<p>How hard would it be to find an engineering job after graduation?
How big is the competition? Is a person going to face a very huge competition?</p>
<p>How is that experience of finding a job right after graduation?
(especially in Chem E)</p>
<p>does anyone know?</p>
<p>you need a good GPA and relevant experience(internships/co-op)</p>
<p>so its pretty easy for a person like that to get a job?</p>
<p>I sent out 150 resumes with customized cover letters for each in order to find a job after I got my masters, remembering with trepidation how I fell flat on my face trying to get an internship my sophomore year in college. My phone rang off the hook, I got pneumonia from flying all over the nation to interviews, and towards the end of the year, I started having to turn down interview offers and ended up with five job offers to choose from. So, I didn't think it was that hard. Take into account, though, the fact that I was getting a masters, and that masters was from UIUC, which is tied with Berkeley for the top program, and that it's probably not that way in <em>every</em> engineering field... But for me, it wasn't that bad.</p>
<p>what about the time when you just got your Bachelors?</p>
<p>and UIUC is ranked #1 in civil</p>
<p>I went to grad school straight out of undergrad at Rice, so I didn't stop to look for a job then. Can't tell you about it from personal experience, but my friends all found jobs.</p>
<p>there are about 160 ABET accredited schools for Chem E in the US. my school is ranked 19th according to US news and weekly. i guess that isn't top high like your school but i hope my job search days will turn like yours</p>
<p>Do people still talk about rank in engineering? It's far less important than other 'careers'.</p>
<p>Yeah, your school's rank in engineering isn't that important. What's important is how your employer perceives your school, and how your employer perceives you. Companies know which schools historically have given them the best employees, and they recruit from those schools year after year with little or no regard to the school's US news ranking, which can vary widely from year to year.</p>
<p>hmm.
Penn State has a good reputation among the employers for engineering.</p>
<p>...ergo, don't worry.</p>
<p>I wonder what "employers" think about UH.</p>
<p>If you were seeking employment in Houston it could be a lil tough, considering you have Rice, Texas, and A&M right next to you -- but a strong GPA could offset that.</p>
<p>how about in PA?</p>
<p>or MD?</p>
<p>and DC?</p>
<p>(What will the competition be in those places if one's from Penn State)</p>
<p>Employers in Houston see UH as being a fairly solid engineering program. They're sort of placeholders. Bodies to fill your cubicles and to do a good job of things that aren't cutting-edge.</p>
<p>And tom, it really varies from person to person. We can't tell you how your job search is going to go. It's just... one of those life mysteries that you have to look forward to, and you won't know how it's gonna go until it happens. But overall, it'll probably go pretty well.</p>
<p>aibarr, can you tell me some more about your experience with trying to get internships in college? What did you mean by "fell flat on my face"? I plan on doing engineering co-op when I attend college so I'm interested in what mistakes you made.</p>
<p>Honestly... It was less about the mistakes that I made, and much more about the economy at the time. I was a sophomore around the time that the dot com crash ripples hit the construction industry, and NOBODY was building anything. There was literally no new construction going on, nobody was spending any money on anything, and everyone was trying to trim the fat.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for me, interns were considered to be highly trimmable fat, especially interns that were sophomore engineering majors who really had no marketable skills... no experience with AutoCAD, no design experience, no design classes under their belts, and who would have to be led through even the most simple of engineering tasks.</p>
<p>The next year, it was much easier to get an internship. The market was doing much better, so people were more willing to take on interns. In order to figure out places to send my resumes to, I looked through the local professional society newsletters. I sent out probably twenty resumes and ended up with a couple of good interviews. </p>
<p>The resumes I sent out were incredibly polished. I used a lot of resume action verbs (<a href="http://www.quintcareers.com/action_verbs.html)%5B/url%5D">http://www.quintcareers.com/action_verbs.html)</a>. I had probably eight people proofread them, including my parents, a couple of professors, some brutally honest friends, and a friend's mom, who is a VP at a major company and does a lot of hiring. She made some great suggestions, and was a really good resource. I printed my resumes on high-quality paper (a very professional-looking granite-finish faintly-blue/gray-tinted paper that stood out really well... People remembered that resume, man...) and tailored the cover letters to each company. I printed out addresses directly onto the matching envelopes, rather than hand-writing things. People, especially engineers who have a tendency to be impressed with attention to detail, commented on how many presentation points they gave a resume like mine.</p>
<p>Little things, but they really added up, and they really gave a positive impression. If you're cold-calling, which as an intern, you probably are, all they have to go on is that resume. Best to make it look as good as possible, so that you catch people's attention.</p>
<p>Good luck with your co-op search!</p>
<p>Thank you. What are employers looking for on interns' resumes? Is it mostly grades and classes taken? Would it be detrimental if you've never had a job before (typical high school jobs like cashier etc)?</p>
<p>See if you have any friends who are working for companies that are looking for interns. That's how I got one of my jobs, and now I've been repaying the favor; in the past few months, I've gotten 2 friends internships at my firm. It's more difficult at larger companies though because they tend to have stricter application processes.</p>