Employer insights: Careers in mechanical engineering

In a panel event held in September 2024, four MIT alums shared their insights and offered advice to those interested in a career in the field of mechanical engineering. Read on for the summary of the event. Thank you to the panelists and to Dr. Brian Anthony, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, who moderated the discussion.

How did your time at MIT prove to be useful? Please discuss skills, classes, and your overall insights.

Since working with people is a huge part of a job in the field of mechanical engineering, essential skills include learning how to interact with peers outside of the classroom, how to communicate effectively with others, and how to work through text. Think of customer-service-level communication skills.

At work, every project is different, and MIT experience helps with learning everything very fast. Also, the MIT experience allowed for gaining an understanding how to make things real and deal with real-life components that aren’t made perfectly. Although, design controls and the rules behind following various ISO standards was something learned in internships, not necessarily at MIT.

The most useful and recommended classes are 2.001 (Mechanics and Materials I) and 2.002 (Mechanics and Materials II). The 2.002 class is especially useful in aerospace. Additionally, having a basic understanding of Course 6 (Computer Science) is very helpful given the increasing use of software in the field of mechanical engineering.

In general, explore the field and check out different industries, aerospace and beyond, as it all comes back to the same fundamentals. Take internships, find out what you want, go back and take classes that suit your needs. Be solid on the fundamentals, but remember that you don’t need to understand everything deeply right away. Also, know how to get back to your MIT knowledge, take notes during classes and keep those notes, because your knowledge is going to fade away with time. Finally, take broader classes, don’t get too narrow in your education. Your passions might completely change or you might not get the job you were hoping to.


What other skills/traits/experiences should a great candidate have?

As teamwork is essential in the field of mechanical engineering, hiring managers are looking for students who have been on any team (including sports), and had a chance to learn not only how to communicate and cooperate, but most importantly how to fail as a team. A great candidate has to be able to work with people, understand their emotions and life outside of work. You will be spending a lot of time with your coworkers, so being interested in creating a healthy work environment is very important. Additionally, giving and receiving feedback are other key communication skills.

Having genuine passion and working on personal engineering projects, which involves building and learning from those projects, will always make a candidate stand out.


What advice do you have for current students?

Making things real can be very fulfilling, and MechE is an attractive field specifically because of how broad it is. Look for job that will give you real joy (for example, if you don’t enjoy working in CAD, don’t build a portfolio to get a job you won’t like). If you make mistakes, learn from them and move on. Talk one-on-one with alumni, ask them about their experience – what worked and what didn’t.

Take both practical and theoretical classes to find out what you like the most, whether it’s hands-on and making, or thinking about it. After each semester, take a moment to reflect on what you liked about it, and what you want to do more of. Step out of your comfort zone, don’t only interact with like-minded people, learn from people who have different experiences, become a well-rounded person. Talk to your peers, professors, alumni to learn what they do and figure out what you would enjoy. Practice being curious, find comfort in discomfort.


How is working different from studying at MIT?

At MIT, students are trained to solve a problem to get one correct answer. In real world, getting 80% of the desired result and having correct logic in enough. When solving an engineering problem at work, make sure you understand what the problem is. Specifically, don’t just be creative about a solution, be creative about framing the problem. Moreover, using ChatGPT to ask how people fixed a specific problem can help with getting the answers faster. In general, keep in mind that working is easier than being at MIT.

What are some of the things to know during a job interview?

If you get a chance to do so during the interview process, pay attention to how people interact in the workplace: do they chat, do they seem happy.

Ask your interviewers how they deal with failure: ask about a time when they failed, pay attention to whether they allow their employees to fail. Ask them what they currently work on to get a sense of their priorities. Additionally, ask them about what they like and don’t like about working at their current company.

Get curious about what your typical day at work would look like, and always be prepared to ask questions when asked “Do you have any questions?”. Make sure to come to the interview with a set of thoughtful questions in mind. Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for references from the employer. Just as they can ask you for references, it’s worth knowing that you can do so, too.


What does your job look like, and how did you find it?

A typical job of a mechanical engineer involves working in CAD, talking to users to understand their needs, and going back to CAD to test new features (sketch -> CAD -> prototype). On the other hand, a typical job of a researcher involves working on different research projects at the same time, working in CAD, building and testing, and writing grant proposals. It is important to note that a researcher needs to be good at documenting work as there are often long breaks in funding (if a project if federally funded). Those mechanical engineers who work in factories will typically spend a lot of time on the factory floor, meeting with high-level people and making sure that projects are taken care of holistically.

Internships are a great way to build experience. Try to be proactive about it, though. If you know your company of interest is in town, send emails and try to meet. Additionally, go to conferences, present your work, and network with people.

Remember that MIT Alumni might be your best network yet. One of the panelists applied for jobs at 230 places. After not having received a single job offer, they eventually reached out to an MIT alum working at their current company.


Written by: Kamila Madry, Career Fellow