The 100 Reasons

This is the complete list. Every entry is linked. New reasons are added as they are published.

Reason #1: The Field Is Oversaturated

Reason #2: The Four-Year Degree That Takes Five (or Six)

Reason #3: Prestige Among Strangers, Pity Among Engineers

Reason #4: The Default Degree

Reason #5: Internships That Don't Exist

Reason #6: Your Colleagues Are Your Competitors

Reason #7: Innovation Is Happening Elsewhere

Reason #8: Broadness Is a Liability

Reason #9: Seventy-Two Percent of Your Week Is Not Engineering

Reason #10: The Technician Learns What You Actually Need

Reason #11: Your Specialization Dictates Where You Live

Reason #12: Entry-Level Requires Experience You Do Not Have

Reason #13: No Guild, No Protection

Reason #14: You're a Custodian, Not an Innovator

Reason #15: It Becomes Your Identity, For Better or Worse

Reason #16: Technicians Do the Real Work, You Do the Paperwork

Reason #17: Professional Licensure Rarely Pays

Reason #18: You're Paid Less Than Your Peers

Reason #19: Grad School Doesn't Help

Reason #20: The Plant Picks Your Zip Code

Reason #21: Cost Down Is the Job

Reason #22: You Probably Won't Work in the Field

Reason #23: You Are a Cost Center, Not a Contributor

Reason #24: Your Applicant Pool Is Global

Reason #25: Pipeline Mismatch Is Built In

Reason #26: The Work Is Mind-Numbingly Tedious

Reason #27: Your Salary Plateaus Early

Reason #28: Promotion Means Leaving Mechanical Engineering

Reason #29: The Prereq Trap Starts Before ME

Reason #30: Remote-Proof Work

Reason #31: Your Arch-Nemesis Finishes First

Reason #32: You Live in the Gap

Reason #33: The Report Is the Product

Reason #34: Two and a Half MEs

Reason #35: Timeless Core, Stalled Field

Reason #36: Testing Is the Job

Reason #37: The Vendor Writes Your Design

Reason #38: The Other Engineers (and Techs) Are Happier

Reason #39: The Party Line Says Everything Is Fine

Reason #40: If It's Admin, It's Automatable

Reason #41: Your Electives Are Someone Else's Core

Reason #42: Meetings, Not Machines

Reason #43: 8:1 at Work, 5:1 at School

Reason #44: Worse Than the Job Is No Job

Reason #45: Temp-to-Hire's Permanent Maybe

Reason #46: Too Late to Leave

Reason #47: You Mistake Motion for Progress

Reason #48: Even Your Certifications Aren't Really Yours

Reason #49: You're Probably Not On the Good Track

Reason #50: It Is a Dying Field

Reason #51: Compliance Eats the Interesting Work

Reason #52: The Plant Teaches You What the Degree Didn't

Reason #53: Your Kids Don't Want This Career

Reason #54: Your Training Is a PowerPoint and Yelling

Reason #55: Being Needed Means Being Used (Until You're Fired)

Reason #56: Institutionalized by Design

Reason #57: The Entry Ramp Is Built for People With No Life

Reason #58: You Can't Hang Your Own Shingle

Reason #59: If Everything Was Fine, They Would Not Need to Debunk It

Reason #60: No Matter What They Tell You, There Are Winners, and You Aren't One

Reason #61: It's Business Administration, With Consequences

Reason #62: The Tools Aren't Yours Either

Reason #63: One in Five of You Will Work Without Using the Degree

Reason #64: Four Years of Calculus to Stand Next to a Plumber

Reason #65: Your Diligence Is the Blueprint for Your Replacement

Reason #66: Your Personal Life Is an Employer Subsidy

Reason #67: It Has the Worst Return on Investment in Engineering

Reason #68: AI Won't Replace Mechanical Engineers, It Will Demote Them

Reason #69: The Seniors Who Trained You Won't Be Replaced

Reason #70: The Community Polices Itself

Reason #71: Their Engineering Experience Compounds, Yours Expires

Reason #72: The System Works Exactly as Designed

Reason #73: You're the Last to Know When the Program Dies

Reason #74: Outside the Clusters, You Don't Exist

Reason #75: It's a Vocation Wearing a Profession's Suit

The list is not finished.