<p>NegativeSlope, you do know that 0.6% unemployment rate was for doctoral engineers only, right?</p>
<p>
I know. But that rate is still low even compared to the unemployment rate of all doctoral degree holders, regardless of major.</p>
<p>It’s all cyclical. Well, maybe not all, but the relative unemployment between the major branches of engineering is cyclical.</p>
<p>As most of you know, the job reports for last month were released today. Overall, the job market’s progress is OK. The economy added 431,000 jobs (including temporary census workers), and the private sector, which excludes those positions, added 41,000 jobs. The unemployment rate dipped slightly from 9.9% to 9.7%:</p>
<p>[U.S</a> Economy adds 431 thousand jobs in May as Unemployment drops to 9.7% , Top Story - ecPulse.com](<a href=“http://www.ecpulse.com/en/topstory/2010/06/04/us-economy-add-431-thousand-may-unemployment-drops/]U.S”>http://www.ecpulse.com/en/topstory/2010/06/04/us-economy-add-431-thousand-may-unemployment-drops/)</p>
<p>So, where are the problem spots in the economy? Let’s see:</p>
<p>“most sectors in the labor market managed to add jobs except … the Construction sector shed 35 thousand jobs” (from the same article quoted above)
The only other sectors that lost jobs were the retail and financial sectors, but the number of jobs lost in both of those sectors combined (19,000) were much less than the number of jobs lost in the construction industry.</p>
<p>The dismal performance of the construction industry last winter was blamed on snowstorms and bad weather. Now that spring is here, what’s the excuse for the bad job performance of the construction industry? Solar flares?</p>
<p>One more thing: sooner or later, someone with years of experience in an engineering field is going to come out and say that I’m an inexperienced person who knows nothing. Tell you what - if you were to hire me, I’ll get experience. I’m complaining because I don’t have the chance to participate in the labor market, unlike those of you who graduated during boom times or during less severe recessions.</p>
<p>To put it bluntly, those of you who say that jobs are plentiful in engineering should “put up or shut up”. If jobs are really that abundant, go ahead and take the next step to prove it. Hire me. And if you think I complain too much, hire this guy instead. From: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064234475-post90.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1064234475-post90.html</a></p>
<hr>
<p>PROFILE </p>
<p>A high achieving, civil engineering graduate with laboratory and corporate experience looking to apply analytical thinking skills to real world situations.</p>
<p>EDUCATION </p>
<p>Texas A&M University at College Station
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, GPA 3.77/4.00
Projected graduation: May, 2010</p>
<p>EXPERIENCE </p>
<p>El Paso Exploration and Production, Houston, TX
Environmental Intern. Analyzed equipment in order to reduce fugitive emissions and increase efficiency. Developed strategies for environmental field sampling. Assisted in spill/release prevention and cleanup. Developed new ideas for how to respond to pending Cap-and-Trade legislation.
Summer 2009</p>
<p>High Bay Structural and Materials Testing Laboratory, College Station, TX
Student Worker. Assisted in test setup of various research projects. Performed general maintenance and cleanup of laboratory equipment. Drafted technical drawings and analyzed data for various projects.
February - May 2009</p>
<p>Texas Transportation Institute, College Station, TX
Student Worker. Assisted graduate students in bridge specimen construction. Drafted technical drawings of various specimens. Assisted in testing operations of bridge and connection specimens. Performed grout mixing and testing.
January - August 2008</p>
<p>CVS Pharmacy, Houston, TX
Store Clerk. Developed film, cashiered, stocked shelves, and performed day to day maintenance of the store.
November 2005 July 2006, December 2006 January 2007, December 2007 January 2008</p>
<p>HONORS </p>
<p>Deans Honor Roll, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009
Chi Epsilon Honor Society Member
Bob Mace Scholarship
James R. 45 & Billie S. Nichols Scholarship</p>
<p>SKILLS </p>
<p>AutoCAD
SolidWorks</p>
<h2>Microsoft Office Suite</h2>
<p>I only hire people whose GPAs, multiplied by 100, round down to the nearest integer, are prime numbers. Sorry.</p>
<p>I know people with degrees working quite menial jobs due to the recession. Surely you can find something, or go to grad school to weather the storm.</p>
<p>
My high school GPA and the GPA for one of my semesters in college was 3.833 (5 A’s, 1 B). Multiplying it by 100 gives 383.3, and rounding it down to the nearest integer gives 383, which is a prime number. Can you give me a job now? :)</p>
<p>Getting back on topic, I just found out that the construction problems aren’t confined to residential and commercial real estate:</p>
<p>[AmeriSurv.com</a> - Nonresidential Construction Employment Falls in May](<a href=“http://www.amerisurv.com/content/view/7460/]AmeriSurv.com”>Home - The American Surveyor)</p>
<p>“Employment in the nation’s nonresidential construction industry fell by 4,200 jobs in May”</p>
<p>“The heavy and civil engineering construction sector lost 7,400 jobs”</p>
<p>If experienced workers are having trouble finding jobs, how are recent college grads going to stand a chance?</p>
<p>
The problem is that when the economy does turn around, employers would rather hire new grads, not people who’ve graduated years ago and worked as a Wal-Mart cashier ever since. Those people have basically spent tens of thousands of dollars for college, studied hard for 4-5 years, and all they’ll get in return is a job any high school dropout can do. What a waste.</p>
<p><a href=“from%20a%20few%20posts%20back”>quote</a> Resumes are referred to as “lotto tickets”…getting a job offer or internship is called “hitting the jackpot”
[/quote]
I’ve just spent/wasted two bucks on these suckers. The numbers I picked were 12 31 35 37 48, and the numbers the quick pick generator gave me were 9 10 13 33 54. It’s the Mega Millions, and the mega numbers for those two tickets (respectively) were 22 and 32.</p>
<p>The drawing is tonight. If I stop complaining after today, you know what happened.</p>
<p>I’m sorry aggie10 was having such a rough time - I wish he would update us since he posted that back in March. How many resumes has he sent out? It wasn’t exactly a boom time when my husband and I got out of grad school in May 1986. My local job offer was rescinded. We sent out 273 resumes all over the country. We got back fewer than 10 responses, most of them polite nos. It took us six months to find work, 2500 miles away from Austin. My father-in-law used to say he was really worried for the “kids” in our generation.</p>
<p>We will never hire anybody else. Too much hassle, unfortunately.</p>
<p>NegativeSlope, you’re just finishing your sophomore year, right? A lot will happen in two years. Just work hard and try not to worry so much.</p>
<p>Wow, 273 resumes sent out? I’ve sent like… 15 tops.</p>
<p>Yep, 273. It was nerve-wracking for us, too! My husband managed to get a job in the lab at UT in the interim, mixing concrete and assisting graduate students. Whoo hoo! So it was rough, but I’m glad we hung in there. We paid our dues and enjoy our careers now.</p>
<p>
Yup, it’s class of 2012 for me.</p>
<p>Good to see this topic is still alive. I had a lot of interviews senior year. Many sent letters saying they didn’t hire anyone. Many only hired one person so it was almost luck based. The fact that I didn’t have internship experience doing design work hurt me, but other than that I think my credentials are pretty good. The only job offer I got was doing safety work in Louisiana, which actually paid pretty well. I didn’t really want to devote my life to safety, so I decided to go to graduate school on a research assistantship. I guess it’s kind of like doubling down, but I get a stipend, so it’s at the very least a job.</p>
<p>I think that was a good decision, Aggie10. Good luck!</p>
<p>Aggie10, maybe you can use your extra time here to fix the God awful drainage problems that plague this entire freaking campus.</p>
<p>I am in the same boat. A BS in Civil Engineering and i did everything right too. Maybe we can team up and combine our skills. We could make more money breaking the law together. By the way that was just just sarcasm. I feel the same way hard, honest work does not pay off anymore. Who ever said crime doesnt pay must be retarted</p>
<p>The thing is, I’d much rather be stuck with a BS in Civil Engineering than a BS in BME or god forbid Biology. Civil Engineering can do anything, while anything that involves Biology, Medicine, or both, is worthless and bad.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>An actual MD degree might not be completely worthless and bad. Of course, only a small minority of pre-meds get there, so most of them (who felt incorrectly that they had to major in biology) end up flooding the job market at the bachelor’s degree level.</p>
<p>Civil engineering is, of course, cyclical with construction. This most recent downturn was particularly bad for construction, only a few years after a frothy bubbly boom.</p>
<p>I’m going to be a freshman this year in college and after reading this thread, I really don’t know what to do. I’m going in as a civil engineering major but it seems as the prospects aren’t too good. I’m a girl too and I don’t know if that will affect anything. Also, environmental engineering seems to be a hot field right now, do you think it would do me good to minor in enviroE along with my civil engineering major? I’m just confused and stressed out and hoping I can figure this out before i start college. If civil eng isn’t looking so well, I may just change my major (though that is difficult to do)</p>
<p>Economic and industry conditions can change in four years. Those who majored in the “hot” majors in 2005-2006 (e.g. civil engineering) graduated into the crash. Meanwhile, the computer / IT bust of the early 2000s caused enrollment in CS to drop significantly at around the same time, but CS is now one of the better majors for job and career prospects.</p>
<p>This does not mean the civil engineering job and career prospects will be good in four years, but it also means that it is unlikely to be permanently bad (unlike for some majors where there is a constant oversupply of graduates relative to major-specific jobs, regardless of the economic and industry cycles).</p>
<p>You check how things were over the years in the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys.html</a> .</p>