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Cicero posted:Sounds to me like it's 8% contribution, 4% match. The limit of you and your employer is a different value.
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May 26, 2014 22:47
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Whatever the number, just remember you are throwing away free money if you don't at least contribute what the employer match is (not like posters in this thread need to be reminded of that)
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May 27, 2014 02:50
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Senor P. posted:I might be mistaken but I think the 17.5k is the limit to contributions you can make as an employee.
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May 27, 2014 04:48
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Thoguh posted:What state is that? Sorry, I'm a bit late on this, but I'm in Ohio.
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May 28, 2014 05:03
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So I just graduated as a chemical engineer with a sub 3.0 GPA and no experience. So far I've gotten no replies from any of my engineering applications, but today I got a call for some random lab tech position close to where I am currently living (Miami). Its a lovely position that pays $15 dollars an hour as a contract worker, and doesn't really have much to do with engineering. The question is should I just take this job anyways just to gain some sort of work experience, or will taking this job actually hurt me?
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May 30, 2014 16:20
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Take it while aggressively looking for a new job.
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May 31, 2014 00:12
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Xeom posted:So I just graduated as a chemical engineer with a sub 3.0 GPA and no experience. So far I've gotten no replies from any of my engineering applications, but today I got a call for some random lab tech position close to where I am currently living (Miami). Its a lovely position that pays $15 dollars an hour as a contract worker, and doesn't really have much to do with engineering. If it really did somehow hurt you, you could always just not list it on your resume while looking for a real job. That said, I don't think there would be a widespread disdain among potential employers unless you were stuck in this role for like 2 years or something; that would probably raise some eyebrows.
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May 31, 2014 16:40
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Xeom posted:So I just graduated as a chemical engineer with a sub 3.0 GPA and no experience. So far I've gotten no replies from any of my engineering applications, but today I got a call for some random lab tech position close to where I am currently living (Miami). Its a lovely position that pays $15 dollars an hour as a contract worker, and doesn't really have much to do with engineering. It's not to late to do an engineering internship, you do not have to be a student to intern. Seriously consider it. Most engineering firms will pay more than $15/hr to an intern and it's a million times better for moving on to an actual position with them or someone else (assuming you are competent) than some random non-applicable job. e: Also, to any current student reading, DO AN INTERNSHIP OR CO-OP! Or two or three if you can. You will learn about the industry you are entering, employers will learn that you are employable and pretty much all engineering firms pay interns a reasonable rate. Murgos fucked around with this message at 12:38 on Jun 3, 2014 |
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Jun 3, 2014 12:35
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Jun 3, 2014 14:31
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Xeom posted:So I just graduated as a chemical engineer with a sub 3.0 GPA and no experience. So far I've gotten no replies from any of my engineering applications, but today I got a call for some random lab tech position close to where I am currently living (Miami). Its a lovely position that pays $15 dollars an hour as a contract worker, and doesn't really have much to do with engineering. This was the path that myself and a few of my classmates ended up taking. Graduated ChE with a mediocre GPA in 2011 and took some lovely contract production tech job to get some semblance of work experience under my belt. Most of the internship postings I saw were only open to students, so that was a no go for me. I left the production tech job after another one of my colleagues had an engineering opening in his department. If you're willing to do so, I would take the job, apply aggressively and keep in touch with your colleagues to see if they can hook it up a year down the line or something.
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Jun 3, 2014 19:32
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As an EE, which is a better choice to make: a job that will lead to a PE or a job that has no PEs but will pay 100% tuition assistance for grad school with no yearly cap I think I know the answer but I just wanted to check.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:48
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The job that's more in line with what I think I want to do. That could be either grad school (engineering or Bschool) or PE depending. That said, if you really want to get a PE there's ways to have both.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:52
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As an EE, it depends on if you're interested in working in a field where a PE would be required (I think for EEs this would be facilities design, HVAC and power transmission). If not, you might as well get that free master's instead.
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Jun 3, 2014 21:53
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The Chairman posted:As an EE, it depends on if you're interested in working in a field where a PE would be required (I think for EEs this would be facilities design, HVAC and power transmission). If not, you might as well get that free master's instead. I'm interning right now as a manufacturing engineer. I really want to work as an electrical engineer and use my degree but most engineers here are all lumped together as jack-of-all-trades. My boss and I were talking about this internship being a fulltime job and he warned me that I'd probably never get a PE license if I stayed here. It's possible to go into a pure electrical role but those spots are very limited. There are some design engineering jobs but it's even more limited. Otherwise, the pay and benefits are probably the best my area has to offer. I'm still a month and a half from any decision point.. just trying to figure things out for now. Just having a job seems reason enough to stay. I'm trying to think long term though.
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Jun 3, 2014 22:06
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KetTarma posted:a job that has no PEs but will pay 100% tuition assistance for grad school with no yearly cap That sounds sweet as hell, do that one. We only get 5k/year if we do part time grad school.
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Jun 3, 2014 22:12
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Would it be impossible to get a PE due to the nature of the work or is it just that your boss will never be a licensed engineer? If I had to choose I'd take the money because school is expensive, but I'm trying for both.
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Jun 4, 2014 14:11
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Don't pick a job based upon what the requirements are for promotion (which a PE and 100% funded master's degree are), pick a job you want to do and think you'll enjoy. SeaBass fucked around with this message at 20:53 on Jun 4, 2014 |
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Jun 4, 2014 20:41
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It's manufacturing engineering at a factory. My boss said that he only knows one PE on the entire site. That guy said in his 15 years with the company, he's never had to sign for anything. He got his PE before he worked here. My job seems to be answering questions that technicians have and refreshing a queue to look for problem reports that need plans made to fix.
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Jun 4, 2014 21:21
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Got a verbal offer today! I finally feel like the past five years have paid off. I'll be the junior Transmission and Distribution Engineer at the Utility I've been interning at the last two years. Any other fresh graduates get offers yet?
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Jun 5, 2014 04:44
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RedReverend posted:Got a verbal offer today! I finally feel like the past five years have paid off. I'll be the junior Transmission and Distribution Engineer at the Utility I've been interning at the last two years. If you ever need any transmission help let me know. I am a senior engineer and another utility in transmission line design. Are you CE or EE? Get to some conferences for sure, IEEE t&d, ASCE T&D, pls-CADD advanced user group, esmo (if it ever happens again). Also get your PE as soon as you can. And congrats man it is a fun time to be in the industry, people are retiring, you should be thrown on great projects, great chance to move up and make really good money quickly. Also the more transmission work the better because distribution is so cookie cutter and boring. Also this whole post I am assuming line design and not sub design.
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Jun 5, 2014 05:20
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RedReverend posted:Got a verbal offer today! I finally feel like the past five years have paid off. I'll be the junior Transmission and Distribution Engineer at the Utility I've been interning at the last two years. Congrats on living the dream man. Edited out some negative stuff about my job hunt. No need to cry in a public forum. Xeom fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Jun 5, 2014 |
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Jun 5, 2014 15:28
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spwrozek posted:
I'm a civil engineer that does distribution lines on occasion and I can't understand why anyone bothers to get them engineered in the first place. Even if I do a magical job it's probably not going to be significantly different from what a contractor could just eyeball. Half the time I'm just going to use the same local utility company tables and standards that everyone has a photocopy of on their shelves. The only time there's anything interesting involved is when there are: A) really tall poles B) restrictive guying conditions or weird guying arrangements C) lots of circuits
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Jun 5, 2014 19:59
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RedReverend posted:Got a verbal offer today! I finally feel like the past five years have paid off. I'll be the junior Transmission and Distribution Engineer at the Utility I've been interning at the last two years. Congrats! I recently got back into the T&D area (substation design) after a 4 year hiatus in sales engineering. I got tired of getting screwed in mergers, looming layoffs, non-technical bosses and the pressure to SELL SELL SELL! I plan on staying in this field for the rest of my working days, and with the industry outlook, that shouldn't be a problem.
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Jun 5, 2014 23:18
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SeaBass posted:Congrats! I recently got back into the T&D area (substation design) after a 4 year hiatus in sales engineering. I got tired of getting screwed in mergers, looming layoffs, non-technical bosses and the pressure to SELL SELL SELL! I plan on staying in this field for the rest of my working days, and with the industry outlook, that shouldn't be a problem. Where are you working at? If you don't mind me asking
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Jun 6, 2014 00:14
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spwrozek posted:Where are you working at? If you don't mind me asking Southern California. We're working on a solar farm collection sub at the moment.
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Jun 6, 2014 03:40
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KetTarma posted:As an EE, which is a better choice to make: a job that will lead to a PE I agree that this should not be a deciding factor, but check with your state board about what constitutes "qualifying experience" for the PE. I think in some states, grad school may count towards your time for the PE (up to a limit). So if you were to get your masters paid for and then switch jobs to something that requires a PE, you could already have some time credited to it.
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Jun 6, 2014 04:40
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Does anybody know of a listing somewhere with all the chemical producers/petroleum refineries by state? I've found some smaller listings but I am finding it hard to find small time producers and such. Edit:Texas seems to be good at listing some of this stuff. Florida not so much. Xeom fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Jun 7, 2014 |
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Jun 7, 2014 18:42
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Thatim posted:Are there anyone here who got a MSc in Petroleum Engineering? My degree is in chemical engineering, but I work as a field engineer in petroleum. My best friend has the same degree and work experience, but he recently quit work to go to UT for a master's in petroleum. He is inundated with internship and co-op offers. Shell, BHP Billiton, Exxon. Sheeeyit. He also has a very good GPA. Anyhow, there's a lot more competition in PE now, but if you're a good student you can make it. And if you are a good student and want the top job, you can have it after a couple more years. Celot fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Jun 10, 2014 |
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Jun 10, 2014 07:20
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spwrozek posted:If you ever need any transmission help let me know. I am a senior engineer and another utility in transmission line design. Are you CE or EE? Get to some conferences for sure, IEEE t&d, ASCE T&D, pls-CADD advanced user group, esmo (if it ever happens again). Also get your PE as soon as you can. Yeah, it's a great field. I'm an EE BTW. I love going to work in the morning and it seems like every day it is something new. I come from a low voltage background and I love the freedom that we have in the Utility world to get creative. My boss has promised to start sending me to conferences.
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Jun 14, 2014 03:30
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SubCrid TC posted:I'm a civil engineer that does distribution lines on occasion and I can't understand why anyone bothers to get them engineered in the first place. Even if I do a magical job it's probably not going to be significantly different from what a contractor could just eyeball. Half the time I'm just going to use the same local utility company tables and standards that everyone has a photocopy of on their shelves. That's true about a lot of Engineering, especially electrical. Most everything can be found in a table somewhere. Generally, when I'm designing a new service or altering the distribution line, I just pull up existing drawings and modify them to fit my situation. There isn't any reason to re-invent the wheel on any of this stuff.
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Jun 14, 2014 03:33
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Whats the general consensus on working as a tech to gain some experience especially at a big company? Have people found that its possible to move up into and engineering position in such large companies?
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Jun 18, 2014 05:10
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Are you trying to change fields and/or do you have an engineering degree? If the answers are no and yes, then why wouldn't you just apply for the engineering position. I think those are easier to get anyway.
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Jun 18, 2014 05:12
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KernelSlanders posted:Are you trying to change fields and/or do you have an engineering degree? If the answers are no and yes, then why wouldn't you just apply for the engineering position. I think those are easier to get anyway. Because I just graduate with a sub 3.0 gpa and no experience. I can't get any call backs from any of the engineering positions as a ChemE, and I am applying every where.
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Jun 18, 2014 05:26
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Xeom posted:Because I just graduate with a sub 3.0 gpa and no experience. I can't get any call backs from any of the engineering positions as a ChemE, and I am applying every where. That's tough then. Experience is really key even for entry level positions and normally this is obtained through internships during college. It might be hard to get a technician position since employers tend to be sensitive about over qualified applicants who will work there just long enough to do their job correctly and jump ship. Putting a lot of work into getting a technician job might be a poor use of your time. The problem with a tech job, even if you can land one, is that you still won't be gaining experience to get an engineering job later. I will say that applying to positions advertised on the internet is not terribly effective. Often they know who they want to hire but HR makes them put an ad up anyway. You really need to be networking and using your university's career services. Sorry I don't have better input for you. Good luck.
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Jun 18, 2014 13:21
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Technician and engineer are usually separate career tracks at a lot of companies because of their differing qualifications and requirements, from what I've seen. Working as a tech wouldn't really get you in the door if what you really want to do is design.
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Jun 18, 2014 15:14
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Don't go tech unless you're sure you will get the skills you need to do your job later. Even then leave as soon as possible. This diversion will cost you years and gain you excellence in skills that go largely unappreciated in engineering. The reason is that it is never more cost effective to hire an engineer when you only need a tech. I am saying this as someone who did 5 years of tech writing because I had to pay the bills and the majority of my skills translated well to controls engineering.
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Jun 18, 2014 15:55
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This is all extremely disheartening to hear. The only reason I asked is because I randomly put in a app for a pilot plant tech position during my daily applying spree, and I have an interview with Dow chemical tomorrow. I guess I'll see what happens and ask what are the chances of moving up to an engineering position. Its just been several months now and this is literally the second phone interview I have ever gotten. It seems at this point that I am just screwed.
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Jun 18, 2014 16:41
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Xeom posted:This is all extremely disheartening to hear. The only reason I asked is because I randomly put in a app for a pilot plant tech position during my daily applying spree, and I have an interview with Dow chemical tomorrow. I guess I'll see what happens and ask what are the chances of moving up to an engineering position. This is a great opportunity to get your foot in the door with a good company and work your way up. I'm not intimately familiar with what a pilot plant tech does, but it looks like you'll be working closely with engineers so this could function as an internship of sorts and when an engineering position does open up you'll have practical experience, tenure AND know the people you'll be working with and making the decisions to hire you. Go into the interview with a good attitude. Chances are they'll ask you why you're applying for a tech position with an engineering degree anyway so you can use that as a segue to discuss future opportunities as an engineer. Good luck with your interview.
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Jun 18, 2014 17:07
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At least for EEs, experience as a tech (to me anyways) means you should end up very competent at soldering and rework, which is great if you have limited technician availability or no techs whatsoever. Being able to prototype reworks (no matter how crazy) and perform rework in house can save you days/weeks sometimes. I remember dead-bugging a BGA myself once due to a footprint error, and the new boards were two weeks out.
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Jun 18, 2014 17:11
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In my time as a test engineer I saw a few test lab techs move up into engineer positions, but it was definitely a struggle for them politically. They had the skills and education, but they really had to fight the bureaucracy to move up.
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Jun 18, 2014 17:16
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