I’ve been a mechanical engineer for 6 years, and I love it! It is funny to me how much I like the work that I do. With the whole world open to me in college I stressed a lot about deciding which way to go. Mechanical Engineering was just my best guess at a major when I was in college. Even after picking the major there a a million things you can do as a mechanical engineer. I had an internship where I got to work at a manufacturing company both designing and building new products. Sometimes it seems like I tripped and fell into the field of product design.

I have helped launch over 100 products during that time. I’ve worked with police vehicles, barn doors, oil drilling, medical devices, defense, home decor, and a bunch of other industries. Being a part of the process of turning an idea in someone’s head into a physical product in someone’s hand is my favorite part of being an engineer.

Since I have worked for small companies I have been able to get my hands dirty in every phase of the process. I have worked on ideation, ergonomics, production tooling, patent preparation, customer interviews, marketing material, process improvement, compliance testing, customer support, and every other phase of launching a new product and making money off of it. A lot of large companies have teams devoted to specialize in all of those roles. I am grateful for the chance I have had to see and be a part of the entire process.

I absolutely love it – even enough to write a blog about it 😉

Why do I write?

I’m a few years into my career as an engineer/designer. I definitely think I’ve transitioned from being new to being good. That came from a lot of hard work but was also in some ways inherent in getting experience. It’s a steep learning curve when you first start out. In the beginning, every single project involves stretching your skills and your knowledge.

I want to transition from being good to being great. I want to fight to keep that curve steep. Unlike the original learning curve this won’t happen automatically. The purpose of this blog is to push myself. I want to forcibly expand my boundaries. The more my skills increase the more I can help others, and helping others is my ultimate goal.

The scariest thing about saying all that out loud is it sounds full of hubris. I want to push myself to be better than I am, but I don’t want to stray into thinking I am better than those around me. Even if that’s not what I think; I don’t want to come across that way. I believe people (and engineers) are multidimensional, and it is ridiculous when someone thinks they are better because of a handful of attributes.

Those are my motives at 1:16 scale. Not too much detail, but I think you understand the design intent.