Mechanical Engineering @ FAA(M)G
Hello all I am a budding Mechanical Engineer with around 2yrs of experience. I am looking for jobs in Consumer electronics for a year now but have had no luck even getting interviews. Any help would be appreciated on what skills to develop for working in comsumer electronics as a Mechanical/Product/Test Engineer? Does applying online even help or I need to know someone at the company? Thanks in advance @facebook @apple @amazon @microsoft @google
It's very difficult to get into those companies as a mechanical engineer without experience in the specific field they are in. (Ex: consumer electronics, robotics, data center design, etc...) The easiest way to get in would probably be to look at your current role and see which ME role it is most similar to. Then advertise your experience in terms of the specific skills you have. Ex: if you focus on manufacturing issues in your current role, look for manufacturing engineering positions and what specific skills they are looking for in the postings. Also, it's fairly common to do an internship or work at a different company in the same field for a while to get noticed.
Thankyou Are you a mechanical engineer as well?
@op Any progress with your jog hunt in consumer electronics? I am also a ME working in Cummins and trying to migrate to the bay area. Thanks!
Hey Not really Nothing is going in my favor
I've worked as a PD engineer at both Apple and Google and have friends/colleagues who either interviewed or worked for some of the other ones you mentioned. Knowing someone definitely helps since they can give you a referral and that pushes you up the queue a bit with recruiters and at least guarantees a phone interview. If that's not possible, relevant experience at smaller companies in anything high volume helps. If you're interested in product design engineering, you want to have a good understanding of fundamentals like beam bending and mechanics of materials (stress-strain, fatigue, etc). They also will focus a lot on design questions like material properties and selection of common plastics and metals, injection molding best practices and issues, tolerance analysis, and GD&T. You usually need good CAD skills and some companies ask you to do a design challenge prior to onsite to test it. Companies like Apple and Google use NX so knowing this is pretty useful. You could also take another approach and try to get a project management role or manufacturing and then switch over to design. I know a few people who did this as well but not sure if it's any easier...
I’m trying to get into Apple PD, but have an offer that’s in HW eng. would accepting the offer be an avenue into PD, or is it better to gain more practical experience elsewhere and keep applying?
Hard for me to comment on since I haven't personally met anyone getting in through that route. One on hand, you're already in Apple so internal transfer may be easier but I feel like the relevant work experience would be lacking. PDs at Apple kind of work as an integrator amongst different cross functional groups, support builds on site in China and have direct management over vendors, and they work on design of high cosmetic and high volume parts. You might be able to get into PD but I'm not sure it would be a lateral transfer if you can't show relevant experience. The person I know who went from mfg to PD had to actually switch companies and take a contracting role to get their foot in the door. The PM to PD I think had a smoother transition since PMs work very closely with PD so they are aleady super familiar with the work and design process. On the other hand, you could get relevant PD or mechanical design position elsewhere and if you're really good at what you do, I'm sure Apple would love to poach you. And since you already passed an Apple interview once, you should be to do again another time.
Hey I’m also trying to do this. Any luck w a job yet?
If you want to look at those places, be really quite good with thermal modeling and airflow analysis.
What about intel?
TBH, I left because of the lack of opportunity. It was a bit slow and they slap training wheels on you with little independence. However, it did help my resume and I did get contacted a lot when I started looking for jobs. I am EE. Start with NSG or DCG orgs. There are plenty of projects coming out of Intel that require thermal analysis. I would say much less emphasis on the CAD enclosure side of things, but still needed.