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How hard is it to find a Engineering job straight out of College/University ?
How hard will it be to get a Engineering Job after College/ University after 4 years ?
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4 answers
Updated
Eric’s Answer
Ashton, one thing to consider when applying for jobs upon graduating with a bachelors is that you will be competing for many of the same jobs with graduate students (mostly masters degrees) and with engineers that have a few years of post-graduation experience. In order to be an attractive candidate for a job out of college I recommend getting internships before hand and taking a few select upper-level design courses specific to your field of engineering. If the design courses that you take are too general and broad, it may be difficult to stand out if you are trying to get a job within a particular sub-sector of your field of engineering. For example, if you are a pursuing an electrical engineering degree but are sure that you want to work in the telecommunications field, then I recommend taking as many telecommunication design courses that you can. If you take a power engineering class, a computer engineering class, a systems engineering class, and a telecommunications class, that arrangement of coursework is likely too broad to be attractive to most prospective employers. If most of your courses are in the telecommunication field (or whatever sub-sector of your choice) it tells prospective employers that you are more prepared and it also lets them know that you are focused on that sub-sector of engineering. If your coursework is too broad many prospective employers will pass on hiring since they would risk having you leave for another sub-sector of your field of engineering should you decide that the one they are in is not what you really want to do after a year or so of working there. Hiring engineers out of college requires the employer to invest large amounts of time training and mentoring; so, having a focused array of coursework and even some internships will show that you are not likely to change to a different engineering specialty. Once you know what specific area of engineering you want to go into within your field, I recommend talking to an engineering adviser in your college so that you can tailor the coursework to your field. If you tailor the coursework strategically, you can nearly obtain the equivalent of a masters degree...without the extra expense and added time.
All the best,
Eric
All the best,
Eric
Thank you, Eric for the advice.
Ashton
Updated
John’s Answer
Ashton,
Depending on the Engineering degree you are pursuing and the jobs you are interested in, the job forecast varies greatly. Getting internships help in job prospects post graduation and can benefit you to help figure out what type of field you are looking to start your career. Additionally, maintain a high GPA and work on personal projects (outside of class work) that are related to your degree.
Hope this helps.
Depending on the Engineering degree you are pursuing and the jobs you are interested in, the job forecast varies greatly. Getting internships help in job prospects post graduation and can benefit you to help figure out what type of field you are looking to start your career. Additionally, maintain a high GPA and work on personal projects (outside of class work) that are related to your degree.
Hope this helps.
Thank you so much for the advice.
Ashton
Updated
Tricia’s Answer
I had no trouble getting a job. I was applying for jobs in the fall of 2007 before the economy crashed.
I had two relevant internships, many extracurricular activities with leadership positions, and graduated summa cum laude. I got an offer with pretty much every company I applied.
I did have to move to the gulf coast, where industry was thriving at the time. After getting some experience, I was able to get jobs in any city I wanted.
Have at least two relevant internships/coops
I had two relevant internships, many extracurricular activities with leadership positions, and graduated summa cum laude. I got an offer with pretty much every company I applied.
I did have to move to the gulf coast, where industry was thriving at the time. After getting some experience, I was able to get jobs in any city I wanted.
Tricia recommends the following next steps:
Updated
Sam’s Answer
I think to answer this question you have to consider current job openings (jobs available right now) and the outlook for future employment (jobs available after receiving your college degree 4 years from now).
For current job openings, you can use a recruitment website such as Indeed, www.indeed.com
For example, you could do the following:
What: mechanical engineer
Where: Houston, TX
Click the Find Jobs button.
In the list that gets displayed, click the "Filters" button.
Under "Experience Level", click the button next to "Entry Level" and click the update button at the bottom of the list.
Currently, there are 91 entry level mechanical engineering jobs in the city of Houston that are being advertised for on Indeed.
There are many recruitment websites such as LinkedIn, USAjobs, Monster, etc that you can use to view open entry level jobs.
For future employment, I think a good source is the Bureau of Labor Statistics's Occuptional Outlook Handbook. The web page for Mechanical Engineers is below.
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/mobile/mechanical-engineers.htm
Currently, the Handbook states "Employment of mechanical engineers is projected to grow 7 percent from 2020 to 2030, about as fast as the average for all occupations."
For current job openings, you can use a recruitment website such as Indeed, www.indeed.com
For example, you could do the following:
What: mechanical engineer
Where: Houston, TX
Click the Find Jobs button.
In the list that gets displayed, click the "Filters" button.
Under "Experience Level", click the button next to "Entry Level" and click the update button at the bottom of the list.
Currently, there are 91 entry level mechanical engineering jobs in the city of Houston that are being advertised for on Indeed.
There are many recruitment websites such as LinkedIn, USAjobs, Monster, etc that you can use to view open entry level jobs.
For future employment, I think a good source is the Bureau of Labor Statistics's Occuptional Outlook Handbook. The web page for Mechanical Engineers is below.
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/mobile/mechanical-engineers.htm
Currently, the Handbook states "Employment of mechanical engineers is projected to grow 7 percent from 2020 to 2030, about as fast as the average for all occupations."