Anyone work in engineering? How’s it going?

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rectifryer

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Higher paying roles seem real unstable right now. Engineering firms are being burnt down by private equity and the stable trading is ferocious. I haven’t seen a quality product put out in a decade….its just not the focus of any org I’ve worked with. Anyone else seeing this?
 
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Furry

Furry

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rectifryer said:
Higher paying roles seem real unstable right now. Engineering firms are being burnt down by PE and the stable trading is ferocious. I haven’t seen a quality product put out in a decade….its just not the focus of any org I’ve worked with. Anyone else seeing this?
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My relative who just retired as the head engineer/chemist of a petrochemical company left in the middle of their highest sales/profit year they've had by a huge margin. They offered obscene bonuses to stay on. I got to hear a lot about GE engineers when I went to the retirement party (that shit company is still in business?). Apparently they hire swarms of engineers, especially h1bs, that suck ass and stumble over each other. His company had precisely two.

In their line of work, if you mess up its lawsuit city. Good engineers get to keep their job.
 
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rectifryer

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Furry said:
My relative who just retired as the head engineer/chemist of a petrochemical company left in the middle of their highest sales/profit year they've had by a huge margin. They offered obscene bonuses to stay on. I got to hear a lot about GE engineers when I went to the retirement party (that shit company is still in business?). Apparently they hire swarms of engineers, especially h1bs, that suck ass and stumble over each other. His company had precisely two.

In their line of work, if you mess up its lawsuit city. Good engineers get to keep their job.
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I’ve seen much more of the ge side of things rather than the converse. Your relative’s company sounds like they knew how to operate. H1bs have flooded every civilian industry to the point that domestic engineers are competing over positions that can’t have foreigners.
 
TJT

TJT

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I am currently a Staff Software Engineer, working in Data Platform Engineering.

No shortage of opportunities for my discipline, if you will.

Or do you only mean the Professional Engineer certified type roles?
 
Caeden

Caeden

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I am in a high level technical staff role in specialty chemicals. I almost left two years ago and got offered a 35% per year retention bonus for two years. We are bleeding experience. We are not enthusiastic about H1Bs either. I am concerned that R&D has stagnated in the specialty while China is catching up. The US can’t compete with their costs. At all. I’ve seen Lang factors as high as 10 on some projects.
 
Intrinsic

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I work with a bunch of different firms providing PE stamped MEP, structural, geotechnical, foundation, etc within Telecom and they're dying to turn around documents b/c they don't have the staff to support the amount of work we have. Project schedules are slowed waiting for designs to come back. One major company that recently acquired a smaller consulting company I've contracted through is growing at an accelerated rate as well. Unfortunately, they do outsource some "grunt" work to India, but it is very small relative to the size and amount of work they do.
 
Slaanesh69

Slaanesh69

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I am a development engineer in oil and gas, and the Oil and Gas Industry in Canada is as unstable as it has always been, more recently because of the instability in oil price with all the Iran shit. You can't even fathom the whiplash changes in programs my company has made through 2026.

This industry is hiring mostly data-trained, mid level engineers, and us old Gen-X farts are being marginalized even though we are still the core of success in EVERY company: for example, I am the oldest development engineer in my company, and my asset is the top producer and the foundation of corporate cash flow. It was not that way when I joined.

So if you are about mid-30s and have a diploma or some training in data analytics, and an engineering degree, you can get hired immediately as long as you get AI to word match the job description in the creation of your cover letter.

If you are my age, you hold onto your job like grim death.
 
R

rectifryer

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A lot of petroleum engineers in here. That’s cool and not foreseen. I bet you guys are killing it as you say. To clarify, by PE I meant private equity as private equity keeps buying everywhere I seem to work then burning it down.
 
mkopec

mkopec

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Development engineer in Automotive, namely Instrument panel and plastics design. Shit in auto is dying though. Were being replaced by H1B poos and if not that then all the stuff is being outsourced to india en masse. I work for a tier one supplier and there is still jobs to be had in the OEM, but even they are outsourcing vast swaths of engineering and design work. Thank god im almost retired.
 
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Kobayashi

Kobayashi

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Should be a great time to get into engineering, there is an incredible amount of change happening. Unfortunately, too many asshole bean counters are rising to the top again. They see engineering as a cost and a commodity, not a skilled occupation that generates value.

My company (automotive) has a local hiring freeze, has basically stopped paying out raises here, and is hiring like gangbusters in Mexico. I feel sorry for the Mexicans, they just expanded the Brazil office. I guarantee in the near future, Mexico is going to be too expensive as well.

I've still got 15 years to ride out. I suspect I'll have to do an industry change before then.
 
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