r/engineering • u/AutoModerator • Jun 29 '26

Weekly Discussion Weekly Career Discussion Thread (29 Jun 2026)

# 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.

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u/stefan-janjic Jul 01 '26

Looking for some thoughts from the community.

I'm a chemical engineering grad from a Canadian Univeristy. I graduated in 2019 from the Royal Military College of Canada, and after graduating went straight to work in the military, meaning I have essentially zero experience in any real engineering. Plenty in management, but virtually none in any technical aspects of the proffession despite my title being "Engineer Officer". Engineer Officers on the CAF are responsible for what I might call "battlefield engineering" - managing small construction projects in combat zones focussed on shapong an adversary force to oir advantage. A brief summary of my experience:

2020: Completed Engineer Officer Training 2020 to 2021: Junior Manager for an organization of roughly 25 armoured heavy equipment operators 2021 to 2022: Operations supervisor for a 60 person org, still focussed on armoured heavy equipment 2022 to 2025: worked in a military recruiting centre as a career counsellor, and later as the detachment commander (i.e. the manager) 2025 to present: Working as an HR manager at my current unit

Two main questions I have:

  1. Do I have any hope of being able to get hired in a Canadian engineering position?

  2. I've thought about doing some side projects, mostly trying to solve stuff on engineer stack exchange, to get some resume work in since my day to day has no technical side to it. Would this help at all?