|
I graduated May of 2013 and was hired on mid September. I didn't start looking until after I graduated, there was a general lag of about 2.5 months from application to call back/interview and ended up getting a job due to my design senior project.
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2016 03:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 09:30 |
|
|
Xelkelvos posted:So I'm back to the thread after having passed the FE, and I've not found a job since graduating as a mechanical at the end of April. Admittedly, it doesn't help that I didn't get an internship during undergrad, but it's still sorta frustrating. What's the general turnover on graduating and then being hired? Me: Mech E with a 3.0 GPA from a meh school, very strong background in manufacturing and 2 published papers by the end of undergrad . Result: I was hired right out of college at a prestigious company for a very good salary that I negotiated. What it took to accomplish this: In addition to my credentials/job experience I spent 10+ hours per week applying, revisiting my resume, writing cover letters, perfecting my linkedin and connections, messaging people, making phone calls, watching youtubes on how to interview, hitting indeed/monster/craigslist, etc. I got told no, rejected or ignored by more than 100 people/places/job listings. Again literally > 500 hours spent doing that in my last year. I also took the words in the job description, found a textbook on that subject that was well reviewed on amazon and read the whole textbook ahead of my interview. This is what landed me the job. CarForumPoster fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Jul 4, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2016 23:03
|
|
|
My current job title is "System Developer" and I'm having trouble summarizing this role on my resume (I'm looking to leave my current job as I'm not particularly happy with the current work environment). It's a very over-arching role that involves having knowledge of pretty much all the bits and pieces of the product, and importantly, the underlying theoretical basis of its operation. In a day to day sense I've been involved in tasks as low-level as embedded programming and board layouts to high-level work like writing design specs, developing algorithms, and data analyses. I'm struggling with finding succinct, impactful wording to describe this role. Does anyone else with a similar such role have some clever wording they've used? (oh, and since this in the engineering thread, I'm an electrical engineer)
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2016 04:21
|
|
|
I would use either of these two job titles if I were you: Systems Engineer - You want a more project management type role. Product Development Engineer - You want a more technical role
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2016 10:58
|
|
|
KetTarma posted:I would use either of these two job titles if I were you: What he said, in aero/defense this type of role I've commonly heard called Systems Software Engineer or Software Systems Engineer.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2016 11:52
|
|
|
Cyril Sneer posted:It's a very over-arching role that involves having knowledge of pretty much all the bits and pieces of the product, and importantly, the underlying theoretical basis of its operation. In a day to day sense I've been involved in tasks as low-level as embedded programming and board layouts to high-level work like writing design specs, developing algorithms, and data analyses. Sounds like what we would call a Technical Director on a project.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2016 12:56
|
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:What he said, in aero/defense this type of role I've commonly heard called Systems Software Engineer or Software Systems Engineer. He's not writing code / building software though, so it's just 'systems engineer'.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2016 21:13
|
|
|
mitztronic posted:He's not writing code / building software though, so it's just 'systems engineer'. I wasn't paying enough attention, you are correct.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2016 00:48
|
|
|
I can't actually use the "engineer" term as I don't have my P.Eng. (engineer is a protected title here)
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2016 02:16
|
|
|
.
Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Aug 10, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2016 13:19
|
|
|
.
Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Aug 10, 2023 |
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2016 13:20
|
|
|
Thoguh posted:At least in my experience I'd stay away from something like Tech Director because to me that implies ownership of budget and schedule in addition to technical duties. Agreed. Where I'm at, the "Director" title is reserved for level 4 managers... like "Production Engineering Director" "Finance Director" etc.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2016 14:45
|
|
|
Thoguh posted:If that's the case the 'System Developer' title might already be your best bet. It's not the title I'm concerned about, but rather how to describe the responsibilities succinctly on a resume.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2016 01:35
|
|
|
Civil engineer here with 5-1/2 years experience... Just quit my first job out of school at a small (<200 employee) consultancy firm for a state level job. I was getting paid well... salary plus straight time after 40, but was slowly dying inside. Weekend benders when I was home, more frequent benders while traveling 100-ish days per year. Hypertension and zero social life to the point my wife got really worried about me. I was managing an office and left the place with 97% utilization and regular 50+hr weeks which I'm finding out was insane for that position. Looking forward to a normal life with decent benefits and free time to explore hobbies put on hold years ago. Moral of the story is don't let bosses work you like a dog in exchange for nebulous terms like "career opportunity" and "autonomy", learn when to say "no" and "gently caress no", and don't be afraid to look elsewhere if you aren't given the tools you need to get a job done right.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2016 03:44
|
|
|
Diver Dick posted:Civil engineer here with 5-1/2 years experience... Just quit my first job out of school at a small (<200 employee) consultancy firm for a state level job. I was getting paid well... salary plus straight time after 40, but was slowly dying inside. Weekend benders when I was home, more frequent benders while traveling 100-ish days per year. Hypertension and zero social life to the point my wife got really worried about me. I was managing an office and left the place with 97% utilization and regular 50+hr weeks which I'm finding out was insane for that position. Looking forward to a normal life with decent benefits and free time to explore hobbies put on hold years ago. Wisdom.
|
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2016 04:51
|
|
|
Maybe I've drank the kool aid or something but that all sounds relatively tame to me. But good on you for getting out of a situation that you're not built to cope with.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2016 07:25
|
|
|
Civil chiming in here, those numbers don't really seem eye-popping at all except for the 100 days a year of travel. A bunch of companies have utilization targets of 100% for their EI's/Project Engineers which it would seem you'd fall into, and 50 hours a week seems pretty normal as well. The 100 days a year of travel would straight murder me though. I'm curious as to what you do that bounces you around so much. I met a structural engineer who does underwater diving inspections, and he definitely traveled a bunch, but it also seemed like a pretty sweet gig.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2016 23:02
|
|
|
Working 50+ hours a week should not be seen as normal. Take your life back. Don't let yourself be pushed around.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 05:24
|
|
|
I mean you're right but in reality it's on the low end for engineering. And honestly I get bored when I have more than a couple of 40 hour work weeks in a row, but again kool aid and all that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 05:33
|
|
|
Cyril Sneer posted:I can't actually use the "engineer" term as I don't have my P.Eng. (engineer is a protected title here) I am almost 100% that you can use "Engineer" in your title, you just can't use "Professional Engineer". All the consultants I deal with from there that are younger and don't have the P.Eng yet still are called Engineer 1 or 2. Maybe I am wrong but I see it all the time and well you are an engineer.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 15:30
|
|
|
spwrozek posted:I am almost 100% that you can use "Engineer" in your title, you just can't use "Professional Engineer". All the consultants I deal with from there that are younger and don't have the P.Eng yet still are called Engineer 1 or 2. Maybe I am wrong but I see it all the time and well you are an engineer. Some Canadian provinces (I think Ontario and Quebec, maybe one or two more) protect any use of "engineer" and require explicit permission from the board to use it for non-licensed job titles. Ontario is especially zealous about the title "software engineer" The Chairman fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Aug 5, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 16:59
|
|
|
That is unfortunate. I don't like when the word engineer is dumbed down but when you have a degree in it and a P.Eng/P.E. is checking your work well...let's use some common sense here Canada.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 20:07
|
|
|
We got a T1 new hire today. He is a mechanical engineer hired to evaluate and make suggestions for environmental hardness of items. I had to explain to a person who has graduated college with a BSME what a gasket was.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2016 02:56
|
|
|
GordonComstock posted:I met a structural engineer who does underwater diving inspections, and he definitely traveled a bunch, but it also seemed like a pretty sweet gig. Yep, I'm a commercial diver. Mainly bridges but I've done work on waterfront facilities and other offshore structures. I love the field work, but lack of back-end support means I'm doing a full day of inspections then driving back to a hotel to crank out another 2-3hrs of report work on an unrelated project. I can't stay sharp doing that. The travel bleeds into weekends so often I miss out on a ton of stuff. It was great when I was fresh out of school and could get wasted on whatever night of the week I flew back home... but I'm burnt on this type of schedule. Anyhow, today was my last day. Feels good, man
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2016 04:45
|
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:We got a T1 new hire today. He is a mechanical engineer hired to evaluate and make suggestions for environmental hardness of items. I had to explain to a person who has graduated college with a BSME what a gasket was.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2016 04:56
|
|
|
Pander posted:That's not really unique. Lots of universities focus on theory rather than practicality. So many new engineer I rude awakenings. My company is hiring a lot of people for a huge and I am really disappointed they don't seem to ask them challenging interview questions. Its a decent enough company but it could be much better I think if they stepped up the rigor of who they hired. It seems to be mostly managers and relatively few still-technical people doing the hiring as well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2016 05:26
|
|
|
Stepping up my FE prep. Just took the official NCEES practice for the EE exam and got a raw score of 80 (40/50 questions right). Got a couple right by luck, but also missed some very easy ones, so I figure it was more or less accurate. It was much, much easier than the practice material given in the Lindeburg book and associated test banks. I'm feeling good about it with a month to go to refine my knowledge.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2016 23:40
|
|
|
Not a Children posted:Stepping up my FE prep. Just took the official NCEES practice for the EE exam and got a raw score of 80 (40/50 questions right). Got a couple right by luck, but also missed some very easy ones, so I figure it was more or less accurate. It was much, much easier than the practice material given in the Lindeburg book and associated test banks. I'm feeling good about it with a month to go to refine my knowledge. If you paid attention during the 100/200 level courses and reinforced them a little bit with 300/400 level courses and have an iota of test-taking capability, you'll do fine. It's a tough test in two respects: it's very long (a 9 hour day), and it covers drat near everything. You'll come across some stuff you've simply just not planned for or can't fully remember how to solve, but on the whole the difficulty level isn't very high. You sound like you're good.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2016 05:33
|
|
|
Not a Children posted:Stepping up my FE prep. Just took the official NCEES practice for the EE exam and got a raw score of 80 (40/50 questions right). Got a couple right by luck, but also missed some very easy ones, so I figure it was more or less accurate. It was much, much easier than the practice material given in the Lindeburg book and associated test banks. I'm feeling good about it with a month to go to refine my knowledge. I didn't study for the FE at all, took the official practice test a few days before with a 60%, and I passed the FE with an hour and a half to spare. There were only a few questions that I didn't know how to solve and that's because I didn't take those senior electives. I thought the NCEES practice test was harder than the actual FE. If you paid attention in undergrad, it'll be easy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2016 12:37
|
|
|
Thanks for the encouragement. I'm actually about 4 years out of undergrad, so a ton of that info is super rusty, and to be frank I paid a lot more attention in the higher level classes than the lower, so I'm in this weird situation of being able to breeze through, say, E&M equations and device physics, but pretty lousy at physics problems more complicated than a single spring or mass/energy problem. Glad to hear that it's pretty easy in practice. I imagine a lot of the failure rate is from professionals who 100% wing it trying to take a shortcut to the PE.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2016 14:59
|
|
|
It is almost completely a test of how well you can identify what subject a problem is on, flip to the correct section in the reference book, and figure out what equation or table applies to a given problem. Even if you're rusty on the specifics, you never have to remember anything obscure.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2016 17:17
|
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:My company is hiring a lot of people for a huge and I am really disappointed they don't seem to ask them challenging interview questions. Its a decent enough company but it could be much better I think if they stepped up the rigor of who they hired. It seems to be mostly managers and relatively few still-technical people doing the hiring as well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2016 21:59
|
|
|
Steve Jorbs posted:What level of questions are they currently asking? Hiring based on who can answer the most trivia questions can easily go wrong and create a bad culture. Like you can teach someone what a gasket is and how you use it in a few minutes but it's a lot harder to teach someone how to not be an rear end in a top hat. I'm not suggesting they quiz them on trivia, but rather ask them questions that encourage the use of fundamentals and gauge their level of interest in creating thing related to their degree. E.G. I interviewed for a stress/mech design position at a huge tech company. I was asked the question: I have a road sign that sags, it doesnt permanently deform, just hangs lower what are five things I can do to change it so it sags less? What are your assumptions? The question encourages them to use equations to solve problems, the answer to the question is to look at the terms and find the one that has a squared term and say "because this has a squared term I get the most benefit by modifying it" Then you get follow on questions that push you to the limit of your understanding about the topic. E.g. one answer to that question is you could change the material. But because they said it didnt permanently deform you (as a mech E) should know that changing to another alloy of the same material is likely not the solution. I'd also ask them about building projects. Quad copters or cars or whatever they may be interested in.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2016 22:08
|
|
|
Anyone know of a good online resource for steam Mollier diagrams? Taking the PE in a few months and thought it'd be nice to have something of a little better resolution than what I currently have (page in a textbook).
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2016 19:46
|
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:E.g. one answer to that question is you could change the material. But because they said it didnt permanently deform you (as a mech E) should know that changing to another alloy of the same material is likely not the solution. Yeah, but what if you're holding up your sign with rubber bands? 
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2016 21:59
|
|
|
CarForumPoster posted:I'm not suggesting they quiz them on trivia, but rather ask them questions that encourage the use of fundamentals and gauge their level of interest in creating thing related to their degree. You could add a flange or hem, spot or weld a strip of material, put the sign in a frame, drill out the mounting holes for bigger bolts... Then again I come from a "we built it and it's hosed, but if we scrap it we'll be late so Alastor figure it out" school of engineering.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2016 03:45
|
|
|
Advice needed! I got my BSEE in 2014 and was hired as a Field Service Engineer about 2 months later. I enjoyed it at first, but two years down the line I am absolutely miserable. I get a pit in my stomach every time I get an email with a new service call. I am out of town most weeks M-F, and about 25-35% of weekends. I am missing out on doing tons of exciting things I love at home, I never get to see my friends, and the new relationship I'm in is suffering. The job is also completely useless career development wise, and I'm not learning any skills I can put on a resume other than "electronics troubleshooting." Several months ago, before I even mentioned the burnout, my boss approached me and said that if I ever wanted to stop traveling, just let him know because they don't want to lose me as an employee. The next day I told him I was done, and he said he would get things rolling with his bosses. I have followed up directly with them, and they have basically said "there are no open positions." I have 13-17 months of savings in the bank, and zero debt. I think I'm going to quit in a month, but I'm scared because over the past month or two the very light job hunting I've done hasn't produced any results. Any advice for getting out of this situation and transitioning to a design or test oriented role at another company?
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2016 03:14
|
|
|
illcendiary posted:Anyone know of a good online resource for steam Mollier diagrams? Taking the PE in a few months and thought it'd be nice to have something of a little better resolution than what I currently have (page in a textbook). ill, I've been using the Mollier from the back of the MERM for years. I used a hand scanner to get at it and I've been telling myself that I'd rescan it to get rid of the slight warp it has, but it works just fine as is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9v3fuki4vlsj1ul/MOLLIER.pdf?dl=0 If you're sitting for the Thermal Fluids PE I strongly suggest getting a copy of Keenan and Keyes Steam tables. Not having to interpolate or calculate fg deltas is a crazy time saver in the exam. The books include a banging Mollier diagram that is 36"x42" but it is so detailed that resizing it to 11x17 makes it almost unreadable without a magnifying glass.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2016 14:52
|
|
|
HOG ILLUSTRATIONS posted:Advice needed! You're right. Being a field service tech is not doing your career any favors. You are absolutely correct in that you should get out of that position as soon as possible. Don't quit your job before you have a new one. It's much easier to get hired if you already have a job. Spend your time in your hotel room applying to jobs when you're away from home. Eventually something will turn up.
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2016 15:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 09:30 |
|
|
The problem I'm facing is that i think being on the road all the time will make it impossible to interview. I have already missed a group examination for a dwp job because I had travel booked in advance and there was no way to get out of it. Also, I know it's easier to get a job when you have one, but if I can only apply to 1/4 as many jobs while I'm on the road vs job hunting full time, it might be a wash anyway. I know in general it's dumb to quit without a new job, but does it make sense in this specific situation?
|
|
#
?
Aug 14, 2016 16:24
|
|