I studied both CS and Mech Eng (double major). Totally worth the extra work!

I'm a High Schooler right now (pretty competent software, interested in hardware). If you dont mind me asking, what specifically has your double major opened up for you?

I can’t speak for the person you replied to, but I work for a software company that is always on the lookout for mechanical engineers who can write code. It’s a pretty rare combination.

Any suggestions for a mechanical engineer who has some coding aptitude and wants to switch careers? I'm self taught and have mostly worked on hobby projects. I have some professional controls experience programming automated machinery (PLC). My lack of formal CS training seems like a real barrier to jumping into a full-time software role.

It's true, you might be able to find a slow career move where your roles take on more and more code until eventually pure programming rolls trust your experience. However if you're looking for a faster move look into night classes, if possible. You can get a computer science degree for much cheaper in a couple years of just doing night classes along with your work. It can be hard to balance all that but career changes are usually difficult to navigate. I wish you luck!

PLC pays well - and often there are contracting/consulting opportunities - look for jobs in the Automotive area.

I was at lockheed and am still friends with some of the best engineers I have ever worked with ; Every single HW engineer I worked with also coded - and we have built, patented and pursued so many other paths based on the capabilities of HW engineers being able to design actual HW as well as spec the code required to solve the problem.

So, if you have the capability, certainly go both... It will give you, at your age, the ability to build the change you want to see in the world....

Warning: wall of text follows!

Tldr; it's a lot of coursework but I've never regretted it.

I'm a TPM now, have worked on aerospace projects with small teams where it helps to be fluent in both sides of the electronics and mechanical design. I've managed multi disciplinary design optimization efforts where there is heavy intersection between code and real-world mechanical factors (writing code for my mechanical designs and writing the backbone for other contributors or translating their system to code). Being able to understand electric motor systems design end to end through the entire chain from control comms to firmware to MOSFETs, electromagnetics, and mechanics has been rewarding for me as well.

In terms of opening opportunities, small hardware startups are where I've been able to have impact, and where there is demand for someone who wants to contribute in both areas. Where I am now as TPM is a fairly limited track and PM is a bad word in some companies. At faang, it seems that software track pays better than tpm or mechanical so that is one item to note.

At larger companies it is a difficult sell for someone who wants to do both at the same time as an IC. Smaller niche companies are more likely to want someone who has the breadth and can help fill in gaps or own a whole project.

The reason I am not a pure SWE is that my passion lies in being able to hold the result in my hands at the end of the day (or week, month, year:)

I'd recommend you try out the machine shop or what is available to you if you go to an engineering college, maybe some robotics projects, mechanical engineering foundation courses, material science courses. See how you like it. I'm sure you will be successful whatever you do. If you do both it's a lot of work but I never regretted it for a second.

Materials science is more focused on these topics than mechanical engineering fwiw

MSE used to be part of ME (still is in some universities).

True! Even my diploma in ME course has a subset of MatSci in it. Fascinating stuff.

I had a materials science course as part of my ME undergrad. (And of course there was overlap in other courses.)

When I went to grad school for a Master's at an engineering school which, at the time, was small enough to not actually have formal departments, I studied a fair bit of mechanical engineering but actually did a materials science thesis.

In Sweden, at many places that do a materials science engineering degree, it is historically under "Mining engineering" rather than "machine engineering".

I have a MSc in MechE. Unfortunately a lot of the stuff he does is the “fun stuff” and like any engineering job, you’re lucky if you have a 50/50 fun stuff to paper work ratio.

Your lifetime earnings as a MechE are probably only 20% of what you'd earn studying CS - especially at the high end of ability.

You could just take some of those extra earnings and take up MechE as a hobby.

>> MechE are probably only 20% of what you'd earn studying CS

Maybe if you are a MechE working for facebook or twitter. But go to something like SpaceX or BMW and you will find the best MechEs paid way more than the software people. The insane paychecks in CS only exist at companies where software is the final product. Companies that produce physical products put CS into a support role. A department head at Boeing or LM is far more likely to be from an engineering background.

Then you'd just be a dilettante.

Not much wrong with that, as long as your family is fed. My degree is in Mechanical Engineering. Most every dollar I've earned was from computers. I still faff around doing enjoyable hobby projects in engineering (ultra-light ME, EE, CS) with the kids. It's a fine life.

I prefer the word amateur, which shares the same root as "love" for a reason.

Sorry but this is such an HN comment. It manages to simultaneously make everything about money, basically position things in the context of Big Tech, and assume that your specific undergraduate degree charts your career.

For the record, I have an ME undergrad (and a grad degree that's basically material science) and while I've mostly only used my direct classwork a bit, I've done fine.

20% is probably a bit of an exaggeration. I wor in tech and worked in the regular industry prior. I would say my wage is about 20-30% less than my peers of the same level. I don't know anyone that works for a company that has a payband difference more than one sigma for each IC level.

This is basically a drop in to Facebook or Google and make $600K/year or life isn't worth living sort of comment. (And I doubt if it's even accurate as someone as someone with non-CS degrees.)

Hardware engineers in MAANG makes about 20% less as well (anecdotally). Our wage is not that far off in tech (one signs as I mentioned). But we definitely have way less job openings compared to our SWE peers.

The claim was you'd make 1/5th. Which may have been a wording mistake. I'd believe maybe 20% less in general--which may very well be fine for many people if that's their preference.