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!
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.
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....
Heavy caution... I tried this with GPT3 on a topic I know well (electric motors) and beyond what you might find in the first page of a search engine it went to hallucination station pretty quickly.
