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Dads posted:Considering my resume/GPA and what I'm looking for in a job, anyone have similar experience or ideas about what my job market would be like? What are reasonable expectations about career freedom? Belcan Corp and Butler America are always hiring engineers for 1-2 year contract positions. They will likely be at large companies (United Technologies for example) but it's much less of a commitment.
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Nov 10, 2009 00:45
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Dads posted:At my school (and likely in most others) the job placement program is heavily geared towards large companies, industry types, and 'career-oriented' opportunities. Most of the companies at job fairs seem to be looking for semi/permanent employees, and this seems to be where most of my peers end up. A general attitude I get is that most people are looking for jobs where they will always be advancing and always be making more money. I'm wondering the same thing. My GPA is a bit better (although I'm still in first term so that may change (but hopefully not)) and I'd like to live a similar life to what this guy is proposing. Anyone else done something like this? Cypress posted:I personally haven't tried these but they always looked kind of fun: The "(whatever) for the evil genius" project books. We used Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius in my high school electronics class (the guy who wrote the book taught the class) and it was OK at best. If you end up getting the same book, don't take the books word on everything, there are tons of errors, some pretty appalling ones too, like mislabeled datasheets for ICs. The projects start off fairly simple, like a light detector, and become moderately complex by the end, the last project uses up to 4 IC's and you can do quite a bit with it. I made D and D dice, with a switch that causes a 7seg display to count really fast, and then you stop it by turning off the switch. You could choose 2, 4, 6, or 8 "sides" to the dice with 4 other switches. Also, I'm looking for a Co-op job right now, any Canadian engineers who are at a company that does co-op and could help get me a job? 
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Nov 10, 2009 01:18
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The main perk to a short (or long depending on how you look at it), is that you're typically paid by the hour ($25-$33/hour to start, plus overtime). However, benefits packages can be a little weak, no paid vacation or sick days either. But if you're looking for that kind of mobility, a contract position is more than worth it.
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Nov 10, 2009 02:01
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Dooey posted:I'm wondering the same thing. My GPA is a bit better (although I'm still in first term so that may change (but hopefully not)) and I'd like to live a similar life to what this guy is proposing. Anyone else done something like this? I can make 10-20k$/month easily working 6 months out of the year if I sail. Its pretty laid back and lets you do what you want. You can also look for a company that needs commissioning engineers, building power plants somewhere in the world. The ones I talked to would be flown to the jobsite, work till it was finished and then get a ticket to wherever they wanted. Most would just fly to Bangkok and hang out till the company wanted them somewhere else.
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Nov 10, 2009 04:00
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Muir posted:I don't think this is true. If I saw a resume with more than a few years of work experience on it and the GPA was listed, I would find that strange. What would you say the job of someone with a BS in ChemE entails? I'm considering switching to it, but I'm not too keen (right now) to having to go to grad school to get a decent job.
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Nov 10, 2009 05:24
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Ryzic posted:http://www.nerdkits.com/ Fan-loving-tastic. Exactly what I'm looking for, these would be quite fun to use.
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Nov 10, 2009 06:37
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plester1 posted:When I worked in a nanofab facility as an undergrad, they wouldn't let me do this step. I'm kind of glad because it sounds scary as hell. We had an undergrad class where we got to use a fab, and tons of us handled the HF (under supervision of course). If you follow the safety rules, you can use it without any problems. Also, teflon is certainly not the only thing that isn't dissolved by HF. Many plastics are rated for it, including some glove materials.
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Nov 10, 2009 09:11
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Is there a list of jobs in the engineering field, and which majors/concentrations do which, to help people get a feel for what is what? A website? Or is it more a case of just rubbing elbows with your department and people in the field? Call me short sighted but my biggest thing right now is to get a job in a nice city in a nice place, so I'm leaning to HVAC because the money's good and its not hard to find that in big cities it seems. But what else can you do and expect to be in an office downtown or in a suburb somewhere and not, say, in the middle of nowhere? I could see myself happy in an office and going out to the field every now and then, I wouldn't mind being away for a few weeks or so, but I very much do want a nice apartment, stability, nice things, and to be in a place where there are things to do. CE/EE in the RTP area of NC seems like a sure bet. Then again I'm sentimental as poo poo about Raleigh.
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Nov 10, 2009 11:26
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Nihilanthic posted:Call me short sighted but my biggest thing right now is to get a job in a nice city in a nice place, so I'm leaning to HVAC because the money's good and its not hard to find that in big cities it seems. But what else can you do and expect to be in an office downtown or in a suburb somewhere and not, say, in the middle of nowhere? SecretFire posted:Also, teflon is certainly not the only thing that isn't dissolved by HF. Many plastics are rated for it, including some glove materials.
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Nov 10, 2009 11:38
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I've recently graduated, and I've been looking for my first real mechanical engineering job. I've been wanting to get into the field of either robotics or prosthetics, but I'd be open to most anything that would give me experience directly applicable towards that. Are there any companies or industries in particular you'd recommend I look at? I'd be willing to relocate to some extent - mostly I'd like to steer clear of areas where taxes or housing prices are particularly high. I just sent my resume to that Belcan Corp place mentioned by Sock the Great - it seems they're doing some pretty interesting stuff.
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Nov 10, 2009 16:04
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Dads posted:Considering my resume/GPA and what I'm looking for in a job, anyone have similar experience or ideas about what my job market would be like? What are reasonable expectations about career freedom? Bleak. You will have no career freedom until you get to a point where GPA doesn't matter on your resume. I came out with a low GPA, lower than yours. I have a job now, but it was hell getting one. I was referred for interviews by everyone I knew and I still didn't land jobs I was over qualified for. The job I got had 7 hours of interviews and I basically nailed it, which was very lucky on my part. Your best bet is to try to rape your last 1.5 years GPA wise and then come up with a sob story about why your grades are low for prior. A company sees a low GPA and thinks two things, dumb or lazy. Also your point about smaller companies. They require more career commitment. You have much more responsibility in smaller companies starting out than a larger one. Larger companies you are like one of many parts in the machine that will keep working with or without you. If you want to hop around, then you need to go to large companies. 5436 fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Nov 11, 2009 |
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Nov 11, 2009 01:38
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Really? I've heard people say due to the high demand for engineers that as long as you have a degree and can work with others, the GPA hardly factors in. Infact the engineering department at my school is sort of known as being the last resort for students who can't get in anywhere else since they take anyone regardless of GPA. They do also the highest turnover rate of students too since its also one of the toughest departments to pass. edit: But I'm still a student, a guy with an actual engineering job knows more about this then I do. Just throwing in what I've heard (which is probably wrong) Kid Awesome fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Nov 11, 2009 |
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Nov 11, 2009 01:47
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Nov 11, 2009 02:16
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Kid Awesome posted:Really? I've heard people say due to the high demand for engineers that as long as you have a degree and can work with others, the GPA hardly factors in. The "There aren't enough engineers!" whining comes from companies that have hard GPA cutoffs of 3.0-3.5(?!). The median GPA of a graduating engineer at my school in one of the past few years (I forget which  ) was 2.9 with a standard deviation of .2 or so (it wasn't quite normally distributed for obvious reasons). If you're limiting yourself to 30% or less of graduates then yeah, theres a shortage!I had a 2.8; I couldn't find a job (got some interviews, went to someone "better qualified"). I'd been working with a professor I did undergrad research for most of the past year since January; we just started a business and got some seed funds. This is proving to be far more "fun" than any "normal" job...
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Nov 11, 2009 02:25
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Thoguh posted:What is your field and location? That might factor in. West Virginia University. Apparently our mineral engineer is pretty top notch (coal mining industry is, obviously, big) at least from what I've heard once again. I'm a EE myself quote:I'm also confused by you saying that engineering is the "last resort" major at your school, since it's the complete opposite everywhere else. Example, I had a friend who was originally accounting major but his GPA was to low to get into the School of Business & Ecocnomics (Required 3.0, but usually pulling in 3.5 area). So he switch to Computer Engineering since the Engineering School doesn't have a min. required GPA. Makes sense now? quote:My class started with over 100 people in our freshmen classes and that was pared down to only 28 people at graduation. Yeah, thats pretty typical too. Just because its easy to get into, doesn't mean its easy to complete. Kid Awesome fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Nov 11, 2009 |
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Nov 11, 2009 02:35
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Kid Awesome posted:Really? I've heard people say due to the high demand for engineers that as long as you have a degree and can work with others, the GPA hardly factors in. They are in high demand, but a lot of places have 3.0 GPA cut offs. Almost every place has a 2.7 cut off. The guy who said his school average is 2.9, std of .2 is probably way off. That would mean .5% of people have over a 3.5. That is like 1 out of 200 people graduate with honors. The other thing to factor in is who is applying to the same jobs as you. I would suspect the people graduating with super low GPAs are less likely to be planning on doing an engineering career path. Regardless, the demand isn't about getting anyone with a B.S. in engineering. They care a lot about grades. Like I said, bad grades imply either lazy or stupid.
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Nov 11, 2009 02:42
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5436 posted:They are in high demand, but a lot of places have 3.0 GPA cut offs. Almost every place has a 2.7 cut off. The guy who said his school average is 2.9, std of .2 is probably way off. That would mean .5% of people have over a 3.5. Yeah, its more like .4 now that I found the charts again, can't find the actual data though.
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Nov 11, 2009 03:00
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Nihilanthic posted:Is there a list of jobs in the engineering field, and which majors/concentrations do which, to help people get a feel for what is what? A website? Or is it more a case of just rubbing elbows with your department and people in the field? Stationary Engineers union. Babysit a building, pay is 30-40$/hr (at least on the west coast) to change lightbulbs or adjust thermostats, full union benefits (health, pension). You can usually find some sort of power plant job as well if thats too boring.
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Nov 11, 2009 04:24
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Traitorous Leopard posted:What would you say the job of someone with a BS in ChemE entails? I'm considering switching to it, but I'm not too keen (right now) to having to go to grad school to get a decent job. As I don't work in ChE industry I can only give my outsider's impressions, but here we go: It's all mostly process engineer work. Oversee a chemical production process and the techs who run it, make sure your pipes and boilers and reactors are all happy, etc. Maybe be involved in some scale-up or design, but probably not at first. Mostly pipes and steam tables. Someone who actually works in chemical/process engineering please feel free to jump in and tell me how exciting your job is and how much I'm missing out on by avoiding that side of ChemE.
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Nov 11, 2009 05:32
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lightpole posted:Stationary Engineers union. Babysit a building, pay is 30-40$/hr (at least on the west coast) to change lightbulbs or adjust thermostats, full union benefits (health, pension). You can usually find some sort of power plant job as well if thats too boring. That's a blue collar job that just uses the term 'engineer'. You're basically an operator for the equipment inside of a building that an Engineer designed/specced. Its also hard as hell to get into. I'm looking for something more creative, for sure. Designing and implementing plumbing/HVAC/power distribution would be more 'my thing'.
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Nov 11, 2009 13:00
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Nihilanthic posted:That's a blue collar job that just uses the term 'engineer'. You're basically an operator for the equipment inside of a building that an Engineer designed/specced. Not all engineers sit around all day drawing pictures that are inevitably stupid because they have never worked on the equipment they are designing. Most stationary engineering jobs dont require much critical thinking and are pretty boring though. Its very easy to get into though. In California you just call up the dispatch office and they will give you a list of jobs available through whatever region you are looking for and then you apply directly with the company.
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Nov 11, 2009 18:35
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Muir posted:Someone who actually works in chemical/process engineering please feel free to jump in and tell me how exciting your job is and how much I'm missing out on by avoiding that side of ChemE. I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I sort of split my work between process engineering and pure chemistry lab work. I like being able to do that because I find that research keeps me creative so I'm not bored of twiddling process parameters. I also get to don the lab coat and goggles and play with dangerous stuff. edit: I don't really draw any pictures or whatever, we've got mechanical engineers to do any Solidworks or CAD stuff we need.
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Nov 11, 2009 18:41
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plester1 posted:I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I sort of split my work between process engineering and pure chemistry lab work. I like being able to do that because I find that research keeps me creative so I'm not bored of twiddling process parameters. I also get to don the lab coat and goggles and play with dangerous stuff. A ME friend of mine basically does nothing but 3d modeling right now, but is still paid as a ME to do it. This amuses me to no end, and he hardly minds - who would? I find myself drifting back to EE again tho... I hate the lack of being able to make up my mind.
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Nov 11, 2009 21:08
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Nov 12, 2009 00:02
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Thoguh posted:I think that's what he meant. Unless you are misrepresenting it, it's a blue collar job that arbitrarily decided to put the word "engineer" in the title. Or am I reading your posts wrong and the job requires a engineering degree? Stationary, Operating, Railroad, Audio, Broadcast, and Microsoft/Novell/whatever are not the type of engineers this thread is about. They're tradesmen, like electricians, plumbers, pipe fitters, etc.
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Nov 12, 2009 00:25
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So only people who have their PE and sit around all day drawing poo poo can post? An engineering degree simply lets you skip the apprenticeship and go in as a journeyman. I dont really care what you call it. Its an option, pays well, is extremely stable, in demand, cant be outsourced. If I limited myself to what you think engineering is both my options and my pay would be cut in half.
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Nov 12, 2009 00:54
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lightpole posted:So only people who have their PE and sit around all day drawing poo poo can post? I think the intent of this thread was to explore the range of things an engineer can do, partly as a window for students and other engineers. This of course includes things like operating and maintaining equipment, so I think its fair game, just like its fair game to discuss getting a PE, or doing 3D modeling. As an example, one of my coworkers with an ME degree spent a lot of time as a mechanic for Formula 1 before getting promoted to racing engineer. I'm jealous, who wouldn't want to work on race cars? I don't think its fair to exclude blue collar work, because its a legitimate avenue for someone with an engineering education to move into something they're interested in. Its valuable experience for someone designing an engine to have been a mechanic. An engineer designing a tool or fixture is well served by some machining experience. I also think the titles are nebulous at best. I once saw an advertisement on a job board for "sandwich engineer". I'm not sure whats worse, sandwich artist or sandwich engineer.
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Nov 12, 2009 01:18
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plester1 posted:I also think the titles are nebulous at best. I once saw an advertisement on a job board for "sandwich engineer". I'm not sure whats worse, sandwich artist or sandwich engineer.
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Nov 12, 2009 01:28
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Nov 12, 2009 03:40
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Thoguh posted:I don't disagree that a background in actually applying technology is a good thing for any engineer to have. What I meant is that the discussion in the thread was about the profession of Engineering rather than any job that attaches the word "engineer" to the title.  BTW, slather the roll with mayo and thousand island dressing. Cook up steak and sautee onions, mushrooms and peppers with it. Add double the normal provolone cheese, and mix in pizza sauce. Fill the bun, and top with lettuce, tomatoes and dust with italian spices. Mmmmmmm grover fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Nov 12, 2009 |
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Nov 12, 2009 03:52
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grover posted:BTW, slather the roll with mayo and thousand island dressing. Cook up steak and sautee onions, mushrooms and peppers with it. Add double the normal provolone cheese, and mix in pizza sauce. Fill the bun, and top with lettuce, tomatoes and dust with italian spices. Mmmmmmm How many monte carlo runs did it take to come up with that?
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Nov 12, 2009 05:41
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edit: already been answered.
extravadanza fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Nov 12, 2009 |
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Nov 12, 2009 05:57
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lightpole posted:An engineering degree simply lets you skip the apprenticeship and go in as a journeyman. I dont really care what you call it.
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Nov 12, 2009 14:01
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hobbesmaster posted:How many monte carlo runs did it take to come up with that?  Edit: well, OK, the thousand island was a later design revision. So, 2. grover fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Nov 12, 2009 |
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Nov 12, 2009 14:10
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To be a little more serious for a moment, that makes me wonder - if, say, you're an EE, and you want to or your job wants you to be able to function as an electrician of some form, what is the process by which you would be certified to work on the stuff you're responsible for or designing? Just mass a test or do you still have to put in so many hours? Obviously electronics labs are nothing like high voltage poo poo with the gloves up to your shoulders and something not unlike a welding mask on your face in case you gently caress up, though, but how would that go? And who says you can't make a better bun toaster and sell it to subway or something as an internship?
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Nov 12, 2009 14:31
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Nihilanthic posted:To be a little more serious for a moment, that makes me wonder - if, say, you're an EE, and you want to or your job wants you to be able to function as an electrician of some form, what is the process by which you would be certified to work on the stuff you're responsible for or designing? Just mass a test or do you still have to put in so many hours? 
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Nov 12, 2009 15:00
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Groda posted:That really sounds like a technician job you're talking about. The name of the union is the Stationary Engineers union. I did not name it. I dont really care what the job is, its an option for engineers that pays 80k-100k starting out of school with excellent benefits. Most of the ME's at my school get their FE and start looking for design jobs until they realize they will make more as a technician.
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Nov 12, 2009 15:12
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lightpole posted:The name of the union is the Stationary Engineers union. I did not name it. I dont really care what the job is, its an option for engineers that pays 80k-100k starting out of school with excellent benefits. Most of the ME's at my school get their FE and start looking for design jobs until they realize they will make more as a technician.
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Nov 12, 2009 15:35
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bawfuls posted:But does the technician have the same long-term income prospects the engineer does?
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Nov 12, 2009 15:55
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Nov 13, 2009 00:41
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