Calling all Engineers

[Anonymous No.4086918]

I am an electrical engineer in my junior year of college and am getting very worried. I have heard several accounts now of engineers who graduated with a degree, only to find that they could not land a single job in their field, and took jobs that were completely unrelated to what they wanted to do.
What I am asking is for people who did major in engineering and landed a job, what was it that you did that enabled you to succeed? And for those who did not do so well after graduation, what went wrong, what mistakes did you make, and what would you have done over?
Major? Sub-branch? University? GPA? Current Salary?

[Anonymous No.4086942]

Bump motherfuckers

[Anonymous No.4086955]

depends what school/gpa really.

why would any employer hire someone with a shit gpa and shit tier school.

[Anonymous No.4087043]

>>4086918

Oh fuck I know at least one of you bastards is an Engineering Major graduate. It's fucking inevitable. I don't care if you fuck-up or how badly, I just want to know what mistakes you made along the way. Or if you did well, what you felt went right?

This will take like 5 min and I could learn a great deal from it. This is not something that any amount of digging through textbooks is going to get me, and most of the professors graduated into an environment completely different than this one, many decades ago.

[Anonymous No.4087052]

its all about personality.

[Anonymous No.4087068]

>>4086918
I majored in engineering from UC riverside with a 2.5 gpa and still manage to get a good job. I work for BP now.

[Anonymous No.4087085]

>>4087068

God damn, thanks man. That is refreshing to hear. I just needed SOME perspective on how bad the job market is. Here have a black-and-white artistic nude on me.

[Anonymous No.4087114]

Why is it that you engineering guys think you're so smart, but you can't handle the simplest of economic facts? In other words, you're autistic, aren't you? You focused on the goal of an engineering degree but on no larger issue at all, like "will my going into big debt for this degree allow me to get a good job".

[muon No.4087117]

>what was it that you did that enabled you to succeed?
I went to my school's job fairs.

[Anonymous No.4087137]

>>4087114

U MAD BRO? Just looking for advice here, not attempting to flaunt anything.

>>4087117
Thank you as well. What was your Major/GPA and what jobs did you look at?

[muon No.4087144]

>>4087137
EE, 3.3 or something? Embedded programming and security.

[Anonymous No.4087145]

Artistic nudes BTW, enrichment for the soul, as well as the intellect. And a bunch of other justifications that enable the posting of nekkid ladies.

[muon No.4087153]

>>4087144
Just kidding, 3.03 ಥ_ಥ‏

[Anonymous No.4087174]

>>4087153

Trolling me or what? I'm becoming a little to disinterested to actually try to figure out if you are serious or not.

[muon No.4087177]

>>4087174
Yes, I'm trolling you via my GPA, somehow

[BMES No.4087231]

Biomedical Engineering/Biomaterials and Tissue/Drexel '11/3.25/65k

School offered Co-op so I graduated with 2.5 years experience in my field. Hired 4 months before I graduated.

Most companies care more about past work experience and whether or not they can get along with you in the workplace than GPA or coursework.

[Anonymous No.4087261]

>>4087231

Thanks for the hint, I should start looking for an internship then.

Do any of you document your projects in a portfolio or blog or something, to point out to potential employers when applying for a job?

[Anonymous No.4087268]

>not getting a PhD
>2011

[Anonymous No.4087282]

>>4087268
By the time I'm able to get a PhD it won't be 2011. Does this post still apply to me?

[BMES No.4087285]

>>4087261

Besides a resume and cover letters, I have a website which contains CAD work and designs I have done personally as well as past work experience etc..

[e-mail] looks impressive on a resume. You have to realize there are a lot of people out there with the same or better qualifications than you, going the extra mile and not being socially retarded often lands you a good job.

[Anonymous No.4087286]

graduated from NCSU with 3.4 GPA in EE. was offered a job at Schneider Electric one state over, declined. Took job locally with a company that creates fiber optic broadband infrastructure. The job pays excellently but is way too easy/boring, I don't feel like I'm really using any of my school knowledge and fear I won't be seen as having very valuable experience for future jobs. I think the best plan for me will be to go back and get a Masters.
My friend who had ~3.0 couldn't find a job and went straight to grad school, says its much more hands on and practical learning.
I had another friend in Mechanical Engineering who had an abysmal GPA, something like a 2 or maybe little higher, but he has a great personality. He was even told by IBM he had the best interpersonal skills of any other candidates they'd seen but his GPA was so low they couldn't realistically take a chance with him, so now he's planning on becoming a grunt in the Navy and hoping to work his way up to something like officer.
moral of the story: Do real fuckin good and school and your job prospects are pretty good. And if you want to be sure you get a relevant job thats not bitch work you'll need at least a Masters.

[Anonymous No.4087294]

>>4086918
Someone who understand real life. Please be my friend.

I had a job 2 months before graduation. I work now in consulting for heavy industry. I specialize in Controls and Instrumentation.

[Anonymous No.4087304]

>>4087261
To become a P. Eng or even a registered Technologist in Canada, you need to log your work experience over the course of your EIT /ASTT working career.

Also remember, that depending on the privacy agreements of your company/clients, you can't share your work with outside parties. Don't take confidential information to other interviews, basically.

[BMES No.4087319]

Also, look for companies willing to pay for further schooling. My current job offers sponsored tuition for a masters. You're bound with that company for a while afterwards, but it's well worth it.

Also Masters in business or operations with some six sigma certs will push you up into management where the real money is.

[Anonymous No.4087346]

My best advice would be to get an internship so you can get experience in your field. If you don't land a job with them, then at least you have experience that other recent graduates may not have.

[Anonymous No.4087394]

>>4087294

Sure I'll be your friend. Controls and Instrumentation - was that EE with a focus on microprocessors?

>>4087346

Yes, it seems like getting real-world experience as quickly as possible via an internship is a advice that keep coming up. I'll absolutely make efforts in that direction.

[Anonymous No.4087667]

I've never had any problem getting a job and my GPA was astonishingly low. My GPA was only so low because I procrastinate and barely pass every math class, and engineering is 75% math; I'm pretty skilled at actually writing code and designing circuits.

Right after graduation I worked for a company that developed software for military unmanned aerial vehicles. I've been obsessed with robots all my life so this was a dream job, but it turned out to be tedious boring shit and a lot of security bullshit because of classified technology. Basically I was writing low level communication protocols; putting them into flying robots didn't make that any different than any bland piece of consumer electronics.

After I quit that job I worked with two visual artists developing custom concert lighting for some big name DJs. It was a blast but the pay was criminally low and there was zero job security. The artists also had a habit of taking credit for my work when all they ever contributed was some vague ideas.

I've just started a job designing control panels for industrial equipment. I can't really say I'm passionate about the work. It's just a moderately important job in a moderately important company. It pays $75,000/year though. My plan is to invest the money in some PCB fabrication and metal working equipment, then start my own business doing something like the last job.

[Original Poster No.4087755]

>>4087667

Call me foolish if you must, but I would take anything at graduation, just so long as it leads to something else in the field.

Thanks for your input.

>$75,000/year though.

Holy shit. My father has a Masters in Mechanical Engineering and ~40 years experience and only nets around $85,000 max. It's a very comfortable life because I live in a small suburban area of a smaller, Western state where land, water and energy are plentiful. But the fact that a relatively new graduate makes that much is one hell of an accomplishment.

[Anonymous No.4088072]

BUMP

[Anonymous No.4088075]

>going to college only to land a job

[Anonymous No.4088080]

>>4088075
>Going to college to learn

[Iesus No.4088101]

>>4088075
>learning as an end in itself even though you will die and none of it will last

[Anonymous No.4088697]

BUMP

[Anonymous No.4089145]

BUMPing to get more advice from the morning crowd.

Why sleep when you can do EE homework anyways?