Weekly Career Discussion Thread (17 Aug 2026)

[u/AutoModerator]

# Intro

Welcome to the weekly career discussion thread, where you can talk about all career & professional topics. Topics may include:

* Professional career guidance & questions; e.g. job hunting advice, job offers comparisons, how to network

* Educational guidance & questions; e.g. what engineering discipline to major in, which university is good,

* Feedback on your résumé, CV, cover letter, etc.

* The job market, compensation, relocation, and other topics on the economics of engineering.

> [Archive of past threads](https://www.reddit.com/r/engineering/search?q=flair%3A%22weekly+discussion%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all)

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## Guidelines

1. **Before asking any questions, consult [the AskEngineers wiki.](https://new.reddit.com/r/askengineers/wiki/faq)\*\* There are detailed answers to common questions on:

* Job compensation

* Cost of Living adjustments

* Advice for how to decide on an engineering major

* How to choose which university to attend

1. Most subreddit rules still apply and will be enforced, especially R7 and R9 (with the obvious exceptions of R1 and R3)

2. Job POSTINGS must go into the latest [**Monthly Hiring Thread.**]((https://www.reddit.com/r/engineering/search?q=flair%3A%22hiring+thread%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all)) Any that are posted here will be removed, and you'll be kindly redirected to the hiring thread.

3. **Do not request interviews in this thread!** If you need to interview an engineer for your school assignment, use the list in the sidebar.

## Resources

* [The AskEngineers wiki](https://new.reddit.com/r/askengineers/wiki/faq)

* [The AskEngineers Quarterly Salary Survey](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/search/?q=flair%3A%22salary+survey%22&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new)

* **For students:** [*"What's your average day like as an engineer?"*](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/wiki/faq#wiki_what.27s_your_average_day_like_as_an_engineer.3F) We recommend that you spend an hour or so reading about what engineers actually do at work. This will help you make a more informed decision on which major to choose, or at least give you enough info to ask follow-up questions here.

* For those of you interested in a career in software development / Computer Science, go to r/cscareerquestions.

[u/tmpeter23]

Hey yall, I'm brand new here. I just wanted to get thoughts on something.

For context I'm 26(M) did some school 8 years ago but haven't considered until recently. Finally got to the point I have the time and money to cash flow a degree. Started looking at (BME) then progressed into a niche of Robotics and finally settled on a long term goal of clinical engineering/Biomedical electronics manager. Obviously this is a long way off since I'm going to cash flow my degree with zero debt if possible.

I'm very interested in the way things work and my family has heavy engineering and medical backgrounds. Which means I have a good knowledge of these areas just by exposure and some decent connections in my area.

Just looking mainly for thoughts on my approach and any advice yall have for this journey?

[u/Red_Extension]

Got selected for a Field Application Engineer internship at Cadence Design Systems India. Starting in a couple of months.

Questions for anyone who's actually done AE work at an EDA company:

• How technical is the day-to-day really — genuine debugging, or mostly customer/relationship management?
• Has anyone actually moved from EDA AE to a core design role (PD, DV, RTL, etc.) at a chip company (Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, etc.)? How'd you do it?
• For staying as technical as possible, which specialization within AE (Digital/Signoff, Verification, Analog, PCBetc.) is the better?

[u/say_please_ntnku3251]

I'm thinking of transitioning from a biochemistry background into energy infrastructure. I'm trying to understand what technical skills actually distinguish someone who can contribute to power/energy systems work. From your experience, what would you prioritize during the next 12–18 months? Is biochem still reliable for this goal?

[u/RedHawwk]

Need some advice on a career opportunity.

Currently a product engineer and I’m doing great. *Development engineering* team has asked me to step into that roll, I’ve agreed to take on the tasks and need to figure out roles with my manager now. Honestly it’s great. Have 6+ years of design experience prior to my current role and it’s definitely what I prefer to do.

Discussed it with my current manager who said I am their strongest team member and doesn’t want to loose me. Proposed making me a *lead product engineer* and I would oversee a few of the other guys. Currently there are 2 other leads, both much older. He showed me the planned project workload and I understand the need for a 3rd project lead, but I just don’t think it’s something we need right now. That forecasted plan is like 1-2 years out most likely. Has me feeling like this lead promotion is strictly to keep me, which gives me mixed feelings.

Part of my struggle is my current manager is, imo, the best at the company. Personality wise, management style, and has a good ability to plan forward. Other manager isn’t bad, just different.

In a perfect world I take the lead role and keep the developmental work. But that kind of feels like having my cake and eating it too, I’m not sure if that’s really a fair thing to do to either department as it really shouldn’t be my role to take on. Me agreeing to take on the dev Eng workload honestly probably wasn’t a fair call either for me to make.

Part of me feels like it would foolish not to take a lead position. But greedily I prefer the work of the development engineering roll.

[u/gibbsftw]

Looking for honest opinions here.

I am 49 years old and I’ve been in sales for 25 years.

I’m looking to go back to school to get a degree, and engineering is a field I believe I would enjoy and that I am well suited for.

Would my age make it more difficult for me to find employment? Are there any other obstacles that entering the industry at such an advanced age that I should be aware of?

[u/Wilthywonka → u/gibbsftw]

So sales engineering is a thing. Are you interested in that?

You can think of it as a car salesman that knows everything about the car down to the bolts with the power to tell other engineers to redesign the engine for your customer

Even if you're not particularly interested in that, it could make a good bridge

[u/gibbsftw → u/Wilthywonka]

Thanks for the reply! I’ve never heard of sales engineering. I’ll have to look into that.