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Crazy Legs posted:Anyone know how attractive prior-military experience is to an employer? I'm in AFROTC right now and planning to go into the Developmental Engineering field. It'd be good to know where I'll stand compared to other applicants when I get out after 4-8 years. That will be pretty golden when applying to defense contractors.
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Feb 16, 2011 05:10
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Thanks for the replies guys. I'm putting in an application to transfer and then I'll switch majors and just go for Comp Eng. as it was the one I was interested the most in after all. (While I do enjoy my comp sci classes so far and I find them easier then say humanities classes. I don't want to just program all day every day. I'd must rather do things with a hardware focus. Even if I can program faster then anyone else in my classes so far.  )As for co-op and internships. The dual degree program would have left no time for that and I understand now that I definitely want that experience on my resume. Would waiting until I start Comp Eng and my sophomore year be advisable or could I start trying for internships this summer?
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Feb 16, 2011 05:38
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You can start looking immediately, it won't hurt to put some feelers out there to see if any companies want fresh talent. I'm a Structural/Civil Engineer (EI, don't have my PE/SE yet) and my first internship was after my freshman year doing bridge inspections with the state DOT, and at that point I had taken zero classes relevant to structural engineering. You should basically start trying to get experience in any field that catches your eye or is at all relevant to engineering as soon as you have time to do so. Also, if your current curriculum feels very easy, consider taking something harder (i.e. more on the hardware side as you suggested). If it's more difficult because there's more work involved but you find it more rewarding for you than programming then you should probably go into that field. As far as what sort of internship you might get in your first summer, it will probably involve clerical work or menial tasks (I lucked out), but this is because you have no practical education in your field. Sophomore year internships will also be fairly similar (junior and senior year is where you really start to pack on the knowledge), but you'll find that co-ops will be more accessible then. Make sure to attend any engineering career fairs that are held by your university and do research ahead of time to see which companies are interested in co-ops and what experience levels they would consider. If you have particularly good grades or prior experience with things related to your field (e.g. have been programming since middle school, have amateur robotics and programming as a hobby, etc) you might be able to convince some companies that you're a good candidate despite having few credit hours on your transcript.
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Feb 16, 2011 05:49
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IMHO, "test engineering" is the bitchwork of engineering; I have some friends that were absolutely ecstatic to get jobs, quote, "driving cars until they break and then reporting what's wrong", end quote. They are sick and loving tired of it two months in. As a co-op, I spent a few terms punching buttons and running automated tests on automotive modules at -40, 0 and 85C. It's tedious and boring, but a necessary evil. I thank my lucky stars that I got an intermediate-advanced level EE/CE job straight out of college where I get to cook up schematics, lay out PCBs and write my own software instead of testing all day long. Get that testing poo poo out of the way as an intern/co-op and shoot for the moon. Again, it's more about your experiences than the name of your degree. Like I posted earlier, my roomies are EEs as well; one does software all day, the other is an apps engineer. It's retard broad (and blurs into CE territory quite often), so your work experiences will serve to narrow it down and make you more appealing to employers. I mean, think of all the domains: Signals (DSP, multimedia compression, FILTERS!, etc) Communication Systems (CDMA, TDMA, wireless, etc) Microelectronics (general digital electronics design) Analog (op-amps, gyrators all the good stuff) RF/LF/Wireless (Antenna design!) Power (high-voltage, generation, etc) Control Systems (PID, etc) Semiconductors/Packaging (VLSI, chip manufacturing, semiconductor physics, good stuff) PCBs! (controlled/design impedances, developing dielectrics, etc) Cyborgs (  )(many more I can't think of off hand)
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Feb 16, 2011 06:51
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I've been working as a test engineer for over two years now, and I like it. Thing is, I have technicians who do the bitch work for me. I get to do the fun parts, like developing the automated tests 
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Feb 16, 2011 07:21
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BeefofAges posted:I've been working as a test engineer for over two years now, and I like it. Thing is, I have technicians who do the bitch work for me. I get to do the fun parts, like developing the automated tests True; my comment stems from seeing a lot of positions titled 'test engineer', but they are effectively technician-like positions where the poor soul is doing the testing, not developing the EOL tester or testing methodology.  No offense meant to your job, sorry bro. 
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Feb 16, 2011 16:18
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So I've managed to get a small project with a professor who teaches some engineering classes just like for the latter half of the dual degree program and hes willing to have me do some small project that will really help give me a head-start. Sadly it was too late for me to actually enroll in the class but it'll look good on transcripts as a small project.
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Feb 16, 2011 17:31
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Crazy Legs posted:Anyone know how attractive prior-military experience is to an employer? I'm in AFROTC right now and planning to go into the Developmental Engineering field. It'd be good to know where I'll stand compared to other applicants when I get out after 4-8 years. Yeah, were I work we'll hire someone with prior USAF experience and an Associates Degree but with no prior military experience you better have a BS/MS to get in the door. (Defense Contractor)
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Feb 17, 2011 20:22
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Does anyone here have any experience with working offshore? Specifically in Scotland. Im graduating in mech eng in june and im quite keen to apply for some drilling engineer graduate positions.
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Feb 17, 2011 21:19
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Feb 17, 2011 21:22
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That's basically how it works here too, although most of the AF people we get in my group went to USAF tech school for something. Then they will usually get their BS in something like EE while working for the company, but aren't required to do so. A lot of the older guys working here have military experience, so I think that we used to hire out of the military more before than we do now.
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Feb 17, 2011 21:50
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Thoguh posted:Yeah, we even had one guy in my old group who had a bullshit degree in "Counter-Terrorism" or something like that, but he got hired (just as he was leaving the Air Force) on with the condition that he started working towards an engineering degree (paid for by the company). That would have never happened in a million years to a non former military guy. These people have TS clearance, right?
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Feb 18, 2011 03:07
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Mostly yes, that's part of it too. If they come out of the military with a TS it might actually be cheaper for the company to send them to college to get a BS.
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Feb 18, 2011 04:18
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I'm an up and coming engineer, still in undergrad, and was wondering if you guys could recommend any books to read on the subject of engineering. I'm currently an EE major, but I may switch to Chemical in the future. I've already read The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski, and I found it very informative on what exactly engineers are expected to do compared to scientists.
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Feb 18, 2011 04:34
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Crazy Legs posted:Anyone know how attractive prior-military experience is to an employer? I'm in AFROTC right now and planning to go into the Developmental Engineering field. It'd be good to know where I'll stand compared to other applicants when I get out after 4-8 years. As was said before Defense contractors. And for the love of god use your yearly quota of tuition assistance. I know for the navy it's only 13 credits per year but I've been in 12 years and 5 of those have been in tech schools. With the transferable ACE credits from the schools I basically walked in and picked up my AS. I Just had to do 9 credits at the school to establish residency and bam, done. Now I'm using the yearly quota to chip out my BSET. If you don't use them, you lose them.
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Feb 18, 2011 09:23
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Prior military experience will be a bonus in practically any engineering job. At the very least you'll have a leg up against other entry candidates. It shows you know how to work in a team, that you can listen and take instruction, and that you can get things done. As for clearances, a brief Google search suggests that a TS clearance costs between $3K and $15K. This doesn't include the time the employer has to pay you while they wait for the clearance to pass, or the risk of the clearance being denied. Bone posted:I'm an up and coming engineer, still in undergrad, and was wondering if you guys could recommend any books to read on the subject of engineering. I'm currently an EE major, but I may switch to Chemical in the future. I've already read The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski, and I found it very informative on what exactly engineers are expected to do compared to scientists. One major issue about figuring out "what engineers do" is that your job and daily experiences will vary dramatically from company to company. One engineering position may be more like a technical consultant, while another could be a project manager and a third could be actually designing products. Your enthusiasm is good, but if you haven't done it already I would suggest pursuing internships and co-ops. That will give you a MUCH better idea of what the experience at a specific location is like. The distinction can be a little blurry at times. As I see it the difference between a scientist and an engineer is that a scientist figures something out, and an engineer figures out how to use it.
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Feb 18, 2011 14:41
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:The distinction can be a little blurry at times. I've worked a few big places and now a smaller lab and there has always been original research going on in and around the main engineering activities.
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Feb 18, 2011 16:16
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:One major issue about figuring out "what engineers do" is that your job and daily experiences will vary dramatically from company to company. One engineering position may be more like a technical consultant, while another could be a project manager and a third could be actually designing products. Your enthusiasm is good, but if you haven't done it already I would suggest pursuing internships and co-ops. That will give you a MUCH better idea of what the experience at a specific location is like. Oh I totally agree, I just thought it was good for the general information that it has. One hears about engineers all the time but usually only those in the field know what they're for. I'm definitely planning to get an internship as early as this summer, I just enjoy reading about engineering and really any science related material.
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Feb 18, 2011 23:47
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Just wanted to thank everyone for the answers and advice to my question on the previous page. Definitely feeling a lot better about things on my end now.
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Feb 20, 2011 00:50
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BeefofAges posted:I've been working as a test engineer for over two years now, and I like it. Thing is, I have technicians who do the bitch work for me. I get to do the fun parts, like developing the automated tests Are you hiring? I will do bitch-work.
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Feb 20, 2011 04:56
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What's everyone's strategy for seeking employment? I've been applying around and following up but... (Currently a second year civil engineer in Ontario)
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Feb 20, 2011 22:12
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Wilhelm posted:What's everyone's strategy for seeking employment? I've been applying around and following up but... Summer employment? Use your school's career centre. If your school has an intership program for third year students, try to get access to that just to see the company listings. Think of every company you know and go directly to their websites. Don't forget about municipal, provincial, and federal government jobs. Use Monster, Workopolis, Craigslist, etc. Make cold calls.
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Feb 20, 2011 22:43
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ApathyGifted posted:Are you hiring? I will do bitch-work. I don't control hiring, sorry I did hear my department is going to be looking for intern engineers and new technicians this summer. Are you in Southern California? Maybe I can try to get your resume to someone who can do something with it.
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Feb 20, 2011 23:09
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As a pre-engineering student with a fondness of metals, what are my options here? Metallurgical engineering is offered at 1 campus in my state, and I'm unlikely to get in. Material engineering also seems to be an option, but the same problem arises. Or should I just stick to mechanical if I want to be employed? It'd be awesome to hear some real experience on this for a change.
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Feb 20, 2011 23:33
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TheOmegaWalrus posted:As a pre-engineering student with a fondness of metals, what are my options here? Metallurgical engineering is offered at 1 campus in my state, and I'm unlikely to get in. Material engineering also seems to be an option, but the same problem arises. Maybe MatSci? It's not "engineering" per se, but you could keep going all the way through grad school for it, and your job would likely be research and development into new metals. You could probably pick up an ME degree though and find a job that gets you doing "something" with metal, but what exactly is your "fondness" for metals? Like working with it? Enjoy phase diagrams and eutectic points?
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Feb 21, 2011 17:07
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Wilhelm posted:What's everyone's strategy for seeking employment? I've been applying around and following up but... Where in Ontario?
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Feb 21, 2011 17:11
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Wilhelm posted:What's everyone's strategy for seeking employment? I've been applying around and following up but... When I was looking for a summer job back in '07 (2nd year Civil student) I checked out a bunch of local company websites in my town (Sioux Falls, SD) that I thought looked interesting. I printed off a few copies of my resume and just showed up at their office and talked with them about summer employment. A lot of companies may not be explicitly looking to hire at the moment and you won't find them on job listing sites like Careerbuilder, etc. If the company likes what you're all about and feels like they might have a place for you, they'll find something for you to do. It seems pretty common for people who intern at a company through college to land a job with them afterwards and I'd wager that companies have this in mind when they're looking at prospects for summer employment. Just put yourself out there and see what happens! Do you have an area of specialty that interests you? That might help you narrow things down a bit. Untasid fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Feb 21, 2011 |
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Feb 21, 2011 17:42
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Got my first interviews for Co-Ops coming up, getting antsy. I'll be interviewing with five companies - DuPont, Ascend Performance, Ergon Inc., Semi-South, and Weyerhauser. I've looked up basic info on all of them, but I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with them or had anything to share. E: For what it's worth, I'm a ChE undergrad.
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Feb 22, 2011 03:39
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Traitorous Leopard posted:Got my first interviews for Co-Ops coming up, getting antsy. I'll be interviewing with five companies - DuPont, Ascend Performance, Ergon Inc., Semi-South, and Weyerhauser. I've looked up basic info on all of them, but I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with them or had anything to share. I'm an electrical and I got a coop offer from a local DuPont plant a couple of years ago. I ended up not taking it in favor of another offer, but one of my friends did end up working there (also an EE). He said he didn't get much interesting work and was kind of glad they didn't bring any coops back after the economy crashed (this was in 2008, we all got coops right before the crash and about a third ended up being laid off, including myself). Granted it is an enormous company so I'm sure it varies by location, not to mention that ChemEs will probably have more to do at a chemical plant than EEs.
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Feb 22, 2011 05:43
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OctaviusBeaver posted:I'm an electrical and I got a coop offer from a local DuPont plant a couple of years ago. I ended up not taking it in favor of another offer, but one of my friends did end up working there (also an EE). He said he didn't get much interesting work and was kind of glad they didn't bring any coops back after the economy crashed (this was in 2008, we all got coops right before the crash and about a third ended up being laid off, including myself). Granted it is an enormous company so I'm sure it varies by location, not to mention that ChemEs will probably have more to do at a chemical plant than EEs. Yeah DuPont seems like a good one to get my foot in the door with a Co-Op, but this particular one is located in the rear end-end of nowhere (ever heard of New Johnsonville, Tennessee?), which sounds like off the job time could get miserable. The Ergon and Ascend Performance are the ones I really have my eye on (Oil refining and nylon precursor manufacturing, respectively).
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Feb 22, 2011 06:30
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Corrupt Cypher posted:Where in Ontario? Waterloo Region, I've been making personalized cover letters for quite a few companies and sending them out with resumes though I haven't been successful yet. (I follow up of course and on occasion visit companies to speak with them) I suppose it's just frustrating trying to get my foot in the door! I've sent out a large batch recently so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
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Feb 23, 2011 00:42
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I told my boss at DOT that I will be coming back to work for her this summer, but recently I have been thinking I want to apply for other positions and see if I can get a better job. The problem is she thinks I am coming back and it would be awkward if a potential employer called her to verify my references.I want to keep the DOT job as a back up incase I don't get any new offers. I am afraid if I tell her I am not coming back but then I don't find another job that I will have to work at a restaurant or something like that this summer. Do you think I should apply at other places and just leave her off the contact list? The problem with that is my previous internship at DOT is valuable to have on my resume. I really don't know what to do.
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Feb 23, 2011 01:46
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Feb 23, 2011 05:41
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Traitorous Leopard posted:Yeah DuPont seems like a good one to get my foot in the door with a Co-Op, but this particular one is located in the rear end-end of nowhere (ever heard of New Johnsonville, Tennessee?), which sounds like off the job time could get miserable. The Ergon and Ascend Performance are the ones I really have my eye on (Oil refining and nylon precursor manufacturing, respectively). Where are you located? I just interviewed with Ascend last week, and I interview with Ergon next week. Full time Chem-E positions.
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Feb 23, 2011 05:42
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Wilhelm posted:Waterloo Region, I've been making personalized cover letters for quite a few companies and sending them out with resumes though I haven't been successful yet. (I follow up of course and on occasion visit companies to speak with them) I suppose it's just frustrating trying to get my foot in the door! I've sent out a large batch recently so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'd start by cold calling everyone in this directory: http://www.acec.ca/en/memberfirms/. The sheer numbers should work in your favour.
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Feb 24, 2011 04:57
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Thoguh posted:Keep in mind that any interview is both about what you know and whether they want you on their team. For a Co-op they aren't going to expect you to know very much. But they do want to hire somebody who they will enjoy to have as a teammate. So don't just sit there and give "yes" or "no" answers to leading questions. I'm not saying monopolize the whole interview (because that is just as bad as saying almost nothing), but remember that making yourself a person rather than just another interviewee can go a long ways towards getting an offer. The interviews are actually in person, so I should definitely do a bit more research on their companies so I can have a few questions, then? Pauly Shore posted:Where are you located? I just interviewed with Ascend last week, and I interview with Ergon next week. Full time Chem-E positions. Mississippi State University, assuming you're somewhere in the Southeast, too, then?
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Feb 25, 2011 00:22
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fatlightning posted:I told my boss at DOT that I will be coming back to work for her this summer, but recently I have been thinking I want to apply for other positions and see if I can get a better job. The problem is she thinks I am coming back and it would be awkward if a potential employer called her to verify my references.I want to keep the DOT job as a back up incase I don't get any new offers. I am afraid if I tell her I am not coming back but then I don't find another job that I will have to work at a restaurant or something like that this summer. I would go ahead and apply for other positions. Most company policies in regards to references is that HR can confirm you worked there from start date to end date, and that's about it. You can tell DOT you plan to come back, and if another better offer comes, take it and tell your boss at DOT you simply received another offer that you want to pursue because you're interested in it or want to broaden your education. If you find a better job, I'm sure your boss would be disappointed to see you go, but respect your decision. Don't short yourself on account of some other person's feelings.
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Feb 26, 2011 02:45
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Feb 26, 2011 18:31
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My company is thinking of sending me to the Washington DC area to do embedded software engineering, can someone give me an idea of how much they should be paying me? I have 3 years experience. I've looked at those salary info sites but they vary quite a lot. What's a comfortable salary there?
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Feb 27, 2011 17:50
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I graduated with a philosophy degree two years ago (though I did three semesters of calculus). Since then, I’ve been a supervisor in different roles (e.g., warehouse, call center) at an industrial parts reseller. My goal, in the long-run, is to come up with a new invention in the energy industry. I am hoping to get feedback as to how I can best get there. Here are the main things I’ve been working on so far: • I am studying for the relevant parts of the Fundamentals of Engineering (engineering mechanics: statics & dynamics, electricity & magnetism, thermodynamics). I am planning to self-test, because they won’t let me take the official test without a BS in engineering. • I read about the history of science and technology. For example, the biography of Tesla was awesome. • I spend time figuring out what the material in our catalog does and how it works. I learned about the existence proximity switches this way. • I observe an electrician that maintains our facility one night a week after work. This has been helpful in picked up anything from how to carry a ladder to the strengths and weaknesses of different light bulb types. • Each week, I meet with a guy who was an electrical engineering and discuss what I learned the previous week and what I plan to learn next week. • I tinker with over-clocking computers (there are interesting things to learn there about electricity and thermodynamics) and making/modifying radio controlled cars (I’ve picked up some things about electricity and motion). As my next step, I need to choose a particular class of technologies that seem promising (e.g., nuclear). Then, I would try to get a job at a company working in that area. Ultimately, I would want to work in an engineering role, but don’t think that is realistic to do that immediately given my background (though if you have a non-school suggestion of how, I would love to hear it). So, I might shoot for middle management in a non-engineering function and then try to show that I can doing the engineering work. How can I make my plan for becoming an engineer better? I would like to avoid school if at all possible, because, studying on my own, I can focus on the things that I find most interesting. If, however, I absolutely must go back to school to do what I want, then I will. JamesWatt fucked around with this message at 18:37 on Feb 27, 2011 |
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Feb 27, 2011 18:01
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