Posting for an immigrant friend of mine. I'm just relaying words. I have faith in this community to help my friend. Would be glad to covey your responses. I was recently laid off from one of the automotive big three after working for 6 months (not related to performance, the management decided to go by last in first out). Though, I would have preferred gaining more experience before jumping onto my next opportunity, here I am navigating through these unprecedented times finding my next adventure. I'm currently on a H1B visa which leaves me with 50 days more to find a different job. But, I need help with something else today. After months of job-hunting post graduation, I took up a contract job as a Driveline Systems Engineer at one of the big three in the Detroit area. The job description asked for someone having strong mechanical and electronics knowledge. I was really excited. Turned out the job description and interview gave a different picture from what I actually did on a daily basis. Rather than engineering something, I was just managing suppliers all day long (7AM until 10PM as I have global suppliers from Thailand, Australia, Turkey, South Africa). The suppliers did all the tech and engineering. I would just test and validate their hardware product. I agree there is a huge complexity in high volume products. The same product is re-engineered for different markets (Axial loads vary with terrain, usage, conditions). But I'm doing none of the engineering. I'm only trying to understand Root Cause of failures and asking the relevant supplier to either amp up their spec or finding a different supplier. So all I did was 1) exploring root causes for failures 2) identify or update requirements 3)validating supplier's solutions 4) identifying avenues for cost reduction for the product(Warranty, Service, Manufacturing) 5) optimizing current production lines The problem is I was a research assistant during my graduate degree and have 3 journal publications, 1 patent to my name. I was the Powertrain Team Lead for a Formula Hybrid team in my undergrad university. Built an electric vehicle, 1 novel medical device from scratch (designed the mechanical assembly, coded the electronics). On this day, I've hardly used a tenth of that technical knowledge I've amassed through the years. Infact, I'm on a path of degression (opposite of progression) and slowly I'm starting to forget the basics beam bending, cantilever mechanics etc. I would like to push boundaries, do something more challenging and novel. I'm desperately looking for a way out. It would be great if I could get inputs on these thoughts. 1) Lucid, Tesla and most of the companies on the west coast are generally only hiring experienced candidates(Entry level positions ask 2 years of experience :/ ). I haven't done anything in the industry (no internships) and I've only been in this position since 6 months. I fear I would become irrelevant for a technical job if I spend more time in these positions. But at the same time, my resume is never picked from the pool as I lack experience. How do I get out of this vicious cycle? 2) I see the job postings have a programming knowledge requirement. Would like to know what level of coding is expected from an ME? I'm a control systems guy and I've mostly used MATLAB all my life and never needed to venture into C++ or Python. (I'm not intimidated by coding. Just didn't need to code with these languages in my research) 3) What is the hiring process like? How many technical rounds? What are the technical rounds for a Mechanical Engineer? or a Controls Engineer? 4) I heard referrals are the only way to fetch myself a job. Can anyone refer me right now? I'm a problem solver and fan of first principles thinking. My research experience was all about understanding the dynamics of a system and controlling the output with negative feedback loops. I can humbly say, my personal projects were amateur attempts at solving real world needs (more like DIY projects which need more effort, resources to become a final product). 5) Is there anyone willing to help me hone my interviewing skills? Mock interviews etc? 6) What are the companies hiring right now? #career #hardware #controlsystems #mechanicalengineering #entrylevel #nuro #aurora #teslamotors #byton #lucidmotors #rivianautomotive #aeva #karmaautomotive #canoo #waymo #microsoft #facebook #intuitivesurgical #ridecell #sfmotors #kindred #magicleap #generalmotors #ford #toyota #honda #mockinterview #robotics #surgicalrobotics #medicaldevices
Does he has a PhD degree? What are his specialties? (The things he knows very well, not the things that he kinda know) where is he from?
Thank you for responding. He just has a Masters degree. His advisor left to Greece to support his parents. And he was more inclined towards industry as he felt his research was atleast 10 years away from becoming a commercial product. His speciality is model based systems engineering. Has worked with Linear models (PID, LQR) & Non Linear models (Lyapunov, Sliding Mode, Adaptive). He seems a genuinely knowledgeable guy. Cleared FE Mechanical exam, so must be knowing his ME basics well?
He seems like someone doing control systems. Mechanical engineer mainly design stuff instead
Try to contact big automotive companies recruiter through LinkedIn. Write the same thing what you wrote here in the while messaging them over LinkedIn. Someday someone will respond may not be with offer but guide you to correct direction. I had few good experience where recruiters from big company like apple, Tesla responded to my LinkedIn message few even asked for my resume. At this point, this is Penny advise I can give. Have hope and keep working. You will find it soon. Good luck
Thank you for your response. Will forward the info.
I will say these: -tesla is having pay cuts so i doubt they will hire -lucid and other start ups in bay area -equally volatile in current crisis - getting h1b approved is going to be too tough as no premium process and rfe chances are high.. small companies wont have bandwidth to deal with rfe issues - mechanical engg is like what you mentioned.. sometimes you work with suppliers and sometimes u do core tech work. The field is too broad to do just pure engineering. Honestly i dont see that in industry. You need to be in spacex or nasa or jpl for core tech work if thats your passion.. - if you have some savings, start looking into doing masters in data science in Canada which will give you more flexibility to come Back to USA after a year..that is if you think you don’t to leave US - today you are complaining about job profile.. trust me in few years you will be upset that the tech work you do is not valued in industrial companies.. and salary will be an issue as mech is not valued in west coast..
Thank you for your valuable inputs. You have a valid point with the job profile point. :)
I have worked in Michigan both for a tier 1 supplier and OEM. I then moved to California for exactly the reasons your friend has mentioned. I agree with “ mfjV22 “ in his above comment about work profile but some DRE profiles in Michigan OEMs are really bad for someone who is passionate about core engineering. I am happy to mentor your friend, you can DM me for further discussion on this. But looks like at the moment the challenge is to save visa status and find a job. I wish him good luck, I hope everything goes well !
Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry but I have been inactive on blind for a while. Will immediately forward your msg.
My comment might not be productive but Hardware jobs in USA for a visa holder sucks. Opportunities are less, salaries are low and with little to less hope for improvement. Apple is the only good option for a mechanical Guys looking to earn decently. I will suggest to explore career as a software engineer if interested in staying back in USA and saving money before moving back to country of origin.
I agree with tzpf .. i wasn’t having this perspective 10 years ago when i came to US but now it’s crystal clear to me
Google is hiring Mechanical Engineers for Data Center design roles. It is an interesting growing area to be in.
He can probably find product engineering roles. I used to be at one of the bigger EV startups in the Bay Area and the mech e stuff is slightly more core tech than PowerPoint engineering (showing off vendor tech). Product engineering would probably work well for his experience with vendors and integration. I also see that you have mentioned about his background in controls. Aside from traditional controls role in aerospace/chassis dynamics engineer, there’s a good amount of robotics controls role but they require extensive software skills. He could try automation controls.
Thank you for your response. In the past few days he has learned Python and has made it a habit to solve few questions everyday on Hackerrank.
Similar profile for me however had some decent leverage on suppliers to deep dive into their black box and proprietary controllers and sometimes do their work (to fix/improve performance) in addition to in-house controllers. Most of the recent startup don’t have time to bring everything in-house in this rat race so positions are still there just like OEMs.
Sorry about your friend's situation and I don't know much about ME, but wouldn't he/she have a better chance at landing a role at this time in the Detroit area (Rivian, Ford, GM, etc) or South Carolina (BMW?). Assuming of course that these companies are still hiring.
Thank you for responding. Well, he got laid off by one of the big three. Only Rivian is hiring in Michigan at the moment.