r/CFD • u/Intrepid-Crazy7427 • 11h ago

Why CFD!??

In the era full of low job availablity(especially for freshers in CFD),,, what makes you love CFD, or be in this subs... You can directly learn some other skills and have good initial salary.. Right???

21 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

32

u/Otherwise-Platypus38 11h ago

If CFD job availability is low, its because its a niche. So if there are good engineers in positions already available, there won’t be that much of a demand. In my opinion, it’s better to have a career in a more R&D or product development environment where CFD is used as a tool. This will really give you a lot of opportunities in the future.

19

u/akataniel 11h ago

I am in this sub since my PhD was about CFD or more specifically on developing and implementing PDEs and using them for CFD. But since I was not able to find any job concerning this topic I’m working in another field now.

8

u/G4insGoblin 10h ago

What was the Topic of your Ph.D. more specifically and in which field are you now? I just started mine, so I am curious

8

u/akataniel 10h ago

Fluid-Solid-Interaction in non-Newtonian fluids using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics. But I also have a lot of experience with FVM and FEM for structural mechanics and mechanics in general. I ended up as a software developer for the building industry.

2

u/Hungry_Phrase_1957 9h ago

Where are you based?

2

u/akataniel 8h ago

Germany.

2

u/burhop 4h ago

With Siemens, BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, and more it seems like there is a lot of CFD jobs all around you. Triply so for FEA.

Are they not hiring?

38

u/hadshah 11h ago

Not sure where you are - but engineers doing CFD are often times crème de la crème of the engineering org here in the US, especially in the aero industry. Thus, are highly paid even from the get go.

9

u/AnalysisWaste5670 10h ago

Pretty pictures, not having to worry about my employees blowing off fingers or destroying expensive equipment. If you are good and in the right industry salary is sky high.

5

u/LoneWolf_McQuade 10h ago

What industry would that be? I always had work where I use CFD tools but my salary is nothing special and seems to have stagnated. I work in Europe Scandinavia and earn around 50k Euro/60k USD as a yearly salary. Started working in 2020

3

u/AnalysisWaste5670 9h ago

Defense is a big one. In general areas where experiments are hard/expensive/can’t measure a lot of what is needed and the margins are tight so you can’t just throw on a massive safety factor.

They need well done CFD where the results matter for design not just selling the idea after the design is done.

6

u/Mysterious_Wonder811 10h ago

I love animations

4

u/Alexx791 11h ago

Have been fortunate to start my career directly implementing and using CFD. Could i still make a better salary somewhere else , yes. Do i love what a do , yes2. Just feels like an endless whell for improvement and growth.

4

u/LittleBigOne1982 10h ago

CFD is a great tool to learn fluid dynamics. That is the value you will be paid for. Unfortunately, CFD is a niche field in non-research organizations and there are few pure research firms. I love CFD since it allowed me to work with smart people and do real engineering, and not pushing paper. I feel lucky I had a long career but it was never easy. Always look at CFD as a tool that will help your organization make better things and always have a backup field (thermal is very close).

2

u/drunktortilla_ 10h ago

It’s not really about the money for me. I just think CFD is cool and like working on it. I work in aerospace and mechanisms, but it’s a hobby for me.

2

u/joaogatao222 8h ago

Agreeing with other comments here that it's a niche field, but a beautiful one. Where I am there are not often job vacancies for CFD or FEA as it's quite specific and not many companies have a need on a daily basis. But when you eventually do get a modeling job it's a very good one. Highly paid and highly respected for a non-management position, with the benefit of doing what you love at a high level.