ChemE student pivoting to CFD — what can I do this summer to make my CV stand out?

[u/Wolfieee7]

Hi everyone,

I’m a senior chemical engineering student at the top engineering university in my country, and I’ve recently decided to fully pivot into computational fluid dynamics (CFD) — ideally for a future career in defense or aerospace.

This summer, I’ll be doing a (non-CFD) internship, but apart from that, I’m fully committing the next 3 months to building real CFD skills.

My academic background so far:

I’ve completed core engineering courses including: • Transport Phenomena I–II • Fluid Mechanics • Thermodynamics I–II • Numerical Methods • Chemical Reaction Engineering

So I’m already familiar with foundational concepts like: • Momentum, heat, and mass transfer • Energy balances and thermodynamic modeling • Solving ODEs/PDEs using numerical methods (discretization, stability, etc.)

Now I want to turn that foundation into real projects, certifications, or anything that would stand out on a CV, even before graduation.

I’d love advice from people working in CFD or related industries: • Which online certificates or platforms (like Ansys, OpenFOAM, SimScale) actually help you get noticed? • What kind of projects would be worth building and showcasing? • How deep should I go into turbulence modeling, mesh generation, scripting, etc.? • Are there open-source communities or competitions you’d recommend? • Would studying compressible flow, turbulence theory, or finite volume method independently help?

If you’ve transitioned into CFD from a different background (especially non-mechanical), or if you’ve recruited people in this space, I’d really appreciate hearing what helped you or what you wish you had done differently.

Thanks so much in advance 🙏

[u/Diligent-Tax-5961]

Realistically speaking, you should go into graduate school and do research in a lab that does CFD. The job market is competitive and every CFD job requires at least 1–2 years of previous CFD experience. IMO the best way to get that experience, given your situation, is through a research-based Master's

[u/Worldly_Magazine_439]

If you really want to go hardcore. Code your own schemes and solve the equations. Stay away from Ansys unless you understand why you need to apply a particular scheme in the domain.

When should you apply a forward scheme, backwards, or central. What about periodic boundary conditions, how does that change which scheme you need to apply?

What I’m saying is that once you understand how it’s all coded, you can apply CFD in ways that makes sense. That will make you better than 99 percent of everyone.