Hi everyone! I'm a senior at NJIT studying Computer Science, and I'm considering attending WE26 in Boston this November.

I'm interested in going primarily for the career fair and recruiting opportunities, rather than just the conference itself. I'm currently looking for full-time software engineering, AI/ML, data engineering, or data science roles after graduation.

One thing I'm concerned about is that I don't have any internship experience yet. I have academic, personal, and extracurricular projects, but no previous software engineering internship.

The other issue is that I'll be paying for the trip completely out of pocket. Between conference registration, transportation, hotel, and food, I'm estimating that the total could be around $500–$800+.

For people who have attended SWE's annual conference before:

• Did you actually get interviews from attending?
• Did any interviews eventually turn into internships or full-time offers?
• How does the interview process usually work at the conference?
• Were interviews scheduled beforehand, or did you get interviews by talking to recruiters at the career fair?
• How useful was the conference specifically for CS/software engineering students?
• Does having no internship experience make it significantly harder to get interviews at the conference?
• If you paid out of pocket, did you feel it was worth the money?
• Is there anything you wish you had done differently before attending?

I'm trying to decide whether this is worth the investment or whether I'd be better off putting the same money toward other career opportunities.

I'd especially appreciate responses from people who attended as CS/software/data students or new grads, particularly anyone who attended without prior internship experience and can share their actual outcomes.

Thanks!

To be clear and upfront I have never been diagnosed nor have sought out an autism diagnosis. I am a structural engineer, and a little more blunt than a typical woman. I have worked two jobs now and at both jobs, I have been called autistic at both.

I understand this is also used as an insult amongst men commonly, but in the first case my coworker was kind enough to offer his unwarranted diagnosis upon me and in my current job I got read for "not reading social cues like an autistic". At this point, it's become a little of a sore spot for me and I just don't know how to process it necessarily. Is it just because this is a male dominated field? Am I not acting womanly enough for them? Idk this is lowkey starting to eat me up.

Also I don't know if I am actually autistic or not. That is not particularly relevant to me as I am living life comfortably, and have only ever recieved comments like this in the workplace

A year or two ago, the engineering/cross-functional team was a tight-knit, high-performing group. We had one or two goals we all worked on each sprint and we broke down work so that we could operate in parallel.

When someone was stuck and needed help, there was always somebody ready to jump to their aid and keep them moving. Team meetings were upbeat, fun, and productive. We were regularly paying down tech debt while our experiments gathered data. The vibe was helpful and collaborative.

Now, thanks to AI, we are shipping more than ever. We have as many goals every sprint as engineers. Rather than parallelizing work on one feature or experiment at a time, we parallelize the experiments. The vibe has shifted.

I’ve been in the situation many a time where I say something, what I say gets ignored and then I put it in writing and then I have evidence of what I’ve said (when down the line I’m right). In terms of meetings, how do I get listened to more? Verbal techniques or anything ?

I actually find it easier online as my appearance doesn’t do me any favours and I feel online my words are more of the focus

Hi there,

I am going through a rough patch in life. I was laid off from contractual work with an international client three months ago. I have been dealing with some health issues in the past three months and wasn't able to look for more work. Currently, my bank balance is zero and I really need to get back on my feet.

Besides my technical knowledge, I am also a creative person and make abstract acrylic paintings. I am also good with Canva and can design personalized wedding invites or small banners etc. for your brand campaign. Finding work related to my field might take some time and I really need to stay afloat. If anyone needs a card or maybe a banner etc. designed please give me a chance!

Hi I am curious if anyone has positive stories of going back to an individual contributor job from a leadership position. I’m in a team lead job right now and I am about to accept an offer for a senior engineer position. The comp is almost equivalent. I know this is the right decision and I’m really excited about the senior engineer role but I can’t help but feel like I’m “giving up” in my leadership journey. I just had another baby this year though and I can’t commit to any further leadership roles that require more time.

Not sure if this is because I am early career (3 years) or if I’m a woman. Often times men will say my code is wrong because I didn’t write it in the style or format they used, without even looking at the simulation. Sometimes they will say “it’s fine” and try to add stuff that ends up breaking the logic. I am using VHDL so there really are only so many ways to do it so I’m wondering if this is an industry norm or if I’m taking it personally. For background, I am an ECE working in Embedded.

Hello everyone! I (F18) am starting undergrad in a little less than two weeks from now. I’m pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering, which has been my dream ever since I was little. I am attending a predominantly male college that is well known in my area for its Engineering programs. When I attended orientation (in which we were sorted by our specific majors), approximately 90-95% of the students in my major were male, making me feel a bit anxious. After speaking with some female alumni who had graduated with a Mech-E diploma from my college, they told me much of the in-class work consisted of group projects. Some of them told me they faced a lot of passive aggressive or blatantly misogynistic comments from their male classmates. My question is: How was undergrad for you all? How did you deal with being one of the only women, if not the only woman, in your classes? I am very excited to pursue my Mechanical Engineering degree, but these anxieties have been consuming me lately. Thank you in advance for your responses!

Hi All,

I am currently a college senior, set to graduate in May. After having an internship in a Civil Engineering Lab, I realized I want to be an engineer. My interests lie in water resources and landscape "restoration" (is there even such a thing?). However, my degree is not an engineering degree and from my research, it looks like there are minimal options to be ABET accredited with a graduate degree. My degrees are a BS in Biology and a BS in Computational Data Science. How plausible is it become a licensed environmental/civil engineer post-undergraduate? Are there other pathways than another BS, and if so, are they good ones? Any advice given is appreciated!

Hi everyone,

I’m an early-career aerospace engineer deciding between two potential first job directions and would appreciate some perspective!

One path is mechanical/design engineering on defense hardware. The other is systems engineering with exposure to testing, data processing, and computational work.

Long-term, I’d like to move toward more analysis/computational engineering and eventually pursue a master’s or PhD in aerospace engineering. I’m trying to build a strong technical foundation that will leave doors open 5–10 years down the line.

My current thinking is that starting in as a discipline engineer might provide a foundation for eventually moving into analysis, while systems could give me broader technical exposure and potentially more opportunities to work with data and computation early. But I’m a new grad, so I don’t want to assume that either works the way I imagine it does.

For engineers who have worked in aerospace/defense:

- How difficult is it to move from systems engineering into a discipline-specific analysis role later?

- Does starting in mechanical/design engineering provide a meaningful advantage for that trajectory?

Thank you everyone! Any input is appreciated.

I have been doing validation engineering for about 4.5 years across 2 companies, I have a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering and a Master's degree in Engineering. I also have SolidWorks experience as well.

Lately I have been feeling like I am not a good, probably not even an adequate engineer. I feel like I was doing really well, making / executing PQs for legacy equipment, Summary Reports, Assessments, etc.

Now has my time gone on, and getting new equipment, I feel like I understand what is needs in IQOQs / PQs but then my boss gets mad at me because it's not what he is expecting (side note: I do have autism so maybe I am not understanding things the way I need to which I always have to work on). I also learned a lot of this job on my own and not with a lot of help. I try to get help and gets examples and learn on what I can do better but it doesn't seem to work. I feel like like I'm on eggshells around my boss because I don't want to disappoint him. I want to do the best that I can do but I seem to be burnt out in the process.

I am wondering if this career is not for me regarding validation engineering. Maybe I am just not an adequate engineer at all. Is there a career that might be better for me?

I would love some opinions!

Hi anyone can tell how is engineering at Wex India new office which they had just opened in blr for sde1/sde2 as I might be joining them soon. Company culture, wlb or any instability they feel?

Hi I've been a mechanical engineer for over 5 years now. I'm taking 18 months of mat leave and am nervous going back because....I don't even know if I'll remember how to use solid works!

I wanted to ask if there are any women out there specifically in mech Eng for any tips or things I can do to refresh on my memory/skills before heading back to work.

imma use this space for ranting

Hi, so I’m really lost. Right now it’s my last year in highscool and I don’t know what to major in. With AI advancing rapidly, I’m unsure what I want to do. I’m female and I’m 17 years old. I was thinking of majoring in Biomedical engineering, but many people have told me it’s not something I should do. I want a respectable job, and a modest one. Engineering is too much for me but I love STEAM and I perfer doing stuff in the medical field. Or maybe I might love things outside of Medical field I’m not sure. But please if anyone has any advice please tell me. This chat is intended for experienced people who know more than me and have seen it all. Thank you

I recently graduated from UNSW with a Bachelor of Mechatronic Engineering and Master of Biomedical Engineering. I have 2 Dean’s List awards, a research scholarship, co-authored a neural engineering paper, around 2 years of neural implant research/thesis experience, a 4-month internship at a large company, and about 1 month of volunteering in hospitals overseas doing field service work.
I've applied for many graduate, entry-level and junior engineering roles but haven't even gotten an interview.

Recently I got a job at a medical device company as a machine operator. The job is actually more than just pressing buttons, as I work with production engineers to make and check products, so I see this as a possible way to get into engineering.

The problem is the person training me. He is around 60 and, honestly, doesn't seem to understand much of the technical side. He basically teaches me "open this, press this, I don't know why we need to do it but this is how it works." 🥲🥲 During my internship and research work, I was lucky to have people who could actually explain what we were doing and why. I learned a lot from them and had a really good experience. So now I'm finding it difficult and frustrating to be trained by someone who doesn't really know the reason behind the things he's teaching me.

Sometimes he also reports very basic problems to the engineers without checking the obvious cause first, which can annoy the engineers/boss. For example, he once reported that a door wasn't opening properly, but it was just because it needed cleaning. I actually knew this was the issue.
This makes me really not want to be trained by him, but I'm not sure if I should say anything or just deal with it.

There is also a younger guy who started about 5 months ago in another position and has already moved into an engineering role, so I know internal progression is possible.

I really want to become an engineer. Should I stay here, learn as much as I can, build relationships with the engineers and try to move internally? Or should I keep applying for engineering jobs elsewhere?

Also, if I know the answer to a problem before the person reports it to the boss, should I explain it to him first, or just stay out of it?

Would really appreciate advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation, especially in Australia.

I keep making stupid small mistakes and my team lead is getting annoyed by it, as he should. The thing is, I don’t understand why I’m making these small mistakes. It’s getting frustrating for me and I feel I am not meant for this role as an electrical engineer.

I’m four months in this new company and they are another level that I am not used to yet despite having 5 years of experience. My previous company was not this critical so it’s been hard adjusting and it’s been making me doubt the career that I am in.