What are the most and least rewarding aspects of a mechanical engineer?

Hi Gloria,

I think the positives and negatives are the same across many professions and industries, not just engineering. If you love solving problems and creating new structures, products, processes and or machines then the rewards of mechanical engineering could be right up your alley. You get to know that you were an instrumental part of creating something new, sometimes all by yourself, but I always find it even more rewarding when you are part of a team that has accomplished something that has not been done before.

The downsides are perhaps 2 things, one out of your control. 1 - Sometimes you will have to work with difficult people, this is a given in any industry, look to your heart when choosing where or what to work on and keep an open mind, working well with others is a skill not taught always in school, but it is extremely valuable. 2 - Your company or society at large may not be ready for the advancements that you create even if they are wonderful. Cost, time to implement, marketing strategy, current governmental and regulatory policies all affect what gets brought to the public and if it succeeds. The silver lining is that most great ideas do find their time, so if you do choose mechanical engineering, don't loose your drive to create and don't give up on a good idea, even if you have to wait for the right time to present it.

Good luck with your decision and take care.

Sincerely,
Blake Jenssen

Hi Gloria,

First of all, I'm so glad that you're thinking ahead about your career and future.
I'll be honest with you, as long as you have passion and drive in the field that you choose, you'll hardly see downsides because of that vary fact.
Being a mechanical engineer as of most engineering fields is very demanding time wise both in during collage and work.
So I won't bother mentioning longer than average work hours or strict project deadlines since they apply to many different fields and it depends on the type of job of course. One main thing that I have noticed from my experience, which is very brief, is the slow career growth. Don't get me wrong, you'll grow every day professionally just by showing up to work, but gaining more experience in the field of mechanical engineering is slow if all you do is go to your job and finish your task and that's it.

Don't worry though, I have figured out a way by myself to counter that slow growth and multiply it by 2 or 3 specially early in your career.
Be involved as much as possible in aspect of your department work and ask about everything that you wonder about but are shy to ask about or embarrassed for ego reasons (happens a lot specially with guy engineers!)

So to sum up, I don't see major downfalls or least rewarding aspect of being a mechanical engineer (I like it) other than that individual experience growth is slow in most companies, not all. I was lucky to have worked in fast paced companies where for example we've made an large scale industrial machine within a year from scratch. I learned many things and wore many hats, where some people will spend a year or two working on one small component and only gain experience in that one small area (usual slow growth).

So be involved a lot within your limits and never hesitate to ask about every aspect of your job and you'll increase your professional growth immensely.

Sorry for the long reply and I hope this helps,

Cheers,
Omar