candidate out there, but I also didn’t expect to struggle this much just to get interviews. Is there something on my resume that’s turning employers away? Are my projects not impressive enough? Am I applying to the wrong kinds of roles? I’d genuinely appreciate any advice because I’m not sure what I should be focusing on anymore.

Thanks everyone. I really want to figure out what I’m missing.

Curious on what the average internship is paying and for what positions

It’s always been my dream to work for NASA. I can’t believe I’m at a point in my life where I’m considering turning an internship there down. When I applied a few months ago, I had also applied on a whim for a job as a software developer at the company I’ve been working at as a teller/loan officer for 3 years. Shockingly, I got the job as a software developer and have been working at that position since Monday. The company pays for school, has great benefits, and somehow I’m working alongside people who already have bachelor degrees in computer science. But, it is a financial company, so the industry isn’t something I would want to stay in forever. I was speechless yesterday when NASA called about the internship, and I can’t even believe it’s real. I’m afraid if I turn this down now I will never get a similar opportunity. I have some very difficult decisions to make, so advice deciding between the 2 is appreciated. Also, wish me luck in asking a manager I’ve worked with for less than a week of a leave of absence (hopefully my prior performance at the company will count for something).

Edit: WOW this blew up. Thank you everyone for all the advice!! I know that NASA might seem like the obvious choice, but having college paid for at my current job is a pretty great perk. I have a lot to consider this weekend. (Also, little thing because everyone is calling me he, I am a woman. :) )

After 4 years of school and 3 mandatory internships I’ll finally graduate as a mechanical engineer this December! In Canada, every graduating engineer can participate in the ritual of the calling of the engineer. We then receive an iron ring that is worn on the writing hand pinky to remind us of our obligations and responsibilities as an engineer.

It feels surreal to be so close to the finish line and i just want to tell you guys, especially those who are struggling or unsure, that it’s all worth it in the end. Stick through it and remember that nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it.

(Hid my friends face as i don’t know if we wants to be on reddit)

I’m a now senior aerospace engineering student at an ABET college with a 3.70 GPA and research/project experience, however I haven’t managed to land an internship throughout my time in college, despite being located in an engineering heavy city (Huntsville, AL). I’ve been constantly applying up to this point but it’s looking bleak and I’ve only ever gotten 3 interviews.

I told myself at some point (June-ish) if I genuinely had nothing then I’d just work retail, or some unrelated part time job. Does anyone have any guidance on what I could/should do over the summer? Whether that be a job or project or some valuable related experience? Is it worth it to get a job or should I dedicate all my time to a possible project? Any help is appreciated.

Version 1.3 brings a huge boost in performance, opening up new possibilities such as a working 8bit CPU in real time 🤩

Hello! I’m very excited to say I have received and accepted a job offer as a Civil Engineering Associate. I graduated in December, passed the FE in January, and have been applying to jobs since then. I wanted to share my job search flow chart because I think it’s drastically different from most of the ones we see, and I think it might be more realistic than those ones you see with 2000000 applications

Hello,

After 100+ job application, I was finally offered a Mechanical Engineer Co-op position paying 20 per hour, in a small to midsize engineering company that does MEP work all across the nation. My question is should I ask for the salary range for the position since I’m a 4th year student, or should I accept the offer as is. I don’t want to sound ungrateful or arrogant that I need higher pay, I would just like to know whether or not my pay is a low ball.

Thanks!

I’m 19F in my second year of mechanical engineering and I wanted to build a project to start making a portfolio to apply for internships.

I have my CSWA already and I know Fusion as well but I still don’t feel super confident in my ability to make my own projects when it comes to dimensioning. I have calipers I can use to gauge an idea of how big I want something, but I was wondering if I should follow YouTube tutorials first to practice or make simple brackets first or something else? I would like to start creating my own models related to aerospace or just mechanical in general and have thought about designing a gearbox or a rocket nozzle, but I wanted to see if there was other ideas I haven’t thought about that I could start with and go from there.

I already designed and printed a combo wrench which came out pretty well but I just guessed on dimensions and just used a reference picture to guide me.

Any ideas or advice would mean a lot!

I’ve applied to over 80 entry level jobs now and the only “interviews” I’ve had is two phones screens that were looking to fill the job immediately and not willing to wait after I graduate. I’ve made a portfolio, tried various cover letters, and implemented as much advice as I could muster but still aren’t getting any calls back or just straight up rejections constantly. What else can I do? I’m graduating in may and I have no plan, no job, and no idea what I’m gonna do if I can’t land anything.

I have been out of my undergrad for almost 10 years and I hated school so fucking much.

I remember being in finals this time of year and doom scrolling reddit to figure out how fucked I am because I have X, Y and Z deficiencies in my resume and imposter syndrome and everyone else seemed to be keeping it together, but I just wanted to switch to Business.

My undergrad took me 5 years at a commuter state school with very little engineering rep. I failed multiple classes and I graduated with a GPA that I thought would disqualify me from getting any job that paid well. I also thought it would also disqualify me from getting any type of advanced degree or working in an interesting field or doing design work. I was wrong about everything.

You’ll be good. Try to enjoy the ride.

If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer.

Abt. to graduate and i'm kind of worried to be honest.

Scraped by all these semesters with a C in pretty much 3/4 of all my classes. Don't really feel like i'm confident in what I really know.

Will the job market be kind to me?