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I'm in a bit of a bind. My history is pretty untraditional...BA in history in 2004, Naval officer from 2004-2009, Nuke Engineering BS just last month, have my EIT cert. Trying to get entry-level, and no bites in the past month after about 50-some applications. I've focused my search on the nuclear power plant operators, and expanded from there (including GE, Exxon-Mobil, and many engineering consulting firms). I think the biggest problem I'm facing is that Nuclear Engineering (University of Illinois, ABET-credited) is, at the same time, too vague and too focused. It's too vague inasmuch as I don't have a STRONG EE, ME, or CE background with it. It's too focused on the mid-level operations of a nuclear plant, perfect for the kind of job I'd get were I to have 4-8 years of experience in the field already. I have non, however, and was so focused on clearing up coursework during my summers that I didn't take on internships/coops. I'm desperately low on money, and finding myself insanely overqualified for local temp/part-time/full-time jobs. I can't even get a goddamn delivery job to call me back. I guess it's the "You have a nuclear engineering degree, you don't need us, you'll leave us when you get a real job" thing. I'm still in my college town. At the moment, it looks like I either re-up with the Navy and pray for immediate cash, or I think about using my car as collateral to keep myself afloat while hoping for something to actually pop up. Anyone with any thoughts or suggestions? So many loving job opps for ME/EE...don't really feel my niche is working out right now. I've been told my resume is stellar (Lieutenant in the navy, aviation experience, proven leadership experience, multiple degrees, etc), even by managers at places I'd love to work, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
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Jan 26, 2012 06:18
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Thoguh posted:Isn't the Navy paying shitloads of money for Nukes to re-up? Why not go that route. SeaBass posted:Have you applied to the NRC?
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Jan 26, 2012 19:57
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grover posted:Have you looked at the Naval shipyards? They have a pretty high turnover of engineers, and tend to be hiring pretty regularly. Newport News Shipbuilding and Electric Boat as well, though your military time won't give you any advantages as a contractor. I applied at EB a couple weeks ago. Waiting on that. Haven't hit Newport News Shipping, I'll see if they have any openings. My situation's better, got a local job just this afternoon, so I won't starve. If I can wring enough hours, I can survive here til April/May, when most of the utilities will PROBABLY look to make more new college recruits given how much bigger May graduation is than December. Really wish, if I could go back, I'd have picked ME. I actually enjoyed the ME coursework way more than I ever thought I would.
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Jan 27, 2012 01:31
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Lt Moose posted:Check out the Engineering Expo on the 9th. It looks like there will be 12 companies there looking for full time nuclear grads. I would also check out the ECS Career fair (this week), but I'm not involved with them as much as I am with the EXPO so I don't really know which companies will be there. Probably a lot of major ones though, I'd check on Symplicity. I'd known about it, but I don't know if I can get in. They swipe your university ID to get into it, and I don't know if it's only going to be good for current students or alumni as well.
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Jan 29, 2012 02:55
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Lt Moose posted:If your name shows up in the Illinois student directory, you will be able to get into the expo (I'm on the committee this year and just asked). You will also be able to get into the ECS career fair, according to their page (http://engineering.illinois.edu/corporations/career-fairs). Thanks a billion for keeping me in the loop with this! Went both days. First day was kinda blah, only Electric Boat seemed to show any interest. Second day was a lot more fun. CIA had a lot of interest, DNFSB had a really odd-but-cool 6 year program they offered, and I got an interview with PG&E earlier today that went well. It sounded less like "we're not sure we want to hire you" and more "we're trying to figure out where you'd be the best fit", so I'm really excited. Nukework on the west coast (my first real job not in the deep south, woo!) would be great.
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Feb 3, 2012 23:16
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I applied for the EEDP with GE, never heard back. Multiple facets of the EEDP, after being told to do that at a career faire in November. Looked like a fun way to go.
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Feb 20, 2012 07:50
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Got into nothing yet (no interviews or anything) with a Nuclear Engineering BS (and a naval officer career backing that up). DustingDuvet's helping with my resume. Still, after about a hundred applications sent out so far, I'd hoped for more. And all entry-level jobs I see are BSEE, BSME, or software engineering required. This is after industry contacts pledged to help get me hired, asking for my resume, telling me to apply to certain jobs (that I'd already applied to), then kinda not-really-responding. Out of money, and pretty much eye-balling returning to the Navy (as a nuke rather than pilot/hydrographer this time) if DD's magic doesn't help me turn my situation around. Yay engineering  Really feel like I should have gone EE or ME. They just seem so drat much more practical and desired.
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Jun 11, 2012 17:57
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I just got my first callback from an employer about an application I submitted. Taking a basic "do you know your crap" all-day test in a couple weeks. The job would have me doing exactly what my degree readied me to do, for exactly what I hoped to make, exactly where I am already. You know the end scene in Kill Bill part 2 where Uma Thurman's on the floor in her hotel room bathroom crying and hugging herself with joy because she's free to enjoy life after getting her kid back? That was me after seeing an employer's email saying "Let me know when we can set up an interview time" finally. Hopefully I get the job, and it's T-minus about 4 or 5 years until I'm operating nuclear reactors like it ain't no thing.
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Jul 6, 2012 18:25
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If you can afford to spend a year delaying your graduation and feel confident you can jump back into school without missing a beat, do it. One year of work in your field before you graduate sounds like an amazing get.
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Jul 7, 2012 15:57
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I had someone from the Lucas Group get all excited about me and then they disappeared. So dunno. I used a TI-30x on the FE. Too many times I'd need to re-check the little printed instruction pad on the back to make sure I was doing my permutation correctly. Just couldn't find a FX-115 in time :\ Good luck on it. I found it incredibly demoralizing. So long, and so many civil/mechanical type questions about stuff I'd never needed to know (lots of "a force bends a bridge" type questions). Generally though, you should (if you've worked at all for your degree) be super confident about 50% of your answers, pretty confident with another 25-30%, and then kinda guessing with the rest. That should pass it for you.
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Jul 17, 2012 01:31
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I'm taking the POSS/BMST on Tuesday from Exelon. Anyone else take it before, have any advice? It sounds rather elementary.
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Jul 20, 2012 03:39
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White Kid Polo posted:quick tl;dr version: Is 30+ years old too old to be hired as a new engineering undergrad under any circumstances? Or does it just depend? 
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Aug 5, 2012 01:40
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YF19: I felt like I was in the same drat boat as you. Niche market I had a degree for (and interest in), a lack of solid industry experience, and no real traction despite good interviews when I'd get em (very few compared to the hundreds of resumes I sent out). Eventually got a job through networking with a friend who was a fellow student for a while. If you're not, hit up your collegiate friends and acquaintances again. Even if you weren't great friends, so long as you're not considered a shitbag by them, if their company is in hiring mode (and SOME of them are bound to be) a personal recommendation is worth 50 online resume submissions. 10 months of searching, and it was one off-hand conversation that eventually yielded paydirt. Life's painful like that sometimes, just gotta laugh and keep at it.
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Oct 29, 2012 02:37
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I got a BS in nuke eng, then had a choice between MS or work. I liked choosing work, despite how easy the MS would have been to just sidle into, because with my current hindsight I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have wanted to get a nuke MS. My college's dept was so built on R&D/lab/academia, and I find I enjoy being more hands-on and entrepreneurial. Now I think I'd end up choosing a different masters. Glad I decided BS -> work -> MS(?). Lots more flexibility.
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Nov 1, 2012 01:57
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huhu posted:I'm a senior with about two years of engineering experience. I applied to a job that was definitely out of my reach with Lego because it asked for a minimum of 5 years experience. They did however include "...we find your experience and competencies interesting...We would like to keep your data and information in our candidate database for possible future use..." It was a personally addressed email from the head HR manager. Are they being polite or do you think they're sincere about keeping my information on file? None ever did. Mine were all obviously form letters, though. If yours was personally written it may be a different situation. What's funny is that when I got a job, the response after the interview was "Great interview. We'll keep in touch." I had no clue what it really meant and wondered if it was just the weirdest rejection ever, but got a follow-up email with drug screening package a few weeks later. So apparently that was literally the case, they were going to keep in touch.
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Dec 16, 2012 22:50
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Wolfy posted:What do I wear to an engineering career fair? You are now officially "safe". You will not be remembered at all for your attire, only your interactions/resume, if at all. Or do like I did: black/lavender pinstripe suit, brown shoes, black oxford, royal purple tie. It was badass. (I didn't get a job from that fair. I blame the market)
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Dec 24, 2012 03:34
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huhu posted:I've been going through engineering with a generally crappy GPA around 2.2 to 2.5. This past semester I finished 18.5 credits and got a 3.55 and dean's list. It brings my major GPA to a 3.03 and my overall GPA to a 2.96. How do I best advertise this? Upward trend. Overcoming some sort of block. Getting into more advanced subjects that draw your interest rather than weed-out courses.
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Jan 17, 2013 17:21
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totalnewbie posted:If it comes up, don't be afraid just to chalk part of it up to immaturity. "Yeah, I over the last year, I've really grown up a lot. I've realized that *insert how I turned a weak point into a strong point here*." This. My true freshman-sophomore years (2000-01) saw my GPA go 2.88, 2.42, 1.90 per semester. By the time I graduated I had switched majors (Nuke Eng -> history) and got up to 2.99 with about 130 hours. When I restarted Nuke Eng (2009-2012) my GPA has changed from a 2.99 to 3.10, with about 180 hours behind it. It gets harder to change when you have so many hours, so I can show anyone interested in GPA that I've done well enough as an engineer to keep raising my GPA from where my LAS degree got it. Upward trends, increased self-accountability, those are natural things in college for people learning how the world outside their hometown works. *note: being a military officer makes GPA rarely important for me. significant outside-classroom achievements help mitigate GPA concerns a lot.
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Jan 18, 2013 17:45
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Frankston posted:On that note, how viable is it for a mechanical engineer to work in the energy industry? I'm really interested in mech but I'd also love to do something with nuclear or renewable energies.
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Apr 19, 2013 17:07
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Olothreutes posted:Would you recommend being a plant operator to someone? It's not my first choice for things to do, but I'd rather do that than something weapons related. I'm a nuke, and a lot of my friends are in training to be reactor operators. Most of them have to live in podunky areas (nuke plants tend not to be near major metropolitan centers), work random shifts (nights and afternoons every so often), and take on an awful lot of knowledge quickly. The first two points are why I'm not working at a nuke plant directly, although I do some contract work at them frequently.
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Sep 21, 2013 15:50
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Olothreutes posted:I will be graduating this may with a BS in nuclear engineering after spending a long time in the banking world. I didn't use anything close to calculus for that whole time. It can certainly be done and really you aren't even that old. You'll be just fine. There will always be someone older. Hell, I'm 30 and I'll be 31 when I graduate and I'm not the oldest guy in my class or the class after mine, etc. What he said. I graduated with a history degree in 04, spent 5 years in the Navy, and went back for a nuclear engineering degree, graduated in 11, now am working with an A/E firm doing a bunch of different things, mostly nuclear-plant related but not really involving my nuclear engineering degree. I'm 31 now, turning 32 soon, and it's not really a big deal.
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Oct 9, 2013 21:33
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Olothreutes posted:Continuing with the FE chat, I'm about to finish up a degree in nuclear engineering. It looks like the FE has transitioned to a computer based system with no reference book, I'm assuming it has an electronic reference now, with seven separate exams for different disciplines. I've looked at a few of them and it seems like a substantial amount of the coursework I do, computer modelling specific to NE with MNCP and the like, neutron diffusion, and reactor control theory to name a few, aren't on any of the tests. They also all seem to cover stuff that we don't because we simply don't have space in the degree. I get three electives in four years between the department requirements and the core university stuff, and even those must be from a rather short list of options (as short as three classes for one of them). Which exam should I take? I stuck with nuclear stuff, only did a smattering of ME and EE, didn't really work hard at it, didn't study for the FE, took the nuclear version, and passed despite thinking I didn't do very well. Study bending moments a little bit, forces, impacts, economics (one nuclear class I took was about fuel economy, and they covered compounding interest god bless em). Those are the questions I had no clue about. The physics and nuke and ME and other stuff came a lot easier for me, and even if you're stuck in higher-level stuff right now the older stuff should come back okay. I'd say just take nuclear unless you're super-confident about another field. Really you should pass unless you simply didn't pay attention during college. I wasn't a great student (I got Ds in Statics, dynamics, diffEQ, Cs in radiation health physics, and a slew of others) and I made it through. You should do fine. We are unfortunately the red-headed step-child of engineering. Putting Neutron diffusion on the FE would lead to a rash of suicides during the exams, so it tends to be sophomore level coursework that's on it.
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Oct 26, 2013 00:04
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Olothreutes posted:If there was a nuclear portion of the FE, I'd take it in a heartbeat. There isn't. Now it's just Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Computer, Environmental, Industrial, Mechanical, and the wonderful all encompassing "Other" for disciplines not listed. I thought that nuclear went under other? regardless, it's the best option to take.
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Oct 26, 2013 02:15
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Thoguh posted:GPA isn't important once your career is established, but a 2.3 plus zero experience and bouncing around in other jobs is hurting you in an attempt to get that first job. Look at it this way, would you hire somebody who graduated five years ago with a 2.3 and has zero engineering experience? Networking. It's really his best chance at a decent job. I was in a similar boat, working part-time retail as college kept fading. I applied to hundreds of jobs, attended job fairs, hired someone to upgrade my resume, everything I could think of. The only thing that eventually worked was a friend getting my resume to a manager at a ~75 person company I'd never heard of before. Three weeks later I had a job. Now I'm past one year, have done quite a bit of industry work, and feel like even if I were suddenly laid off there's no way I couldn't get another job. But that FIRST job? Getting it took about 10 months of active searching, living off my parents' kindness, and constantly feeling like a hopeless failure. And it only ended thanks to networking. Can't be a goony engineer in this day and age, you need friends.
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Nov 19, 2013 20:51
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Spend a few days studying stuff you never studied in college. I'm a nuke engineer, and I had a ton of specialized courses tailored toward nuclear/radiation and almost nothing toward mechanical or electrical engineering (beyond the 101 stuff). I had to teach myself a lot of stuff (like impacts, bending, etc) very quickly during the exam itself.
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Jan 15, 2014 16:22
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KetTarma posted:Yeah. I'm 46 credits away from my BSEE now though. Woo. I gave up on nuclear when I decided to go back to school. Nuclear Engineering is pretty terrible if you want to get a PE. You are far, far, far better off going for mechanical, structural, or electrical engineering over nuclear unless you want a PhD.
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May 2, 2014 15:46
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Olothreutes posted:Nuclear isn't exactly the place for a PE anyway. While we can get one we have to take the EIT as "other" candidates and then having the license does almost nothing for you besides the letters on your name. No nuclear project can go anywhere without the NRC saying it's ok, so the review of a PE doesn't matter one way or the other. If you can list some of things a nuclear engineer can do without pursuing academia, lemme know I'm all ears. Even at nuclear plants the work is still more suited toward EE/ME than NE BS's. I don't remember the FE exam that well...I walked out feeling like I got about half right, was unsure about 25%, and the another 25% was pure guessing. And it was enough to pass. So it can't be that hard I guess?
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May 5, 2014 15:53
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I don't mind commercial nuclear, I just wish I weren't always contracting for high profile high priority projects that are fast-tracked 8 ways from Sunday. I can at least say I've done some pretty ridiculous stuff despite only a couple years 'real' experience. Also, the secret is to find the good plants to live at. They include I actually looked for/applied for a bunch of the jobs you listed, Olothreutes, a couple years ago when I was out of college and wanting anything. You could probably search my history, look early/mid-2012 to see a personification of "I applied everywhere why can't I get a job  " college grad. Might be time to look again, I think my current A/E firm is starting to look dicey long-term.
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May 6, 2014 04:59
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HClChicken posted:
Did something similar...nuke engineering in 2000-2002, history degree 2002-2004, then went back to finish off that loving nuke degree from 2009-2011. I found it a LOT easier the second time around, a lot more focused, and a lot more fun. Enjoy it, work hard, network.
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May 24, 2014 19:28
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Quite A Tool posted:Looking for a little bit of advice regarding schools. I've got 2 semesters remaining for my associates before I transfer to a university to pursue aerospace engineering. The original plan was to move to San Diego and hit up UCSD, however my girl has the possibility of transferring with her work to either Seattle or Austin. Probably not, although I'm speaking more about engineering in general than aeronautical engineering. Even still I kinda doubt it, at least on the BA level. Just make sure your Associates will transfer to your target schools alright.
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Dec 22, 2014 16:13
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Tin Gang posted:I've worked places where drafting and engineering got mixed up. My place had a dedicated drafting squad. They kept getting overloaded, and some of the engineering managers really had no idea or respect for the work or details, so the drafters basically all quit over the course of a year. Now when we hire, we look for engineers who also know some autocad or similar. In my opinion it's a losing move. Engineers are pricier. If you're paying an engineer, you want him engineering, not drafting. Yeah it helps for doing some simple markups yourself, but when it comes to creating a mechanical drawing from scratch it's a lot of efficiency lost to have the engineer spending half a dozen to several dozen hours per drawing instead of a dedicated drafter. Plus, they can get pigeonholed into doing CAD work for other engineers who don't know CAD, so they lose time on their own projects. That's not to say it's a bad move for engineers to learn some (or a lot of) drafting, just be wary if a place starts asking you to do drafting more than 10-20% of the time. That poo poo can creep upwards. Your future is in engineering experience, not draft experience.
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Jan 1, 2015 19:39
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Not a Children posted:Hate to bring back drafting chat, but what I read from you guys has me a little scared. I've got a B.S. in EE, I've been working at my firm for a bit over a year, and just about 90% of what I do is drafting. Not design -- just taking other peoples' designs and drawing them in. I had no idea this is what I'd end up doing for this company, and I honestly think I could've done this out of high school. I feel like my skills are rusting. On the plus side, I'm getting solid experience in AutoCAD and MicroStation, and it's good, easy money. You sound exactly like someone who just got hired at my company. He actually just put in his two weeks after getting annoyed he wasn't utilizing his EE much. All the managers of the other teams would try to vulture his time with cad and microstation work on non-electrical mods. Depends on how much you want the money at this point versus what you want to do.
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Jan 6, 2015 17:05
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KetTarma posted:How do non-complete clauses work with that? From what I've heard from friends who ran into them, borderline unenforceable. So long as you're not stealing tech or directly poaching customers the cost/benefit for your previous employer to enforce it is not sensible to pursue. That's mostly just been at smaller places where legal fees would be meaningful. I'd guess general anonymity would protect you against a large company, again as long as you don't directly cause a significant problem.
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Mar 18, 2015 13:30
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KetTarma posted:In aerospace, you'll arguably see more mechanical and electrical engineers running around than aerospace engineers. This is also true of the nuclear industry and nuclear engineers vs mechanical/electrical engineers.
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Apr 2, 2015 17:10
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If you're the engineer responsible (preparing, reviewing, or approving) for some type of deliverable (calculation, QA, report, white paper) then you are responsible for signing or not signing off on something independent of any other pressures. You can (and are responsible for!) not signing off on something if you're not comfortable with the level of quality. So if you're being pushed around to okay things without verifying it's safe/quality/whatever, you need to get out of there before you end up on the hook for something. Chicago Bridge and Iron had something like that happen not long ago, where a supervisor strong-armed QA into ignoring the fact they dropped a safety-class component and didn't acknowledge that during pre-shipping inspections. In short, that place sounds like it sucks bad, it has a bad culture, you need to get out ASAP. Why are you trapped there for two years? A lot of "engineering skills" tend to deteriorate no matter where you go or what you do, by the by. It's sometimes very refreshing for me to actually do static analyses or pipe stress. Best I can think of is doing what I do, try to find some useful primers outside of work. Study for the PE exam in a field that interests you. Even if you're not going to take it for a while, at least it'll fire some neurons. LOOK FOR OTHER JOBS IF YOU CAN.
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Apr 23, 2015 18:48
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Enourmo posted:So for doing Mechanical, I guess I'm gonna have to learn to use some modeling/CAD software at some point. I've only got one class this summer, so I'll have a lot of spare time to fiddle around and learn stuff like that. Are there any industry-standard programs that I absolutely must know? I figure AutoCAD and Inventor/Solidworks at a minimum, but what else should I look at? Bentley Microstation is another option. It's functionally similar to CAD, but can tie in to a lot of other products Bentley manufacturers. Good for industrial design/analysis, like autopipe and autoplant. Autocad is better and more 'standard' for what it's worth, but knowing both isn't too hard and can save you headaches if someone else only knows one but you need to produce in the other.
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May 4, 2015 03:12
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The Chairman posted:If you're actually after the PE license, remember that there's more to the license than passing the exam. You also need to have your supervised design experienced vetted, have your transcript evaluated, and get reference letters from other engineers. I'm not even sure if there are states that'd let you take the exam without already having all those other requirements addressed. In Illinois you can take the test regardless of experience. You just can't get your license without all the extra stuff you mention. But I know a couple engineers who took the test well early just to get it out of the way.
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Jul 20, 2015 03:44
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Boris Galerkin posted:I’ve never had another ‘real’ job before so am I just taking things personal or are my coworkers rude as gently caress? There's a reason why a large number of sitcoms based around annoying office personalities exist.
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Jul 20, 2015 19:59
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Gray Matter posted:I'm looking at getting out of the military a year from now after 5 years served. I have an Associate of Science degree, so will be putting in ~2 more years of school for a bachelor's on the GI bill once out. Kolodny posted:Could you link to what you're looking at? I see that U of A has an ECE department with EE and CE options, but not a combined option. There's still stuff you'll never learn in any school that will take your first couple jobs to understand, so it's not like you'd be THAT far behind peers who don't take as diluted a major. If you enjoyed your database administration, why not look at a computer science degree?
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Feb 10, 2016 20:31
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Xelkelvos posted:So take it asap and get an FE book before the test so I can know where everything is. What got me was spending time on economics as mentioned, and I'd actually taken a course that involved some basic calculation of interest. It's just something that's best fresh, not trying to remember ancient homework. The other thing that murdered me were the number of problems that relied on concepts I'd never studied before. I didn't take any classes that dealt with impact mechanics, so every time there was a bending beam question I was hosed. It felt like there were an inordinate number of questions on how much an impact could deflect beams and such. That was just my weakness though. Try to figure out what general concepts you're weakest at and shore them up with the book as an aid. The FE didn't seem that hard to me, and I put literally no prep work into it. A little effort should guarantee success as long as you take it not long after graduating and actually legit passed your engineering curriculum.
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May 1, 2016 13:04
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