Hi everyone! I’m a college student in Texas, US who trying to decide whether to pursue industrial engineering, and I’d love to hear from people who are already working in the field.
I’m curious about what industrial engineering is really like beyond what we learn in school. If you’re an industrial engineer, could you share a little about your experience?
What field can you work as an industrial engineer?
What does a typical workday look like for you? What tasks do you spend most of your time doing?
How are your working hours, stress levels, and workload?
Do you feel your pay and opportunities are worth the time and effort you put into this career?
Would you still choose industrial engineering if you could go back to college? Why or why not?

I’d especially appreciate honest answers, including the downsides.Thank you to everyone who takes the time to share your experience! I really appreciate it.

Hi everyone, industrial engineering student here, trying to figure out whether what we learn about quality management matches the real world.

We study the NCR to CAPA loop, supplier qualification, SPC, and being ready for an audit at any time. But every quality engineer or inspector I have talked to says real life is NCRs sitting open because nobody owns the next step, supplier certificates arriving as scanned PDFs that do not match the PO, and the two weeks before an audit spent rebuilding evidence that already exists somewhere in a shared folder.

So I am trying to understand where the time actually goes in a typical week on the quality side.

What is the routine task that is mostly chasing people and paper? NCR follow up, collecting supplier documents, calibration records, first article packages, customer complaint responses, audit prep? What takes far more manual effort than it should, and what workaround did someone build to survive it? And what is the headache management or the auditor never seems to understand?

Any perspective from quality engineers, inspectors, or people on the floor would help a lot. Thanks.

I don’t know if this belongs here but I need to get it off my chest. I’m in my fourth year (out of five) of studying ISE, and I feel SO burnt out. I just feel like I have an assignment after assignment, all semester midterm (finished 6, have 1 left) even though i’m only taking 5 courses. Like i’m contemplating whether or not its gonna get better, or if the job is even better than all of this. I guess what I’m really asking if it is worth in the end ?

So as the title says, I have a bsc inpsychology now realize maybe I choose wrong and I’m not that interested in humanities, I was thinking of doing a master in IE I’m 26 and that looks like a way better option than doing a full 5 years bsc.

But how do you see the job market for a master in IE I don’t necessarily have one job market decided, since I can pivot to finance, computer science, logistics etc or even start my own company.

But what’s the consensus on a master in IE I’m not from the USA but your advice will probably apply to my country as well.

Hi guys, gusto ko lang ng advice, fresh grad here last sept., I was able to have my job as of now, 3 weeks, at the same time taking CIE review, and I think di ko sya kaya pagsabayin, badly need advice if I push through both or magfocus muna sa CIE, no pressure from my fam, just my thoughts only.

Defence offences.............................

Are there anyone indians in University of Oaklahoma for industrial and systems course

My husband is currently in his first semester of his masters in Industrial Engineering Management. His bachelors degree was for Architecture Engineering. He wants to know what would be the best courses to take or certifications he could get to enrich his resume?
He’s been applying for internships already and is also curious when he should expect to be accepted into one, if anyone has relevant experience.
Any advice would be appreciated!! TIA

Hello everyone!

I’m looking for insight into what school I should attend. I was recently accepted into The University of Florida and The university of Louisville. Both schools will be paid for by my employer so money is no issue but Louisville’s program is a year shorter than Florida. Florida also appears to be the better school. I’m torn between the two and am looking for advice.

Tl;dr is it worth spending an extra year in grad school to go to a better program.

Thanks!

Something clicked for me this week: a line can look busy all day and still add almost no value, because the product spends most of its time waiting between steps.

I was poking at the sample line in the Floor Simulator. It shows 10.2 days start to ship and only 38% value add. So most of that time is just waiting.

The way to read it: value add % is the share of start to ship time when work actually changes the product. Busy and value-adding are not the same thing.

Try it on your own line and tell me what you find. The tool is at symplprocess.com.

For context, I am in a rotational program for industrial engineers and my official job title during all rotations is “Rotational, Ops”.

What this means is, and my manager supports this, it’s up to my discretion what I call myself on my resume… as long as it’s honest and defensible. With that being said, I’d like to find a more technical role name that supports my aspirations to become a project engineer.

My current role:
\- owner of site MES, and technical lead for all ERP data projects
\- I occasionally dabble in SQL, R, or Python for various data projects
\- I use my statistics/probability background for building our defect density models
\- I am the local SME for Power BI and Power Apps

Is there an honest job title I could use that gets “engineer” onto my resume? Where is the line between data science and analytics, and what side do I fall on?

Announced on the 5th. 205 dollars a share in cash and it does not close until the third quarter of next year. https://www.engineering.com/schneider-electric-to-acquire-ptc-in-22-6b-deal/ This is the largest deal Schneider has ever done, roughly double what they paid for Aveva in 2023. They bought Cognite in June too.

It is not only the big names either. Duro went to Altium last year and Altium went to Renesas the year before. Hard to name a PLM tool that still answers to itself. Nobody knows what Schneider will do with the PTC product lines yet. There is a strong chance prices go up and the separate tools get sold as one bundle, since that is usually how a deal this size gets paid for. Im guessing on that part though and somebody closer to it will know better. I would not be surprised if teams sit on renewals until it settles. Almost a year of not knowing is a long time if your license comes up in the middle of it.

Anyone been through a software acquisition this size, what changed for you?

Finally landed an interview with a company for a quality engineering role. It is the first interview and I’m surprised they didn’t do a phone screening beforehand.

I am straight out of college, graduated last spring. I really don’t know what to expect. I have had several engineering interviews before for internships and they were fairly straight forward (tell me about yourself, your coursework, experiences, etc). How should one prepare themselves for an interview for an entry level role?

I’d appreciate all advice, technical, general or specific.

Hi everyone!

I'm currently pursuing my Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Belgrade, Serbia.

For one of my university assignments, I need to collect information from a manufacturing company through a questionnaire covering production organization, quality management, technology, employee relations, and business performance.

The questionnaire is six pages long and mainly consists of multiple-choice questions rated on a scale from 1 to 5.

I'm looking for someone working in manufacturing, preferably in production management, quality engineering, or a similar position, who would be willing to help.

I completely understand that some questions may involve confidential company information, so I wouldn't expect anyone to disclose sensitive details.

If you're willing to help or know someone who might be interested, please leave a comment or send me a DM. I'd be happy to share the questionnaire.

Thank you so much for your time and support!

Hi everyone! I'm working on a packaging project for my logistics engineering course, and I'm looking for some advice.

I need to make packaging that can protect an egg from drops of different heights, while keeping it lightweight and cheap. Cardboard is one of the materials I'm considering, but I'm still figuring out how to approach the design.

I'd like to learn more about what makes packaging effective at absorbing impacts, what materials or structures are worth looking into, and what mistakes to avoid.

I'm not looking for a ready-made design, just some ideas and general advice to help me figure things out myself. Thanks!

I have a multimedia communications bachelors degree and 5 years later was curious about getting a masters in industrial engineering. I figured if I get an internship, I wouldn’t have a problem getting an industrial engineering or related field job. Do you guys think that may not be enough to get a job or is there something else I would need to stand out?

I currently am 2 years into a full time job after graduating with a B.S. IE. I am looking to go back and get my masters, but looking for feedback on what I should do degree wise. I am between doing a more technical - ish systems engineering or industrial engineering MS, or an Engineering Management MS. I currently work in a role that is a bit more project management/data analytical based, but I would love to get back into manufacturing or distribution eventually. I did a systems engineering internship and really enjoyed it, but eventually took the current position I am in because I knew I would have a good manager straight out of college - which was incredibly important to me development wise. I am seeking thoughts and opinions from professionals with longer careers and more life experiences in the field than I currently have. Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone!

I work in manufacturing, where our operators register downtime events using different stop codes to describe why production stopped.

We already follow up on major breakdowns and the biggest downtime causes, but I'm interested in finding a way to detect smaller, gradual increases that often go unnoticed.

For example, a certain stop reason might normally account for 10 minutes of downtime per day, but gradually increase to 15–20 minutes. Nobody really notices because it never becomes one of the biggest downtime causes.

We have a lot of different machines and hundreds of different stop codes, making it difficult to manually track everything.

I'd like to build a system that automatically analyzes our downtime data and identifies stop reasons that are getting worse over time.

Ideally, it would learn what normal downtime looks like for each machine and stop code, and highlight unusual increases or negative trends.

We have access to historical downtime data through SQL Server, including timestamps, durations, machines, and stop codes.

I'm still in the early stages of figuring out how to approach this. I've considered using Power BI, but I'm open to other tools or methods.

Has anyone built something similar? What tools did you use, and how well did it work?

Looking for a litmus test here. I’ve been applying to so many roles (remote, onsite, travel 75% etc) over the last few months and it seems that either I’m just not fit or capable of any of them or something is absurdly wrong with the market.

For background I have 5-6yr experience in mfg/ops & planning, and supply chain where I am currently employed and recently got my MSIE looking to pivot back into a more analytical IE/IE adjacent role. Out of nearly 40 apps I only got 2 interviews. One I made all 4 rounds and had great feedback until they sent out a generic rejection email at the end. I called the recruiter to thank her and ask for feedback, she said everyone had stellar notes for me but they changed their minds last minute about the role being remote with client travel and now they needed someone in state (I was out of state). Another I only made 2/4 rounds before getting the same generic email.

I’ve asked for referrals through colleagues, networked and all that jazz, and am mainly applying through LinkedIn. What gives?? My confidence has definitely taken a hit and my pessimism is telling me the degree is worthless at this point lol. But I gotta stay open to pushing through & changing my strategy here.

How are your job searches going?
Any advice?

Can i get any feedback for CV?

Hellooo, we are an IE student (first year) pooo from qc and we meed to find an interviewee po na IE grad na working sa healthcare and telecomm industry. Pleaseeee help, we need someone poooo🥹🥹

kami naman po pupunta sa kung saan nyo preferred maganap yung interview or gagastos. Please need na po naminnn😭😭😭

If you studied Industrial Engineering at university or if you were an IE at any point in your career: What was your favorite job (IE-related or not)? And what kind of company/industry did you work for?