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NativeAlien posted:What was their work experience like prior to graduation? Historically it's taken an average of about 4-5 years for employment to recover after a banking crisis, so...maybe.
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Feb 21, 2010 08:52
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z to da ach posted:Tell me more. I graduate next May and am looking for a job outside the US for a while before I settle down with a family. I graduated May '09 with a job offer from an international chemical manufacturing company. During the interview process, I had expressed interest in work overseas. I also have the advantage of speaking Mandarin Chinese fairly fluently. Worked on a project in the states, then my boss let me know of a project coming up in China, and I asked to get on it.
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Feb 22, 2010 09:09
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z to da ach posted:Tell me more. I graduate next May and am looking for a job outside the US for a while before I settle down with a family. If you're a CHE, investigate some of the oil companies, as well as bulk chem suppliers (Dow, etc). Most of them have significant overseas operations, getting a job there might be a bit harder though. I took the consulting company route, which means I get to visit more countries for shorter periods of time, but my job is a bit less stable due to the overall fluctuations in the market sector I'm in (I'm an EE working in steel production). I like it though, and as you said, it's a great job for someone young and unattached. Stup's experience was similar to mine, as far as getting the job, but I was assured international work from the beginning; it's in the job description. I expressed interest in a few sites, and I've gotten my pick 2 of 3 times. I'm actually in the field right now, at a site in India.
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Feb 22, 2010 09:45
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So...update. This morning, the guy I interviewed at the power company called and left a voicemail saying they picked someone else for the co-op spot, but I was a great candidate and if I could do a summer session he would love to have me so I should reapply for that, etc. Fine, so I got ready to just take the first offer from the ag company, created a list of preferred locations, etc. Then at 4:30 today a lady from HR at the power company called me and said she'd like to offer me the co-op spot. I'm really confused at this point. I was really geared up for the agricultural company but now I'm second guessing it, and I have two days to respond.
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Feb 23, 2010 00:00
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NativeAlien posted:So...update. This morning, the guy I interviewed at the power company called and left a voicemail saying they picked someone else for the co-op spot, but I was a great candidate and if I could do a summer session he would love to have me so I should reapply for that, etc. Fine, so I got ready to just take the first offer from the ag company, created a list of preferred locations, etc.
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Feb 23, 2010 00:23
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I need some help with my mechanical engineering woes and I feel like in the next week or two I'm going to get ball rolling in the right direction but I'd just like any extra help from the engineering community at large. How do you guys deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed at times? I really don't have any engineering friends right now but I'm trying to work on that so I feel like that might be one outlet. PS I'm in my fourth semester of engineering and have been making good progress so it's not like I'm being overwhelmed by Calculus 2 or something like that.
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Mar 2, 2010 06:01
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I dealt with it today eating like a pig, getting depressed, and actually getting work done. I don't think I'm good at it. I'm also in my fourth semester and getting way better at being an organized and responsible student. Sweet As Sin fucked around with this message at 06:13 on Mar 2, 2010 |
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Mar 2, 2010 06:09
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huhu posted:I need some help with my mechanical engineering woes and I feel like in the next week or two I'm going to get ball rolling in the right direction but I'd just like any extra help from the engineering community at large. How do you guys deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed at times? I really don't have any engineering friends right now but I'm trying to work on that so I feel like that might be one outlet. PS I'm in my fourth semester of engineering and have been making good progress so it's not like I'm being overwhelmed by Calculus 2 or something like that. Well, it's nice to have friends in your class so you can have someone to do homework with. This is pretty essential in upper-level courses, at least in my experience. I guess the best way to not get overwhelmed is to start things early and get things done one day at a time. Go talk to your TAs during office hours if you can't figure out the homework, as they'll often pretty much tell you what to do if you bug them enough. There's really no other magical way of reducing the workload. I definitely remember days when I was an undergrad where I felt completely miserable with my to-do list, but it somehow worked out in the end. Graduate school is MUCH better in terms of not shoveling busy work at you relentlessly. Many graduate electives don't even have exams.
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Mar 2, 2010 06:33
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huhu posted:I need some help with my mechanical engineering woes and I feel like in the next week or two I'm going to get ball rolling in the right direction but I'd just like any extra help from the engineering community at large. How do you guys deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed at times? I really don't have any engineering friends right now but I'm trying to work on that so I feel like that might be one outlet. PS I'm in my fourth semester of engineering and have been making good progress so it's not like I'm being overwhelmed by Calculus 2 or something like that. Time-management is key. Make a schedule with everything you gotta do in the next few days and stick to it. I just had a week with 4 tests on top of the usual homework load. Did everything piece by piece and I didn't die at the end  Having friends in your classes that you can bitch with and help each other out with homework is extremely useful.Go to your TA's office hours as usually they're just grad students who'll pretty much show you how to exactly do something. Find something to do outside of engineering classes! Join a club or exercise or something and get your mind off for an hour at least.
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Mar 2, 2010 07:14
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huhu posted:I need some help with my mechanical engineering woes and I feel like in the next week or two I'm going to get ball rolling in the right direction but I'd just like any extra help from the engineering community at large. How do you guys deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed at times? I really don't have any engineering friends right now but I'm trying to work on that so I feel like that might be one outlet. PS I'm in my fourth semester of engineering and have been making good progress so it's not like I'm being overwhelmed by Calculus 2 or something like that. My third and fourth years of undergrad were the real killers for me. I didn't really decided on mechanical engineering until my fourth semester, so I basically took nothing but engineering classes my last two years of college and it was pretty overwhelming at times. I dealt with it by working out and learning to manage my time better. Any time I had work to do and found myself on the forums or playing video games, I made it a point to pull myself away from it and finish my stuff up. It's not hard once you get into a rhythm. Seconding what Frinkahedron said about TA office hours. That is one resource I didn't use nearly enough in undergrad.
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Mar 2, 2010 22:17
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Nihilanthic posted:
What counts as field work? An oil field? I work for a very large chemical company in the production/manufacturing side of things. There are two stereotypical jobs that ME students will get out of college. In one, they will be responsible for a group of assets, like maybe a couple chemical plants or storage and distribution facility, and will manage any large maintenance issues. I guess you could call it a maintenance engineer. A lot of people think maintenance sounds like it's not prestigious, but when maintenance budgets exceed 1 million dollars a year, you need to have an engineer handling what is going on. The people with those jobs will often spend over half of their time outside but aren't the ones actually performing the maintenance. The other typical job is more of a reliability job where they look at the long term performance of certain types of equipment and try to find ways to reduce maintenance costs from more of a planning perspective. It can involve setting up inspection schedules, or deciding to use a different type of turbine to save money. This type of job involves going outside but involves wrestling with data inside of an office a little more. There are other options for mechanical engineers, but those are the two most common. We have an engineer that focuses almost exclusively on corrosion and serves a greater number of assets (and got that job right out of college with a BS). In our company, most of the inspections and measurements are performed by non-engineers, but certain ones require a certain degree of expertise or to be 'blessed' by an engineer.
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Mar 3, 2010 05:08
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In an attempt to toe the waters, I took a workforce education AutoCAD class at the local community college and I absolutely loved it. I'm 31, no college degree but a smattering of credits here and there over the years, with a background in IT, and I think I want to go into Mechanical Engineering (I wanna design gadgets) or possibly civil/architectural as a fallback. The community college here doesn't seem to offer much in the way of Engineering courses beyond the basics. What I'm kind of hoping is to perhaps take the one Engineering Graphics course they do offer and look around to see if any firms in the area need someone to do CAD grunt work while I take more classes and prepare to possibly transfer to a university. Do I have a snowball's chance in hell of getting someone to think twice about hiring me in some sort of entry-level/internship position?
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Mar 3, 2010 05:33
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TheTarrasque posted:In an attempt to toe the waters, I took a workforce education AutoCAD class at the local community college and I absolutely loved it. I'm 31, no college degree but a smattering of credits here and there over the years, with a background in IT, and I think I want to go into Mechanical Engineering (I wanna design gadgets) or possibly civil/architectural as a fallback. The community college here doesn't seem to offer much in the way of Engineering courses beyond the basics. What I'm kind of hoping is to perhaps take the one Engineering Graphics course they do offer and look around to see if any firms in the area need someone to do CAD grunt work while I take more classes and prepare to possibly transfer to a university. Do I have a snowball's chance in hell of getting someone to think twice about hiring me in some sort of entry-level/internship position? Its certainly possible, although I'd say the chances are slim. We actually hired an engineering student intern to do some SolidWorks modeling and soldering for us, but its only part time and we pay him $8/hr. Whether you can make something like that a little more worthwhile is a tough question to answer. edit: retarded spelling plester1 fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Mar 4, 2010 |
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Mar 3, 2010 22:53
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TheTarrasque posted:In an attempt to toe the waters, I took a workforce education AutoCAD class at the local community college and I absolutely loved it. I'm 31, no college degree but a smattering of credits here and there over the years, with a background in IT, and I think I want to go into Mechanical Engineering (I wanna design gadgets) or possibly civil/architectural as a fallback. The community college here doesn't seem to offer much in the way of Engineering courses beyond the basics. What I'm kind of hoping is to perhaps take the one Engineering Graphics course they do offer and look around to see if any firms in the area need someone to do CAD grunt work while I take more classes and prepare to possibly transfer to a university. Do I have a snowball's chance in hell of getting someone to think twice about hiring me in some sort of entry-level/internship position? I know a few guys who did drafting/modeling/etc for companies the summer after their freshman years and even before (some while they were in high school), but they all got it through connections. From what I know of what they have told me, these positions aren't really as advertised as the more high profile co-ops and internships you will get later and don't pay as well, but it's great experience and I wish I had experience like that so early.
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Mar 3, 2010 23:58
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I'll be 26 in a few months and I'm gearing up to go back to school to get my engineering degree. I've been doing consulting/drafting for a transportation engineering firm for several years and the head of the Eng Dept at the university I'm attending says my experience will help me secure a top-tier job after I'm finished  . Sarcasm and smugness aside, I'll be doing my first year at a smaller univ then transfer to UBC for my 2nd year onward. Anyone have any experience with UBC's engineering program? I'm heavily leaning towards it over UVic and SFU. renzor fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Mar 4, 2010 |
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Mar 4, 2010 01:23
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I'm also just turning 26 and contemplating a return to school to study engineering. I'm Canadian and already have a BA from a Canadian university. I want to study in Germany because Germany is awesome. I'm not worried about learning German or the coursework or costs. What I am worried about is getting a degree in Germany, and ending up totally unemployed/unemployable. In Germany because citizens get first pick of jobs and in Canada because I'm not applying through a university (yeah I read the thread) and have a foreign degree. What would my job prospects look like if I did this? Working in the US is okay with me too. I'm leaning towards mechanical engineering, if it matters.
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Mar 8, 2010 11:19
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renzor posted:I'll be 26 in a few months and I'm gearing up to go back to school to get my engineering degree. I've been doing consulting/drafting for a transportation engineering firm for several years and the head of the Eng Dept at the university I'm attending says my experience will help me secure a top-tier job after I'm finished The SFU program is pretty good, but it's pretty much just electrical engineering so if you're looking for something else you'd be going to UBC.
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Mar 8, 2010 21:17
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Not as many civil engineers here as i thought there would be (proper engineering! :P ) Did my degree in Civil and Coastal Engineering (in the UK), and then did another Masters degree in flood risk management. Currently work for the Environment Agency in the UK. Its a good position, lots of interesting problems to solve. Go engineering!
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Mar 9, 2010 00:07
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TheTarrasque posted:In an attempt to toe the waters, I took a workforce education AutoCAD class at the local community college and I absolutely loved it. I'm 31, no college degree but a smattering of credits here and there over the years, with a background in IT, and I think I want to go into Mechanical Engineering (I wanna design gadgets) or possibly civil/architectural as a fallback. The community college here doesn't seem to offer much in the way of Engineering courses beyond the basics. What I'm kind of hoping is to perhaps take the one Engineering Graphics course they do offer and look around to see if any firms in the area need someone to do CAD grunt work while I take more classes and prepare to possibly transfer to a university. Do I have a snowball's chance in hell of getting someone to think twice about hiring me in some sort of entry-level/internship position? I say go for it. Get whatever formal qualification applies where you are (it would be a cert III in mechanical drafting where I am) and look around. Mature age apprentices aren't unheard of in technical trades.
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Mar 9, 2010 00:40
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I graduate in a week or so with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I still have no job offer but I hope something comes up soon.
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May 6, 2010 00:01
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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May 6, 2010 00:15
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Thoguh posted:What kinds of jobs are you applying for? If you aren't set on something specific, try casting as wide a net as possible. Manufacturing engineering, Process engineering, Systems engineering, etc... Anything is preferable to nothing! I am applying for any jobs honestly. I pretty much have applied for anything that requires an engineering degree. I have had a couple interviews but haven't heard anything back from those. I have a summer internship under my belt and my GPA is decent. It seems like a lot of jobs I have found require at least like 3-5 years experience. Entry-level jobs are a bit tougher to find.
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May 6, 2010 01:14
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korgy posted:I am applying for any jobs honestly. I pretty much have applied for anything that requires an engineering degree. I have had a couple interviews but haven't heard anything back from those. I have a summer internship under my belt and my GPA is decent. It seems like a lot of jobs I have found require at least like 3-5 years experience. Entry-level jobs are a bit tougher to find. I'm in the same boat, except I graduated last May. There are WAY, WAY, WAY more entry level jobs out there now than there were 6 months ago.
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May 6, 2010 07:59
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I couldn't find any jobs when I graduated with slightly above a 3.0 from USC (EE), so I went to grad school. It's nice to see there are actually jobs I can apply for nowadays, although it's still poo poo because there are a thousand people applying to each job. If you can't find a job within 6 months I'd say go to grad school.
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May 6, 2010 09:57
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ApathyGifted posted:I'm in the same boat, except I graduated last May. So, don't worry, as soon as the people that graduated last May get their entry level jobs (oh, and the people that were laid off with 2+ years of experience get their jobs) you have some hope! (Seriously though, it does appear to be getting much better slowly but surely)
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May 6, 2010 10:25
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It's been rough in the northeast for me. Graduated in Civil Engineering in December and I'm still looking. ~40-50 applications, not a single interview. My GPA is kinda crappy so i don't have it listed. I took the FE exam in April, but the results don't come in till July...hopefully I can get a job after getting that certification.
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May 6, 2010 12:42
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hobbesmaster posted:So, don't worry, as soon as the people that graduated last May get their entry level jobs (oh, and the people that were laid off with 2+ years of experience get their jobs) you have some hope! Actually I'm more worried that people graduating right now will be getting their entry level jobs before I do. Edit: Because I have a total employment gap in the year since I've graduated, not even McDonald's. This isn't because I'm lazy, it's because I live in the rear end end of nowhere. It's a mile to the nearest paved road, for gently caress's sake. More edit: And the paved road is named after my family. Not because we're rich, but because we're the only family that lives on it! ApathyGifted fucked around with this message at 14:10 on May 6, 2010 |
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May 6, 2010 14:06
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I'm a freshman considering transferring into the engineering program at my university. This is a fairly recent development, and when I called my dad to tell him about my plans, specifically that I was thinking about civil engineering, he basically said that it was a stupid idea and I'd be doing maintenance my entire life for $15/hr. Now, my dad's an electrical engineer (educated in Russia though), works as a lab manager at a small company, and actually does some design work. He immediately suggested I think about chemical engineering (I'm currently a chem major, not really digging it though) because according to him, I'd be able to do design there, as opposed to civil... which doesn't really make sense to me. If anything, by his logic I'd expect to do MORE maintenance as a ChemE than a CE. Obviously I'm not expecting to do some hot-shot design work straight out of college but... part of me feels like he's got it backwards. So is my dad right, and do I just have some horribly skewed perception of engineering? One of my best friend is in materials engineering, and when I told him about that he basically said that in his opinion matsci is the most boring poo poo in the world, he hated materials while in school, etc.
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May 15, 2010 02:35
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Pianist On Strike posted:I'm a freshman considering transferring into the engineering program at my university. This is a fairly recent development, and when I called my dad to tell him about my plans, specifically that I was thinking about civil engineering, he basically said that it was a stupid idea and I'd be doing maintenance my entire life for $15/hr. Now, my dad's an electrical engineer (educated in Russia though), works as a lab manager at a small company, and actually does some design work. He immediately suggested I think about chemical engineering (I'm currently a chem major, not really digging it though) because according to him, I'd be able to do design there, as opposed to civil... which doesn't really make sense to me. If anything, by his logic I'd expect to do MORE maintenance as a ChemE than a CE. If you want to do Civil Engineering, do it. The recession hit new construction but all types of engineering got hit by it, and it will come back. If you get stuck making $15/hr you did something horribly wrong because I know CE coops making more than that. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm
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May 15, 2010 02:50
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OctaviusBeaver posted:If you want to do Civil Engineering, do it. The recession hit new construction but all types of engineering got hit by it, and it will come back. If you get stuck making $15/hr you did something horribly wrong because I know CE coops making more than that. It's funny, my mom sent me that link earlier today. And yeah... I think he could tell I was getting frazzled so he finished the conversation with the whole "whatever you decide we'll support you" spiel. I'm still going to be playing catch-up next year to get the general engineering courses out of the way, so I won't start specializing until junior year probably. and it'll be at least 3 more years until I graduate, 4 if I do a co-op, so hopefully the economy will be better. I was just posting to see if I totally had the wrong idea about everything.
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May 15, 2010 03:03
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Haha. You're dad's wrong (unless you go to a lovely/tech school). Like the other poster said, interns make $15 an hour doing bitch work. I was going to post the occupational handbook, but was beaten to it (  ) Civil Engineers make pretty good money, and I've never heard one complain about their coursework being bad, as long as you have an interest in the material. Here at VT, its one of the simpler disciplines, primarily due to the lack of having to take dynamics/kinematics, and having specialized fluid dynamics classes, and no thermo (or limited thermo). Not having to take kinematics is a huge plus, as that's one of the most common "weed out" courses.As a CE, you'll have a good number of options, depending on what path you decide to take (environmental, transportation, etc). Any route you take, its important you focus on passing the EIT/FE exam, and pursuing a PE. Civil is one of, if not the, most important engineering discipline in which you need to receive your PE, due to the need to be able to approve work done by contractors or state. Having these certifications will drastically improve your worth. Just throwing this out there for later, but if you have a hard time finding a job as a civil engineer, look into mining. Mining Engineers and programs are getting cut all over the place, and Civil Engineers are the most apt to adapt to the demands of mining work. Knowing this, if you have an environmental background, can really increase you chances of employment coming right out of school.
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May 15, 2010 04:06
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Pianist On Strike posted:This is a fairly recent development, and when I called my dad to tell him about my plans, specifically that I was thinking about civil engineering, he basically said that it was a stupid idea and I'd be doing maintenance my entire life for $15/hr. Your dad is wrong. Civil engineers get paid $30/hr to run around doing maintenance (er, taking concrete samples) for their entire life. CE co-ops get paid $15/hr to sit around in a company truck while browsing facebook over EDGE. Why he made that civil engineers joke and then suggested you major in
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May 15, 2010 04:58
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My dad graduated in 1979 with a mechanical engineering degree. His first job was doing something for Harley Davidson but since then he's been working at Borg Warner doing... honestly I still have no idea, all I know is that it involves chain development. I remember getting to go with him to test drive a car a few years ago, because there'd been complaints that it was too noisy as a result of a chain in it that they made. He's been working there for 29 years and makes good money (even after a pay cut as a result of the whole auto industry being terrible thing), plus he gets the week of July 4th off every year during shutdown week. In more recent times, a friend of mine also got a mechanical engineering degree this year and had 3 related co-ops, but is having trouble finding a job. I'm not really sure what he's looking to do, though- plus his GPA isn't that great and he's lazy. A girl who was on co-op at my dad's company while I worked there one summer graduated in 2008 (again, mechanical engineering) and is now working as, according to facebook, a System Sales Engineer at Johnson Controls. Her co-op was in the same group my dad works and she seemed to be enjoying it. I was doing my own thing usually but I helped her make prototype transmission chains once, which was pretty sweet. Also thank you to the civil engineers who have posted. I've basically grown up being told that civil engineering is fake engineering- I considered majoring in engineering instead of CS, and my dad was pleased but made sure to note that I had better not choose civil. His work friends said the same thing, and I got to college and made engineering friends who also agreed. So I've been making fun of you guys forever and I apologize!
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May 15, 2010 16:44
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How screwed am I going to be if I graduate without any internships/co-ops? I have a decent GPA (~3.2) from a solid top 30 engineering school, but I'm just not having any luck finding internships. I've applied to a bunch, but only heard back from a couple and at the moment my best opportunity is basically painting meters for an electric company. So am I going to be poo poo out of luck when I graduate next year with no real work experience? Mech. E, by the way.
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May 15, 2010 20:04
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T.H.E. Rock posted:How screwed am I going to be if I graduate without any internships/co-ops? I have a decent GPA (~3.2) from a solid top 30 engineering school, but I'm just not having any luck finding internships. I've applied to a bunch, but only heard back from a couple and at the moment my best opportunity is basically painting meters for an electric company. Well, considering some of my friends with 6 terms of co-op experience (24 months total) are having trouble finding a decent job, I'd imagine the situation's not very good for someone with no experience. This is in Canada though, Waterloo grads. You should really gear up your efforts to find an internship, it's a really easy way to land a full time job after graduation. I basically had my pick of jobs from my different co-op terms and picked my favorite one.
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May 16, 2010 04:22
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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May 16, 2010 07:32
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Thoguh posted:Not to disparage this poster, but this experience isn't normal. So don't feel bad that you don't share it. It definitely isn't normal, except at Waterloo. Every single engineering student needs to complete a minimum of 5 out of 6 co-op terms or they don't graduate, and a good number of students just work full time at one of those co-op jobs when they graduate. Unfortunately this means if you suck at interviews and can't find enough co-op jobs, you don't get a degree even if you've passed all your classes.
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May 16, 2010 07:52
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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May 16, 2010 08:09
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Thoguh posted:6 Co-op terms? In the US that would mean a minimum of 7 years to graduate, 6 if two of them were summer (8 semesters of school and six semesters of co-op). Does co-op mean something else in Canada? Sorry, probably another one of those regional differences in definitions. It's 4 months for a co-op term here. Or longer, if you arrange it with the school/employer - there are some jobs that ask for a 12-16 month commitment for example. "Intern" kind of implies unpaid in my frame of reference. It only takes 5 years to graduate on a normal schedule, but you have absolutely no summer vacations. 4 months each of school-job-school-...-job-school-school and graduate. As for me I started my full time job a single weekend after my final final exam, so I'm on over 5 years and counting of no vacation 
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May 16, 2010 08:15
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In nuclear engineering, what are the long-term consequences of not having a PE? Is it a prerequisite for breaking into management?
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May 16, 2010 08:50
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