<p>Which engineering field has the best prospects of getting hired directly after college graduation with a BS degree? I heard it was EE but my brother claims ME. Are we both wrong? I would appreciate any opinions (even biased ones).</p>
<p>They’re all roughly the same. ME probably has the most options as far as variation in a career path, but it honestly doesn’t matter much. If you have an engineering degree you’ll be able to find a job, if you go to a decent school and have decent grades you’ll be able to find a good job - no matter if it’s in EE, ME, ChemE, NucE, PetE, IE, AE, etc… To give you an idea, usually Purdue has nearly as many companies recruting IEs as their are graduating students in IE. If you can’t find a job it means you seriously slacked off in college and have horrible grades, no ECs, no internships, etc.</p>
<p>^^^
Thank you purduefrank! I’ll tell my brother (an ME) that nobody wants to hire MEs they want all the other engineering specialties instead <grin>.</grin></p>
<p>in your opinion purduefrank, is that only true when the economy is good or does it hold true when it isnt doing as well like right now?</p>
<p>EE and ChemEng have the highest salaries. if you want to stay technical, I believe EE has the best long-term salary as well.</p>
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<p>From my experience, speaking only in regards to Purdue, it’s true even right now. I’m sure the employment situation was better a few years ago than it is today, but honestly things aren’t that bad here. I had four offers for internships this summer, and have already interviewed for a full-time position that would start in Dec when I graduate. I know a few people who graduated last term and even more who are graduating this term with 5< full-time job offers. Now, the people getting 5 offers are strong students with good internship experience, but still that says something. </p>
<p>I will follow that up though and say that I also know about three people who at least (somewhat) actively looked for internships and couldn’t get an offer - but these are people with less than a 2.5 GPA. When I talk to people back home, including family members, I really try to watch what I say because a lot of them are hurting for work - so I know it’s bad out there, but I just don’t see it here. All in all, if your grades are decent (2.7<) you’ll be fine - just work like hell to get that first internship and then things get a lot easier.</p>
<p>A little advice if you’re just starting out and are worried about finding a job - go to all the major career fairs (fall and spring) even as a freshman, go to as many of the information sessions as you can and talk with the recruiters, constantly update your resume and take part in things that you can put on it (especially things where there are measurable results - and list those on your resume). Employers usually don’t hire freshmen for internships but you’ll put yourself in a good position to get one your soph year. I’ve been to every major career fair since I’ve been here, and now that I’m getting ready to graduate I’m on a first name basis with about ten recruiters - it makes a difference. Also, get to know CCO like the back of your hand, most of your interviews will come from there - not career fairs (you do those so the recruiters can put a face to your resume).</p>
<p>I can tell you that looking at my college’s recruitment website, I see far more job postings for Comp Sci (in the engineering school here) and CompE than I see for anything else. EE is up there too, but it seems like most of the jobs that will take EE really prefer CS or CE.</p>
<p>Job experience/internships count for a lot to employers as well; probably more than research experience. Of course, finding those internships/jobs as an undergrad right now can be tough in this economy.</p>