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Globofglob posted:Generally, how important is GPA for getting hired? Because I'm working on an elec engineer degree, I'm at the end of my sophomore year, and I'm doing pretty badly. I really enjoy the coursework, but It seems like half the stuff I come up against is impossible to prepare for. I would ideally like to get my GPA to 3.0, but that seems like a pipe dream at the moment. GPA doesn't matter as much as work experience, and isn't likely to matter at all later in your career, but still matters now. Bring it up if you can. You can always do grad school later and tout that grad GPA instead. grover fucked around with this message at 15:10 on May 20, 2013 |
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May 20, 2013 15:07
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grover posted:Focus less on memorization or formulas and techniques and more on understanding. If you really, truly, understand the material, the rest will follow. This is something I'm struggling with. I'm teaching myself on Khan Academy whilst I wait for college to start in September and whilst I'm pretty good at understanding how to do something, I find sometimes I don't fully understand why I'm doing that something.
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May 20, 2013 19:40
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Tovarisch Rafa posted:On a funny note a friend of mine has to take material and energy balances(sometimes called stoichiometry at other cheme departments) at CU Boulder a third time.  I've never thought of MEB as much of a gatekeeper class.
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May 22, 2013 16:39
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Is a BME BS likely to be as useless for getting into MS EE or MS CS programs as the Nuclear Eng guy asking a page ago? I walked into a Software Developer position after graduating last year because I had direct experience in imaging and most of my internships involved considerable amounts of development, but now a bunch of my friends are graduating this year with nothing lined up and a deep desire to be a EE instead. I also am considering going back for a graduate degree in a more widely recognized field, but if I'd have to do another undergrad I wouldn't ever consider it. It's been extremely frustrating seeing BMEs from my program slowly finding positions in ChemE jobs, EE jobs, or business strategy consulting. They recruited us saying how difficult and robust the BME program was yet there seems to be zero demand for BMEs in the real world.
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May 23, 2013 19:13
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I don't think you would have any trouble getting in to an MS CS program at all if you have an engineering degree and imaging experience.
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May 23, 2013 19:39
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Weinertron posted:Is a BME BS likely to be as useless for getting into MS EE or MS CS programs as the Nuclear Eng guy asking a page ago? I walked into a Software Developer position after graduating last year because I had direct experience in imaging and most of my internships involved considerable amounts of development, but now a bunch of my friends are graduating this year with nothing lined up and a deep desire to be a EE instead.
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May 23, 2013 19:44
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Cicero posted:If you want to stay in development, I wouldn't bother with the MS CS. Thanks to both of you. I'm happy staying in software, so I'll just keep on trucking at my job and work to expose myself to as many technologies as possible. Based on the difficulties that friends have had getting a job, I'm pretty sure that scenario with HR chucking BME resumes is true.
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May 23, 2013 19:48
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Weinertron posted:Thanks to both of you. I'm happy staying in software, so I'll just keep on trucking at my job and work to expose myself to as many technologies as possible. Now it IS a good idea to continue your professional software development...development. Luckily there are roughly a hojillion free online resources for this. Udacity, Coursera, Codecademy, EdX etc. Doing some of that + working on side projects = much job opportunity forever (or at least for the forseeable future).
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May 23, 2013 20:20
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Inaction Jackson posted:How is this even possible? Our school requires a C or better to keep going and about 70% of the class gets that. I'm not sure how CU Boulder works, but its possible that this person just got unlucky two times in a row. Although if you can't pass MEB, your prospects for getting through mass transfer or cheme thermo, or a lot of the other upper level courses are probably really bad.
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May 24, 2013 05:23
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So I was contacted this week about an Engineering Sales Rep job for a medical device motor company. They require experience in sales, but I think they were interested in me because I've worked in fine dining restaurants for several years while going to college and after. They also require familiarity with SalesForce.com and Oracle. I watched some demos on salesforce and it seems like a pretty easy to learn social app, but I'm not familiar with oracle. I have experience with Matlab and Arduino, will it be difficult to learn Oracle from scratch?
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May 26, 2013 20:36
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Booties posted:So I was contacted this week about an Engineering Sales Rep job for a medical device motor company. They require experience in sales, but I think they were interested in me because I've worked in fine dining restaurants for several years while going to college and after. They also require familiarity with SalesForce.com and Oracle. I watched some demos on salesforce and it seems like a pretty easy to learn social app, but I'm not familiar with oracle. I have experience with Matlab and Arduino, will it be difficult to learn Oracle from scratch? Oracle is completely different from Matlab and Arduino. It's only used to provide a storage and access system for databases with huge amounts of data. How long it'll take you to figure out how to use it will depend on what you'll have to do. If you'll only need to work with Oracle to do CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations and you've used Matlab to read and write data to files or databases before, it'll probably take you less than a day to figure out what you're doing. If you'll actually need to install Oracle to a machine and build the databases you'll probably need to read a book.
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May 26, 2013 20:55
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Shear Modulus posted:Oracle is completely different from Matlab and Arduino. It's only used to provide a storage and access system for databases with huge amounts of data. How long it'll take you to figure out how to use it will depend on what you'll have to do. If you'll only need to work with Oracle to do CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations and you've used Matlab to read and write data to files or databases before, it'll probably take you less than a day to figure out what you're doing. If you'll actually need to install Oracle to a machine and build the databases you'll probably need to read a book. Thanks. I have no idea what I'll do, but what you mentioned sounds right. It was the last word in the job profile so I really can't know until I get more information. Since it's sales and some database management I'll guess it's data storage.
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May 26, 2013 21:27
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Booties posted:Thanks. I have no idea what I'll do, but what you mentioned sounds right. It was the last word in the job profile so I really can't know until I get more information. Since it's sales and some database management I'll guess it's data storage. Oracle is probably their business management system and they track their sales activity with Salesforce. If they're interested in you due to your fine dining experience, they probably figure that you don't have any experience in Salesforce and/or Oracle. Just "fake it 'till you make it" as neither system is very difficult to learn or use provided the company has set them up properly.
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May 27, 2013 03:13
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Asked this in the grad school thread: what does one do with a master's in OR? It'd be paid for and supervised by a local large and stable company that needs someone to develop their maintenance programs.
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May 27, 2013 03:15
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Booties posted:So I was contacted this week about an Engineering Sales Rep job for a medical device motor company. They require experience in sales, but I think they were interested in me because I've worked in fine dining restaurants for several years while going to college and after. They also require familiarity with SalesForce.com and Oracle. I watched some demos on salesforce and it seems like a pretty easy to learn social app, but I'm not familiar with oracle. I have experience with Matlab and Arduino, will it be difficult to learn Oracle from scratch? You'll likely only be using Oracle for creating quotes and sales orders. As already mentioned, this should take a day or two to memorize the work flow. If you're unlucky you'll spend two weeks in training bored out of your mind. Did the listing mention if it was pure salary or salary + comission/bonus? I only ask because the latter indicates a much different job than the former with very little time spent on any engineering, in my experience.
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May 27, 2013 05:04
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Wandering Orange posted:Did the listing mention if it was pure salary or salary + comission/bonus? I only ask because the latter indicates a much different job than the former with very little time spent on any engineering, in my experience. I switched from a salary + commissions to salary only and I actually do less engineering but I went from a small to a large company to there is depth to spread out the engineering work. Having worked both types of jobs as a sales engineer, I would be very cautious of going the commissions route, especially at a small company.
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May 28, 2013 01:17
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SeaBass posted:I switched from a salary + commissions to salary only and I actually do less engineering but I went from a small to a large company to there is depth to spread out the engineering work. This is a fortune 500 company with over 60k employees. Though I would report to a smaller company. The job profile says sales engineer. I had to look it up and it seems like they are expert customer service people who do some engineering calculations. I also need a salary requirement. Is 60k/year too low or high? I dont think there is any commission.
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May 28, 2013 15:09
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Booties posted:I also need a salary requirement. Is 60k/year too low or high? I dont think there is any commission. The company is hiring you because you will make money for them. Look at the whole compensation package before you give them a number, and do your best to avoid giving a number until they are sure they want to hire you. All you can do by giving out a number extremely early is make yourself look too expensive or anchor yourself to a lower salary than you could get. http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/
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May 28, 2013 15:16
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Booties posted:This is a fortune 500 company with over 60k employees. Though I would report to a smaller company. The job profile says sales engineer. I had to look it up and it seems like they are expert customer service people who do some engineering calculations. I also need a salary requirement. Is 60k/year too low or high? I dont think there is any commission. If you can, put negotiable.
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May 28, 2013 15:39
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Frinkahedron posted:If you can, put negotiable. The recruiter wants a number. Weinertron posted:The company is hiring you because you will make money for them. Look at the whole compensation package before you give them a number, and do your best to avoid giving a number until they are sure they want to hire you. All you can do by giving out a number extremely early is make yourself look too expensive or anchor yourself to a lower salary than you could get. Is a range ok? I can't avoid giving one now.
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May 28, 2013 17:03
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Booties posted:Is a range ok? I can't avoid giving one now. They will see the lowest number in the range and say "this guy will work for that or possibly a bit less". A single number is better than a range, but think hard and do your best to learn what people in a similar function are salaried at. As for specific numbers, it varies so much by metro area, industry, and company size / style that I doubt anybody online can help you put down a specific number unfortunately.
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May 28, 2013 17:22
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Weinertron posted:They will see the lowest number in the range and say "this guy will work for that or possibly a bit less". A single number is better than a range, but think hard and do your best to learn what people in a similar function are salaried at. As for specific numbers, it varies so much by metro area, industry, and company size / style that I doubt anybody online can help you put down a specific number unfortunately. Thanks for the advice. I used a few sites to find industry averages and ranges for my area. I think I'm going to go with 60 or 65 and see what happens. Update: They got back to me and told me the range is 55-60. Set up a phone interview with the recruiter friday at 9am. Booties fucked around with this message at 21:25 on May 28, 2013 |
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May 28, 2013 17:26
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My manager just announced he's moving to DC to take a job at MathWorks (his wife finished school and got a job in DC as well it seems), and I am now getting a slightly uncomfortable amount of attention as I basically echoed his skills in our little group (4 people, all EEs, but no one else has Linux/software engineering/FPGA/RF/etc), and he was somewhat my mentor, I guess. Anyone ever been in a situation like this / have any advice? Am I about to get golden handcuffs thrown at me? His boss called me in to talk for a few minutes and was like "you're underpaid, right?", so I take it they're going to try to make sure more of us don't leave. I have a few opportunities coming up around this time as well, and I think if I leave, the rest of the team will collapse; not due to incompetence, but simply because there aren't enough people to do the work, and not enough time to hire new folks.
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May 28, 2013 23:08
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movax posted:My manager just announced he's moving to DC to take a job at MathWorks (his wife finished school and got a job in DC as well it seems), and I am now getting a slightly uncomfortable amount of attention as I basically echoed his skills in our little group (4 people, all EEs, but no one else has Linux/software engineering/FPGA/RF/etc), and he was somewhat my mentor, I guess. Anyone ever been in a situation like this / have any advice? Am I about to get golden handcuffs thrown at me? His boss called me in to talk for a few minutes and was like "you're underpaid, right?", so I take it they're going to try to make sure more of us don't leave. Are you not excited about being tied down for long? This sounds like a good thing too.
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May 29, 2013 00:30
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Booties posted:Is a range ok? I can't avoid giving one now. Go to glassdoor.com and figure out what people at that company in your position and rank typically make and give that as a number.
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May 29, 2013 03:01
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Trying to make my school decision now that all the acceptance letters and advising has started. I'm wondering if I should take the school that offered a fresh start even though I will be considered a Junior at another worse ranking school. CU-Boulder will mean I will have to take courses again that I took almost 8 years ago and be helpful with refreshing but this will means I won't graduate until 2017. OSU will take me 3 years to graduate but is the lowest ranking of all three but unlike NCSU I will get a "fresh" start in regards to my GP and I'll still have certain classes transfer. If I go to NCSU the best GPA I can hope for is a high 3.X. Realistically in a chemical engineering program what is the difference between 3.3 and 4.0 for applying to graduate school? If you were in my situation and knew that funding wasn't an issue (GI bill) what would you end up doing?
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May 29, 2013 15:29
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Booties posted:Are you not excited about being tied down for long? This sounds like a good thing too. I just have a lot of options coming up that expire in the next month or so, is all. I guess I'm more curious about how to handle / stories about getting a ton more responsibility, or whether negotiating salary raises/changes at this point is different in style from doing it when you first get the job.
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May 29, 2013 18:22
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HClChicken posted:Trying to make my school decision now that all the acceptance letters and advising has started. I'm wondering if I should take the school that offered a fresh start even though I will be considered a Junior at another worse ranking school. CU-Boulder will mean I will have to take courses again that I took almost 8 years ago and be helpful with refreshing but this will means I won't graduate until 2017. OSU will take me 3 years to graduate but is the lowest ranking of all three but unlike NCSU I will get a "fresh" start in regards to my GP and I'll still have certain classes transfer. I would go with the school that gets you better access to networking/contacts/chemical engineering internships. It's good that you're concerned about GPA, but why are you planning on heading to grad school right after undergrad? Especially for engineering grad school, it would be very easy to make up for a lower GPA with good LORs, networking (do research for a chill prof who calls up his friend at your target school, etc), and experience. And regarding GPA transfer, it differs from institution to instituion, but my undergrad only transferred in credits, not GPA, so my crappy grades from high-school calculus didn't matter. Of course, for some graduate stuff like medical school, it came back to bite me in the rear end as I had to send in transcript from every higher-education institution I ever attended. e: quote is not edit, I am the worst mod
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May 29, 2013 18:25
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movax posted:I just have a lot of options coming up that expire in the next month or so, is all. I guess I'm more curious about how to handle / stories about getting a ton more responsibility, or whether negotiating salary raises/changes at this point is different in style from doing it when you first get the job. Based on what I've read/heard and not on any personal experience, it seems like it's easier to make more money through a negotiation with a new employer than with a new position in the same company. Good luck to you with whatever you choose. Be grateful to have options!
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May 29, 2013 18:36
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Anyone got any advice on 'refreshing' my skills I guess? I don't know, something to make me seem appealing again despite having no experience and graduating with my BSAE four years ago. I don't have access to a computer powerful enough to run 3D CAD programs and maintain a design portfolio. I might get some financial help to go back to school, but those giving me the money are wary about me pursuing a MSAE or MSME. I don't know, I'm in a funk again about having a 4-year degree that seems to have been up to this point completely useless. Maybe it's the debt, or the $9.50/hr part-time seasonal job, or the fact that I've had 'zero' interviews since graduation. All my attempts at networking have been pretty ineffectual with my 'contacts' never willing to do anything other than advise me that their company has a career webpage. At this point it seems like if it weren't for MLMs, I wouldn't have anyone calling me at this point. I don't know, maybe I just need some good news.
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May 29, 2013 18:39
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HClChicken posted:Trying to make my school decision now that all the acceptance letters and advising has started. I'm wondering if I should take the school that offered a fresh start even though I will be considered a Junior at another worse ranking school. CU-Boulder will mean I will have to take courses again that I took almost 8 years ago and be helpful with refreshing but this will means I won't graduate until 2017. OSU will take me 3 years to graduate but is the lowest ranking of all three but unlike NCSU I will get a "fresh" start in regards to my GP and I'll still have certain classes transfer. Well, if you gave me the choice between Boulder, OSU, and NCSU, I would definitely pick Boulder. Their undergrad program is good, but also Boulder is really nice and their graduate school is also top 20 if I remember correctly. No, seriously spending an extra year in Boulder would probably be the best thing you could do.
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May 29, 2013 19:15
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Phone interview tomorrow. Haven't been on many interviews recently. Any advice or questions I should think about before I call?
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May 31, 2013 00:26
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Cicero posted:I have a hard time imagining someone in HR going, "Oh I'm sorry, biomedical engineering? WHAT A CHUMP *tosses resume into trash*" That's exactly what I've been experiencing. Lots of people ditch my application because my degree is either considered too irrelevant or too low-level. I've applied for biotech, software, mech eng, biomaterials, etc. jobs and I always get rejected for either not being a CS major or not having a PHD and 5 years experience under my belt. A BME BS is not very useful at all for getting hired.
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May 31, 2013 00:35
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Does anyone know what kind of jobs are like a few months on and a few months off type schedule? I have a grad degree and 10 yrs experience in aerospace, but as technobureaucrat, paper pusher engineer for massive corporations. Pay is good, life is comfortable, but I sort of want to get in THE poo poo and my hands dirty. Oh and to all you recent grads worrying about your grades...its all who you know. After 3 years experience, its considered sort of tacky to put your GPA front and center of your resume. You just gotta get that foot in the door ONCE in your life.
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May 31, 2013 01:34
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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May 31, 2013 03:03
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Pollyanna posted:That's exactly what I've been experiencing. Lots of people ditch my application because my degree is either considered too irrelevant or too low-level. I've applied for biotech, software, mech eng, biomaterials, etc. jobs and I always get rejected for either not being a CS major or not having a PHD and 5 years experience under my belt. A BME BS is not very useful at all for getting hired.
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May 31, 2013 04:05
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CatchrNdRy posted:Does anyone know what kind of jobs are like a few months on and a few months off type schedule? If you can work in getting something on the manufacturing end, that is mad hands dirty. In the most literal sense. My hands are usually filthy because I get called to fix a machine when the maintenance guys get it up and working. Also yeah, I'll agree with the GPA bit. I'll also say that a handful of years working has taught me more about engineering than my years of schooling. Namely that the answer is always to blame marketing.
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May 31, 2013 05:14
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CatchrNdRy posted:Does anyone know what kind of jobs are like a few months on and a few months off type schedule? - Maritime or petroleum engineering gigs do time on/time off - No you don't, you're too spoiled as a technobureaucrat. - Tru dat. Got my first job because of networking. No one has given a poo poo about my GPA, well, ever. If someone asked me now for my GPA I'd tell them to eat a bag of dicks and look at my resume and the people I've worked with.
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May 31, 2013 08:19
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So I made it past the recruiter and now onto the hiring manager. They told me she will need about an hour. I've never had such a long interview. Will it be much different than a normal interview?
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May 31, 2013 17:22
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I am a 5th year Mechanical Engineering student. I graduate this Fall, with only 9 credit hours to take, only 6 of which are actual engineering courses. Would be done except the community college I transferred from hosed up like 20-something credit hours. Anyways I've had some excellent professors that have worked in the field. A few things about working in the field that I've learned from them: Take the PE Exam and become a professional engineer, as soon as you can. It mostly will pay off once you are retired, but then you can be called in as a "Professional Consultant". Also you will get paid to testify in court, as a professional engineer's testimony holds up in court. Always cover your own rear end. As an engineer, your rear end can be sued for faulty jobs. Don't just cover your rear end, but make sure to do a good job. Listen to the mechanics/technicians: These dudes might not have the course work you have had, but they have several years of field experience you won't have had. Final bit of advice, for getting a job as an Engineer: Never stop applying. I have had trouble getting an entry-level Engineering job, as I have not had much experience in the field. I have gone to temp agencies even, applying to work on assembly lines. This got my foot in the door, and I soon will be, instead of working on said assembly line for Toyota, will be one of their entry-level engineers. Applying even to the small time temp agencies got my application finally looked at by someone higher up, and they then saw I had the education for a higher position.
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May 31, 2013 18:02
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