BRACING
FOR
UNCERTAINTY
What could a looming recession—as well as new economic policies—mean for mechanical engineers?
Written by Kayt Sukel
CECELIA ROWELL, A JUNIOR SPECIALIZING IN BIOMECHANICS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said she was relieved when she secured an internship with a global medical technology company for the summer.
“It’s been stressful. All of my classmates feel like we have to get internships this year or we’re screwed,” she said. “The overall vibe is, without a summer internship or a co-op, it’s going to be really hard, if not impossible, to find a job once we graduate.”
There’s no doubt that worries about employment are growing, given the current economic uncertainty in the United States and beyond. And with prominent financial services outfits like J.P. Morgan suggesting that the risk of a recession stands at 40 percent (and PwC putting the likelihood even higher), it’s hard to put fears of a severe economic downturn completely at bay—even for roles like mechanical engineering that are often lauded as being “recession-proof.”
While Rowell is not trying to think too much about the headlines forecasting a recession—or the impact that tariffs, trade policy, and cuts in federal grants might, collectively and individually, have on future employment prospects—she’s instead focused on making herself as strong of a job candidate as possible.
“There are a lot of challenging situations right now, whether you are a student who is graduating or someone who is stuck in their current career and looking for something different,” said Nader Mowalee, a former engineering recruiter who founded Engineer Your Mission, a career coaching program specifically designed for engineers.
Some experts argue, even as early as 2024, the economy was already in the midst of a so-called “white-collar recession,” with fewer job opportunities for college graduates and those with advanced degrees. Certainly, hiring for tech roles had dropped—to the tune of 26 percent for engineers. Thanks to a significant slowing in hiring overall, a February 2025 article in The Atlantic made the case that the job market is already “frozen,” and that’s before we see any impact from new federal policies on the U.S. economy at large.
“I’ve definitely seen some trepidation with students,” said Jonathan Felts, an associate professor in mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University. “They are scared, even if they already have co-ops or job offers lined up.”
Cecelia Rowell, a biomechanics student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The hard truth is that getting a job isn’t all about your technical skills. These are common denominators among every other mechanical engineer that is applying. You need to start by improving your soft skills.”
—Nader Mowalee, former engineering recruiter and founder of Engineer Your Mission
TAKING THE GRAD SCHOOL ROUTE
Felts, in some ways, can relate to those fears. He graduated with his bachelor’s degree in 2008, right in the middle of the Great Recession—an economic downturn triggered by the collapse of the U.S. housing market. Luckily, he had already been accepted to graduate school, which put him into a sort of “bubble.”
“The idea that we were actually in a recession didn’t actually hit home until sometime during the first semester of grad school,” he said. “One of the biggest things I noticed the following year was that we were all of a sudden flooded with graduate students. There was so much demand from international students to go to grad school, in fact, that they were paying full rides, which, even back then, was not the norm.”
The economy was bad enough that, at one point, his university had to put some tenured professors on temporary furlough. But students were “baked into most of the existing grants,” and, as a result, tended to be insulated from those problems, he recalled.
Historically, many engineers do take the grad school route during tough economic times, said Jonathan Cagan, Coulter Head of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. It allows them to gain the skills to make themselves more marketable and, often, provides some time for the economy to get going again. Yet, given recent cuts to federal funding sources such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), he isn’t sure if that will still be the safest course of action if the country does fall into a recession.
“As of now, we are not seeing any profound differences in job placement, but we’re not really in a position to see if that’s happening yet,” he said. “This is not like the COVID years or even previous market downturns. We just don’t know what’s going to happen or what the impact could be.”
Philip Bruce, assistant vice provost for Experiential Learning and Professional Development at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), said much the same thing. RPI saw almost 10,000 job postings, including both fellowship and full-time roles, last school year, and they were at that number again already by April 2025.
“I’ve heard rumblings about what might happen, but we haven’t really seen anything in terms of jobs yet. People still want to hire engineers and people for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) roles,” he said. “Where we have seen some significant challenges is in grant funding. Some labs are losing funding. We had a Goldwater scholar have her offer rescinded because the site she was supposed to go to lost their funding. There will probably be more of that, and it’s going to have ripple effects on the job market.”
Rowell said she has had a few friends lose internship opportunities due to funding cuts and as a biomedical engineer, she worries that healthcare-related grant cuts might interfere with her ability to work in a research laboratory before she graduates.
“I’m ready to give it my all to have the best chance possible in finding a job after graduation,” she said. “But it’s getting harder to get into a research role as an undergraduate with so much funding going away.”
BECOMING A STRONG JOB CANDIDATE
At the beginning of 2025, most experts argued that demand for engineers, particularly mechanical engineers, exceeded supply, with the engineering sector growing at 3.48 percent year over year. Yet, it is unclear if that growth rate will continue. In an article from The Atlantic about the frozen job market, Kyle M.K., a talent-strategy advisor at Indeed said: “The most common thing I hear from employers is ‘We can’t move forward if we don’t know where the world is going to be in six months.’”
Months later, companies seem to be in the same position. When I asked engineering recruiters to tell me what they are hearing about the future market from employers, they said much the same thing. Three recruiters even said they would not go on record for this story because they, too, are grappling with all the uncertainty of what the next year—or years—might bring. Tariffs and global trade policy are still in flux. Lawsuits regarding grant funding are making their way through the courts. Supply chains remain disrupted. No one is sure what parts of the job market will be hit, or how hard. As a result, no one is sure what that means for companies looking to hire—or the mechanical engineers searching for placement.
Yet, Cagan said the best advice he can give mechanical engineers, whether they are just starting out in their careers or looking to move into more demanding roles, is to have a firm grasp of engineering fundamentals, with plenty of “practical and applied skills.”
“We spend a lot of time thinking about how to ground our curriculum in reality,” he said. “Instead of just doing mechanics lectures, we have students do a design project so they can show us they understand the concept. They go into our makerspace and build what they designed so they can show you that they understand how the principles of mechanics apply and work.”
Taking part in internships, co-ops, and research roles also remain differentiators for hiring managers—and help demonstrate that vital combination of fundamentals and applied knowledge. But this kind of “experiential learning,” Bruce added, should provide employers with some evidence that job candidates have strong “soft skills,” too.
“If you’re a great engineer but a terrible communicator, you are going to have a problem,” he said. “Anyone looking to separate themselves from the herd in a competitive job market benefits when they can show those soft skills in their work experience.”
But that work experience does not necessarily have to be in a mechanical engineering role—or even a research lab. Many employers appreciate seeing candidates who have worked at a fast-food chain, Bruce added.
“Sometimes, the McDonald’s employees are the ones who know how to effectively deal with crises and talk to customers—if they don’t, they don’t last long,” he said. “That kind of real-world experience gives you a leg up.”
Mowalee emphasizes the importance of soft skills with his clients. He said many of them ask how to best “upskill” to impress companies. But, that’s not always the best use of a candidate’s time, he argued.
“They ask me if they should take a Python class or get a master’s degree in computer science or learn Solidworks,” he said. “But those aren’t the right questions to start with. The hard truth is that getting a job isn’t all about your technical skills. These are common denominators among every other mechanical engineer that is applying. You need to start by improving your soft skills.”
Beyond improving your communication and teamwork capacity, however, Mowalee said that engineers can differentiate themselves by understanding how the role of the engineer is evolving and making sure they are prepared for those new roles.
“We are going through a big transformation with artificial intelligence [AI]. The way companies want you to solve problems has changed. They want to know how fast you can get an answer,” he said. “So, if you do want to upskill, learning prompt engineering, how to communicate with a large language model, to quickly get those answers, is a good thing. This is something I see that many companies and businesses need more of.”
Cagan agreed. Carnegie Mellon University developed the first master’s degree in AI and mechanical engineering, though it is not the last. He said the program is not only incredibly popular with students, but also with companies looking for employees.
“Those students are getting picked up quickly,” he said. “Every company is trying to figure out how to integrate AI right now. And these graduates have that combination of fundamental knowledge and applied skills to help those companies as they do that.”
“This is not like the COVID years or even previous market downturns. We just don’t know what’s going to happen or what the impact could be..”
—Jonathan Cagan, Coulter Head of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University
THE TIME TO START IS NOW
Traditionally, students in engineering programs might not seek an internship or co-op position until after completing sophomore or even junior year. Bruce said that the most successful students start getting real-world experience as early as the summer after freshman year.
“The more experience you have, the more marketable you are,” he said. “Get started as soon as you can.”
Jonathan Boehnlein, who just graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with his mechanical engineering degree, had a job offer in hand as a field service engineer in September 2024. When considering his own experience as well as that of his peers, the students who hit their university career fairs as early as possible tended to have an offer before graduation, he said.
“That’s where you are going to meet people from 20, maybe 30 different companies. You can find out what they are about, what they need, and even get recommendations about other positions or other companies who might be a fit for you,” he said. “That is what will get you internships and will help you find a job as early as possible during your senior year.”
There is, as noted earlier, the option to pursue a graduate degree. Many universities offer programs that will allow you to get a master’s degree in mechanical engineering in less than two years.
“Grad school is not a fit for everyone,” Felts said. “But if you are interested in research, or you have a professor you like who has an interesting project, you can take that jump. You may find you like it, so you keep going and get your Ph.D. Or, you don’t like it, and then you have an extra year or two to look for a job.”
Yet, no matter what path one takes over the next few years, Felts still believes that mechanical engineers will have strong job prospects, even if the economy falters. Being open to different types of roles and willing to take a few risks will also help with any job seeking endeavors, he added.
“Engineers are essential workers for society. We saw that in 2008, and we saw it during the Covid-19 pandemic. We do a lot of necessary activities, and we are often needed in times of crisis because we can innovate and make sure systems function the way they are supposed to,” Felts said. “That doesn’t mean it’s not scary out there, or even that it will be super easy to get a job. But it does mean that there is probably going to be something out there for you if you keep looking. It might not be the kind of job you originally thought you’d take, but there’s probably something out there for you.”
Kayt Sukel is a technology writer and author in Houston.
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