Before You Begin

You didn’t come here for advice. You came because the story you were told about mechanical engineering no longer sounds true.

You were promised design, invention, and a career that would matter. You found forms, schedules, and a line of signatures that mattered more. Somewhere between the coursework and the cubicle, the word engineering changed shape. It still sounds technical, but most days it feels administrative.

The picture looked steady from the outside. Mechanical engineers build the world, you were told. They solve problems, move industries, keep systems running. Inside, the work is smaller. The tools are older. The decisions arrive already made. You update the drawing, not the design. The satisfaction that once came from making things has been replaced by the relief of finishing paperwork.

Every field wears a mask. This one wears professionalism. It hides oversupply behind “selective hiring,” burnout behind “tight deadlines,” and low pay behind “stable industry.” You learn to repeat those phrases until you almost believe them. Then another layoff, another reorg, and you remember that stability here is just inertia with a timecard.

This blog collects what that feels like in practice. Each Reason is a small field report from the inside; the long hours, the misplaced credit, the way optimism turns into process. The patterns overlap because the problems do. What looks like personal failure is often structural. What sounds like “experience” is usually attrition.

If you’re still in school, read to understand what the job actually is. If you’re already in it, read to remember that it’s not just you. These essays aren’t warnings as much as translations. They explain the distance between what you expected and what you found.

Mechanical engineering still works. The machines still move. The problem is that you don’t.