A Day In The Life Of A Mechanical Engineer: Inside Look

Here’s what a routine day looked like when I was just starting out as a mechanical engineer, working in R&D.

The day begins…

6:00 AM: Alarm goes off, but I end up getting out of bed around 6:15 AM. I have just enough time to get ready, feed the dogs, and make a smoothie for my long commute. I leave around 7 AM.

8:00 AM: Traffic was not too bad so I made it in on time. I work on a large campus so I need to factor in the driving to the parking lot, walking in from the parking lot, and walking through the building. All of this usually takes 10 minutes.

Once I am in the office, I sit down and start reading through my emails to make sure there are no immediate issues. Once I confirm there is nothing that needs my attention right away, I get my tea from the break room.

I review my calendar to check the meetings I have scheduled. Then, I review my to-do list.

I check my priorities and add some action items from emails to my list.

Next, I start prepping for my 9 AM staff meeting. I put together a quick summary of the projects I am working on and challenges I am running into.

And the meetings start…

9:00 AM: I attend my boss’ weekly staff meeting that he holds with all of his direct reports. He gives us business updates. After, we go around the table to give updates on our projects. We are all working on different projects so this is an opportunity to see what everyone is working on. I enjoy this because we can leverage the knowledge of the group by discussing the challenges we are running into. 

Initially this took sometime to get used to because I did not want to look dumb in front of the group by revealing the issues I was running into. Once I got over myself, I was able to see everyone faces challenges. I learned to use the meeting to my advantage instead of just struggling by myself. Resourcefulness is key in engineering! Remember, no one expects you to know everything.

10:00 AM: Off to another meeting. This time it is a phone call that I take at my desk. I am calling into a meeting with the manufacturing site. They are located in a different state so most of our communication is over the phone or email. 

This particular meeting is for a value improvement project they are proposing. They want to change part of their process to decrease costs and improve their yields. Whenever the manufacturing site wants to change their process they need my feedback on the impact to the design.

You see, if it does impact the design, then I will need to assess what testing will need to be done to show their change did not effect the performance of the device. It doesn’t seem like it will, but I tell them to send me the description of process change and what their initial test results show. I’ll review their documentation and get back to them.

11:00 AM: I start preparing for yet, you guessed it…another meeting. This one is for a project I am leading. It is unusual for a new engineer to lead a project, however, it’s a great opportunity. The project is for a product that is already on the market, but it is receiving many complaints. Therefore, we are making some design changes to improve the performance.

I coordinate this weekly meeting with the team, which includes the manufacturing site, marketing, regulatory, and quality.

I review the agenda and complete my tasks, which include finish writing a test method, redline drawings in SOLIDWORKS to get quotes from vendors, and write a test protocol.

Lunch time!

12:30 PM: I get lunch to eat at my desk so I can finish my tasks before the project meeting. One of the perks of working at a large company is the campus has a cafeteria on site. This is convenient on the days I do not pack a lunch.  

2:00 PM: I lead the team meeting. We review everyones action items from the last meeting and each team member gives an update. Most people are in the conference room, but others are on the phone. They are calling in from the manufacturing site.

A debate starts between me and Tom from marketing. Tom is frustrated with the color of the new material we are using. He didn’t realize it was changing. I inherited the design choice from the previous engineer. Evidently, he did not communicate with marketing, since this is the first time marketing is seeing the change. He wants the color the same as the design getting complaints because he doesn’t want the customers to notice the change. He is concerned they may think something is wrong with the device.

I explain that unfortunately, the new material doesn’t come in clear, it only comes in translucent green or gold. Marketing says gold is preferable but he will need prototypes to collect feedback from some customers. 

This discussion illustrates the importance of meetings. All functions need to be on the same page to launch a successful product. I started these meetings because the pervious engineer was not having them. Glad this was caught early on. It is critical to get everyones approval because the choice for a new component isn’t as easy as choosing the best performing material. Cost, appearance, manufacturability, and quality all need to be balanced with performance.

Meetings are over, now I can start getting things done…

3:00 PM: After the meeting I immediately type up the meeting minutes while everything is fresh in my mind. I detail the discussions, decisions, and action items.

Then, I send them out to everyone at the meeting as well as their bosses. This way the bosses do not need to attend the meeting and still know what is going on. It also helps hold the team members accountable. None of these people work for me, yet I need them to complete their work to implement the design change. Thus, having their bosses aware of their action items helps.

Then, I start walking towards the lab to see how testing is going. On my way to the lab, I swing by my boss’ office to let him know about marketing’s concerns and how we are going to get customers’ feedback. He says that is a good plan.

I get to the lab to help a technician that was performing some testing for me. He was running into an issue so I needed to help troubleshoot.

4:00 PM: Testing is complete and I input the data into Minitab for analysis. I perform a t-test because I want to know if the improvements we made, have a statistically significant improvement on the tensile strength. Then, I summarize the findings in a technical report.

5:00 PM: Time to go home and deal with my long commute!

6:00 PM: Traffic was bad as usual. I get home and change into comfortable clothes. I debate working out but choose to relax on the couch with my husband and dogs. Then, make dinner, eat, more TV, then bed.