<p>This is a question for you engineers who graduated from Cal. I graduated last year and currently am working for a company that makes legacy parts for its clients.</p>
<p>As a graduate from Cal, my work life has been kind of discouraging. From some of the engineers who mentor me, they said that there is no programming nor any complicated math involved in this job. And since the company has already been established, there's really nothing to design anymore these days. I was like, "Why did I go through all that knowledge at Berkeley if I'm not going to use it in the real world?"</p>
<p>Is this the case for some of you out there? Do you wonder you you ever learned all that?</p>
<p>I know that rocket science involves using complicated stuff like the ones we learn at Cal. But you need at least an MS to even land a job like that?</p>
<p>You know, I'm not as young as I used to be. And I'm kind of getting a bit worried that in a few years, I might not be able to pick up things as quickly as I used to before.</p>
<p>It does depend on the job. If you are making legacy parts, you might not have a lot of cutting edge design work in your job, unless an original design part fails too often or is otherwise inadequate and you have to design a better replacement.</p>
<p>Sometimes, it is just understanding the concept that is necessary for day to day work, but understanding the concept properly in the first place requires learning the math behind it. But sometimes a project at work happens to be similar to a project done in class.</p>
<p>Yup, I’m 22. But I’m just worried that if my job continues to be so routine, one day my mind will slow down in my hunger for knowledge. What I’m worried about is that in a couple years time, I’ll probably lose my enthusiasm for learning – you know, the economy ain’t doing well and I don’t want to get a bad reputation as a job hopper, so I’ll have to stay at my current company for at least a couple of years. By then, my mind will probably stop growing…</p>
<p>Yea, there’s this one guy in my company and only he does the research and development. Everyone wants to do what he does. He’s really smart though - got at least a dozen patents.</p>
<p>Does the company have any new products in development for the future, or is it just living off of the legacy parts? If the latter, it may not have the most interesting future, especially as whatever needs the legacy parts becomes obsolete and no longer in service at the customers.</p>
<p>Yup, the company has been there since the beginning of last century. And I’ve heard that once non-engineering management takes over, it’s only a matter of time that the company will lose its competitive edge, like Kodak.</p>
<p>As for its legacy parts, many other companies produce the same device. So you’re right, ucbalumnus, the company does not have an interesting future :(</p>
<p>Thanks, GeneralWisdom! I sure won’t stick with this company anymore if i can help it. I’ve decided to learn more stuff on my own to keep my mind sharp</p>
<p>Definitely keep your mind sharp! What you learn here at Cal are not concrete concepts, but rather a way of thinking and set of tools that will guide you towards success anytime in the future.</p>
<p>While I haven’t technically graduated yet, I managed to land a full time job at a startup a year early. Opportunity simply came knocking.</p>
<p>At my company, I work on software at the cutting edge of industry, coming up with creative solutions to problems that have never been solved before and building tools/components much better than anyone has previously done. To my surprise, I ended up utilizing concepts from every single class I’ve taken (though the specific tech used is much more modern than what is taught). So far, it’s been the most intense period of my life in terms of learning and keeping my mind sharp. While I would be able to do my job without my education, I estimate that it’s made me 20x more effective at it.</p>
<p>As you can see, it’s a sharp contrast from your story. How much education you use really depends on the company you work for. For someone who doesn’t get the concepts and can only minimally scrape by, your job is an excellent fit. Yet, if it’s draining your soul, you really should find a job that allows you to grow.</p>
<p>I mean…I guess you could also think of it as other people didn’t learn everything you did at Cal, so that makes you a better candidate and they know your hard-working in a sense. Like if I were to apply to a dance agency, then it would just nvm this is going no where lol. I was just trying to say that you have a better chance of being hired or something but now this just sounds dumb.</p>
<p>Seems like there’s engineering alum in this thread. If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of a GPA did you guys have to land your jobs? Obviously internships and other skills are also taken into account, but as far as grades, is getting around a 3.5 ok or is that too low for a decent entry level job in this tough economy. It seems these days everyone is starting to do engineering or CS and I feel like that makes it all the more important to have your stats a cut above the norm. I’m only a sophomore so asking this might be too early, but I’d still like to know.</p>
<p>Employers which have GPA cut-offs probably mostly have them around 3.0, though a few may be significantly different from that.</p>
<p>But how difficult it may be depends on the economic conditions at the time. Recently, civil engineering graduates have had a hard time, but conditions have been decent for computer science graduates. The reverse was true in the early 2000s.</p>
<p>How much GPAs matter really depend on the place. I landed my position while my GPA was 2.85. That was after several rounds of informal interviews and an internship (to determine if I was a good fit) though.</p>
<p>Thing is, it’s really about whether or not you can actually do the job. Once you get an interview, the GPA is usually not mentioned. So, if you know a few people and get an interview, all that’s left is to show that you can do the job and are also a good fit for the culture.</p>
<p>Personal experience aside, I know of several people in EECS or CS who graduated with lower GPAs than mines, and they all have decent jobs.</p>
<p>Or whether or not *the employer thinks that * you can actually do the job.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>True. If GPA is used, it is during initial screening of resumes to see who gets the interview. Once you get an interview, GPA is no longer a consideration, assuming what you put on your resume is truthful*. Be prepared for technical questions during the interviews.</p>
<ul>
<li>Put your GPA on your resume exactly as it is listed on your transcript, and indicate through which semester it is for so that there is no question.</li>
</ul>
<p>Well that sounds nice. Thanks for the answers!</p>
<p>I was scared earlier because my dad says that when they hire entry-level engineers at the Hewlett Packard branch in Idaho he works at, they almost always end up hiring grads with over a 3.5 GPA since they receive tons of job applications for those positions so they need to use GPA to decide who to interview, so I was wondering if that was a steadfast rule or not. Good to know it’s not so solid like that.</p>
<p>"when they hire entry-level engineers at the Hewlett Packard … , they almost always end up hiring grads with over a 3.5 GPA… " </p>
<p>This is so true.
Google, MS, Intel, Apple almost always hire EECS grads with over a 3.5 gpa.
They certainly verify authenticity of documents (such as transcripts) submitted.
And your starting salary is about $80000/year.</p>
<p>^But is it set in stone? Like what if you have around a 3.4 with lots of internship experience. I mean are they ways to offset a below 3.5 GPA? One of the kids in my EE40 class last semester got a job at Amazon and he said they were big on having the over 3.5 GPA thing in addition to having internship experience and combined that with what my dad and what Bearfacts is saying, it seems like the big engineering/cs companies want over a 3.5. Sigh why does life require so much effort…oh well, just gotta work harder.</p>
<p>PS: $80,000!?!?!?
In Idaho the average starting salary for an entry level engineer is around $50,000-$65,000</p>
<p>^actually I feel like the houses here in California are shacks for the amount of money you pay for them. A 350-400K house here is pretty small but you can get a nice 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom, house with a nice big backyard and decent for 350-400K back home in Idaho, and house will actually pretty new in terms of age. </p>
<p>It’s just so darn boring there in terms of entertainment and the universities aren’t as great, but Taylor Swift did come and do a concert a long while back and that was pretty exciting.</p>
<p>PS: Potatoes are awesome. I could live on those things (btw Idaho has some of the most nutritious potatoes in the country, not that I’m biased and advertising for my home state or anything, but Idaho potatoes just can’t be beat :P)</p>
<p>PPS: We actually never had a tractor, although that would have been so cool…</p>