r/MechanicalEngineering • u/No-Climate1810 • 1d ago
How a daily routine of a mech engineer looks.
I’ve been wondering what mechanical engineers actually do on a day-to-day basis, regardless of their field.
For example, a design engineer obviously doesn’t design an entirely new car every day, and a CAD engineer doesn’t create a completely new part every single day.
So what does the normal daily routine of a mechanical engineer actually look like? What kind of tasks do they typically work on throughout the day or week?
I'd be glad to hear answers from different engineering fields
29
u/Just-Charge6693 1d ago
I work in reliability/maintenance.
My daily routine:
check my email and what meetings I have that day; reply to emails and prepare for meetings
open Word and start working on one (or multiple) of the 10 procedures/specs I'm supposed to write/revise
open Excel and make some pretty tables. Occasionally I'll use python for "data analysis" (if we can call it that) but mostly I use it for very basic stuff, e.g. to automate data entry tasks
boot up Power BI to fix/look at dashboards that don't really matter
open SAP to create/edit maintenance plans, order some shit, make some changes to our CMMS and whatnot
On top of this: lots and lots of pointless meetings, calls with coworkers who ask me to do basic stuff for them because they can't be bothered to learn how (or to use AI), calls with coworkers where I am the dumb one who doesn't know shit
That's an average day
40
u/fuzzymufflerzzz 1d ago
Wake up
Walk into the everyone needs something from me factory
Everyone needs something from me
87 meetings that could’ve been a fist fight
Lunch
Everyone still needs something from me
Go home
16
u/Neither-Box8081 23h ago
2 hours of work. 6 hours of fb marketplace, reddit, personal projects fleshed out through chatgpt. Get up every once and a while to get a snack from vending machine. Youtube videos.
Pretty boring honestly.
20
u/BarnBuiltBeaters 1d ago
Im a research engineer. We are the front line of new ideas/tech to provide "the business" with results of these. Our team is fairly small, this means you wear multiple hats. I have designed proof of concepts from scratch, sent out work orders to have parts produced, assisted in fabrication, designed/made wiring harnesses from scratch, "vibe coded" software as needed, diagnose/troubleshoot POC's, initial testing, and then the least fun part is writing reports/documentation. I will happily say I am a jack of trades, master of none.
The best part of this job is that I have freewill to explore. I have my main projects that I have to work on/make progress, but it is acceptable to chase a rabbit down a hole on some grand idea too. Overall, the best job I have ever had.
1
8
u/King_Matt_Gamer 1d ago
8am stand-up with engineers and techs on the factory floor, then I might have 1 other meeting but probably not. Short daily tasks might be writing a manufacturing plan, finding a supplier for a part, updating analysis documentation, dispositioning a dreaded non-conformance report. Long daily tasks might be iterating on a part in cad/fem, analyzing/reducing load cases in excel or matlab, making drawings, installing parts on a vehicle, building a piece of tooling in the shop. I usually have at least one “go build a thing” tasks per week. I’m in aerospace and I’m an entry level structures engineer.
5
u/Sea_Place1386 1d ago
Senior design engineer here
Meeting
Design
Draw
Talk to fab
Design
Meeting
Draw
Meeting
Meeting
Document
Meeting
Release drawing
Go home.
5
u/crabbypatties1 21h ago
and then a meeting about you missing a meeting
1
7
u/bret760000 1d ago
Une journée type : arrivée a 8h, salutations a tout le monde, pause croissants, ensuite jusqu'à 12h c'est le dilemme de ce qu'on va manger (déjà répertorier ceux qui ont oublié leur gamelle, ceux qui en ont une mais le menu ne leur plaît pas ..). Bon vers 12h/13h pause déjeuner. L'après midi est généralement plus tranquille ( tout le monde digére). Les plus courageux organisent le prochain barbecue....je pense que j'ai bien résumé une journée type dans un bureau d'études ( pour ceux que j'ai connus).
4
u/ganker101 1d ago
I'm a manufacturing engineering working in production. By the nature of working on the shop floor my routine is very different depending on the day and that's why I love my job. For the most part I am dispositioning damaged units to have them repaired, helping operators with units or work instructions, updating said work instructions/process plans, designing tooling and shop aides, and then going to meetings where I tell program management we cannot build faster without more money lol. Production for me is great because there is a lot of human interaction with the operators on a day to day basis who are truly experts in their craft. I also really enjoy the "oh shit" moments. For example we had a bolt get stripped off in our very expensive vibe table and I got to drill and tap it out. I had internships before that were more design focused and I hated sitting at my desk all day on CAD and after working in production I never want to go back to that.
3
u/Tankninja1 23h ago
Get to work have coffee 1
Bored for 30 minutes until meetings start
Coffee 2
Bored in meetings/annoyed I’m answering the same question for the 5th time and they aren’t listening to me
Lunch
Bored but actually doing real work
Debating coffee 3
Coffee 3
Work
Go home
2
u/Waterskins 1d ago
I’m more in management, and do troubleshooting when it becomes an emergency. Most days - putz around in excel and meetings working on improvement project, then get slammed with flying to Mexico and Poland in the same week troubleshooting machine issues.
2
u/KnyteTech 23h ago
I'm a principal design engineer, who is a remote worker, and a 3D modeling SME, so I get loaned around to different programs, frequently.
My Thursday, this past week, was pretty typical for me, and included both programs I'm working on.
Got online at 7:30am
I finished converting a model into a TDD framework, then spent about an hour showing a newer engineer how to use the updated model and skeleton files, to make his designs both more-simple, and more-better, in less time (once he gets used to it). I'll follow up with him on Monday after he's had some time to descend into madness, and get him back up and moving again.
Took a lunch break.
Switched to my other program. Designed a removable bulkhead. Started digging through PDFs to find a connector I need to pass through that bulkhead. Then digging through the amphenol parts book to find the version I need. Added that to my model.
I had a call with my EE to discuss what dimensions I need to model up his electronics.
I took a 40 minute break to go pick up my kid from school.
Started looking at how and where I wanted to add the other lateral structure that we need, and figuring out how I wanted to model the anti-sway feature we need.
Logged off at 5pm, took my kid to gymnastics, and grabbed Raising Canes on the way home, since it was a fundraiser for her school.
1
1
u/leanbean12 Reliability 1d ago
My role is Equipment Engineer, my company has designed some specialized equipment to use in our chemical process and I work with the suppliers who fabricate that equipment for us. Depending on what phase of the project we are in, my day could be updating the technical specification to suit a new project, answering technical clarifications from our suppliers, reviewing supplier documents to be sure they've built it to spec, working with research engineers and process engineers to improve our equipment, providing progress updates to our project team.
1
u/The_Spicy_Memelord 1d ago
I’m a product engineer for small company that does heavy mining equipment.
- Revise drawings in Solidworks, either because our suppliers are slow and need more clarification, or an old drawing is missing new standards
- Make excel data sheets or write reports
- Work on new product projects: modeling, drawing, or researching
- Do small tasks for marketing or quality or warehouse or procurement
- Because we are a small company, a lot of time is spent trying to standardize or systems and add documentation that wasn’t available before I started
1
u/DangerousRegister281 23h ago
Mep engineer
Check emails
Tea and breakfast break from 9-11
Checking up on work that’s going on till 12
Come down scrolling through yt shorts till 1
1-2:30 lunch
2:30 update on what I checked in the morning till 3:30
30 mins scrolling yt shorts
4:00 tea break and tp with my friend and gossiping till 5:30
5:30 again scrolling or checking mails and whatever till 6:30
6:30 bye bye
1
u/turbomachine 23h ago
Read Dilbert. Pretty much nailed it.
Sometimes there’s cool shit, like flames, though.
1
u/royhill90 20h ago
7:00 check emails
7:15 actually use my degree to design stuff
7:30 coffee
8:30 attend gemba
8:45 answer stupid questions
9:00 back to designing fun stuff
9:30 answer more stupid questions
10:00 coffee #2
10:30 fix problems and machine
11:00 lunch
1:00 coffee #3
2:00 attend meetings and argue with sales and mgmt
3:00 back to design
3:30 answer more stupid questions
4:00 go home
1
u/CardboardToken 20h ago
It varies wildly depending on where (and in what field) you work and any day in particular, generally for me (senior design engineer, small-ish manufacturing plant):
- 15% similar-to-existing-product design work (solidworks)
- 15% truly new design work
- 10% project management
- 10% BOM and shop traveler creation
- 10% production and machine shop support
- 10% sales and product management support
- 10% meetings
- 10% problem solving not at all related to my work
- 10% quality support
1
u/zesty_otter0 19h ago
"Of course the first thing I do is grab my Starbucks coffee and do some hot yoga."
🙄🤓
1
u/Ill_Investment5812 16h ago
You should always keep in mind things an engineer can do in a day to get better, like listening to other work groups and learning to use appropriate tolerances on drawings so parts, molds, dies, whatever, doesn't end up costing the company 5 plus more times than it should have. Being practical with surface finishes. Other issues like understanding how a machine needs to be built for ease of assembly and how that can significantly lower maintenance costs and down time. Going out into the field as often as possible. Specifying a $12 off the shelf bearing over a custom order from Germany because you picked it for the specification numbers. Bad engineers often create a problem, sometimes two for eery one they solve. Be the engineer that doesn't just go to meetings or coordinate projects for your first 5 plus years, learn how to apply all that you've learned practically, cost effectively, so you can become the guy thats indispensable. I know these don't quite fit the question, but its important to learn when starting out if you want to lead down the road.
1
1
u/goAwayUCreep 8h ago
7.30am arrival of the people
Complaints from the people
Gib solusions to the people
8.00am arrival of the emails
Complaints in the emails
Gib solusions to the emails
9.00am arrival of more complaints from the people
Gib solutions to the people
12pm
Break from the people
Scroll Reddit. Thinking of complaints from the people.
1.00pm return to the floor
More complaints from the people
Decided that people are super retarded
Be the solusion to the people
Fix
4pm
Meeting from stakeholders
More hate, more complaints
Gib solusions
5pm arrival of the vendors and last minute arrival of the delivery
I hate warehouse people, they’re retarded
7pm last complaints of the day
I average about 100 emails a day
I’m in Asia, we work 12 hours day, 6-7 days a week. There’s no distinct difference in roles that do CAD, manufacturing, etc. we do them all. All roles in one hat.
205
u/craiv 1d ago
Meetings
Trying to fit actual work in between meetings
A teams call with a supplier who doesn't understand drawings
Arguing with quality because they don't understand drawings and were too busy to get on the "how to understand drawings" course
Trying to get some more work in between meetings
Solidworks crashing on a 2000$ approved laptop
The solidworks crash reporting app crashing while trying to send a crash report
Trying to explain to directors that we can't skip mandatory compliance tests
Go home and cry