<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I am currently in 3rd year environmental engineering and I was hoping I could get some questions answered. </p>
<p>1) What % of people in EnvE have masters?
2) Would a masters close doors?</p>
<p>When I look for jobs, most entry level positions require a bachelors, so would a masters make me overqualified?</p>
<p>Also, I think masters degree holders get paid more but if companies don't have much money, would they rather hire a bachelors? this goes with the closing doors</p>
<p>A masters in EE will make you more qualified, but I really don't think it'll make you OVERqualified. Perhaps a PhD would make you overqualified.</p>
<p>Most of the EEs I know went on to get a masters degree, and are now gainfully employed.</p>
<p>Some jobs will pay for you to go back and get your masters after working for them for a year or so; you could see about that. I do know people who have had trouble finding a job with no (or little) work experience and a masters in various engineering fields, since they're overqualified for the entry level positions but underqualified for the higher up positions because of a lack of experience.</p>
<p>Hi chuy,</p>
<p>The people that you know, what type of engineers were they? Enviromental?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>Not environmental, no. A couple are chemical and a couple are materials.</p>
<p>It's not really a problem in the civil/environmental arena.</p>
<p>Having no work experience would be a problem for you even if you just had a bachelor's.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure some employers expect college grads to have no work experience. I don't expect folks to know everything by 21. Internships are bonuses but not "crucial"</p>
<p>Work experience isn't crucial? Everyone in my class of 18 had work experience except for one person. Guess who couldn't find a job after graduation.</p>
<p>If you're looking to hire someone, would you want someone with nothing on his resume? Or someone who has worked before, and knows what's expected of them. You're at a major disadvantage if you haven't had any experience by graduation.</p>
<p>^ Gota start somewhere. Some people do research over the summer or go on things called "vacation." I didn't say internships won't help. I said if you don't have any industrial work experience before graduation, you won't be homeless either. There are other things to fill up your resume than your data entry job at the local environmental firm. They are called clubs, volunteering and other activities (in addition to your normal academic related projects).</p>
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^ Gota start somewhere.
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You start somewhere with internships or part-time jobs or something. Just don't sit on your butt all day.</p>
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There are other things to fill up your resume than your data entry job at the local environmental firm.
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Not all internships are meaningless and/or boring. I'd say I've probably learned just as much important things through work as I did through school.</p>
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They are called clubs, volunteering and other activities (in addition to your normal academic related projects).
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</p>
<p>I never said you should work instead of doing those. No reason you can't do all of those, and in fact, you probably should. I just can't see how one wouldn't have time for one internship at some point during their four years of college. Also, if you don't have any internships, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage not only in terms of your job search, but your personal growth as well. Working in a field and studying in a field can be quite different. A VP that I used to work for said that during his career, he only used maybe 5% of what he learned in school. If you don't even try to work in the field, you won't know if you'll like it or not. Waiting until after you graduate to experiment is a bad idea.</p>
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I said if you don't have any industrial work experience before graduation, you won't be homeless either.
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True, but it would be significantly more difficult.</p>
<p>Hey Ken,</p>
<p>what happened to that person who had trouble finding a job? You mentioned your class size is small, are you from EnvE?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>Not sure. He was bumming around for maybe 6 months after graduation. Don't know what he's up to now.</p>
<p>I was a CE major, which encompasses EnvE at my school.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure he eventually found a job. That's just how things work. It might not be the stellar job. But I'm pretty sure the majority of entry-level jobs for BS civs are not that exciting anyways. It's more like a chance for apprenticeship.</p>
<p>I think it's important to state the contrary. I'm not in civil but from my class, everyone pretty much found a job within 3 months after graduation. Even those who took summer classes or did summer research instead of summer "internships." So it's not the end of the world if your internship-seeking experiences are not successful. It's good to fish around though starting sophmore year.. if anything, just for exposure.</p>
<p>Oh I'm sure he probably did eventually. </p>
<p>I'm not sure how the rest of the country is, but it's a pretty exciting time for civil engineers in New York. There's a lot of big and interesting projects going on, and we're shaping the city. Perhaps you're right in that the civil engineering grad working for the municipal government in South Dakota won't have an exciting job though.</p>
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So it's not the end of the world if your internship-seeking experiences are not successful. It's good to fish around though starting sophmore year.. if anything, just for exposure.
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100% agree</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies so far. </p>
<p>If there are 2 candidates with limited experience who would win?</p>
<p>A) Bachelors
B) Masters</p>
<p>Depends on the job description and requirements. The company has to compensate more for the M.S. (by a little bit).</p>
<p>Hi jmilton90</p>
<p>Can you clarify what you mean by that?</p>
<p>I'm just saying if the job only requires the educational background of a new college grad with a BS, then the company would be hesitant to hire the M.S. candidate (because they cost slightly more).</p>
<p>And if the job under discussion requires a M.S. to further career opportunities, a person already having an M.S. would be the more appropriate candidate in order to save the company the opportunity cost and $$ for sending an employee back to school.</p>
<p>Although the differences in technical capacity of the two educational degrees is really minimal, many people I know say a few years at work is essentially substitute for an M.S.</p>
<p>But I know for certain in the environmental arena, it would only help you in the long run to have a graduate degree.</p>
<p>The difference with a MS vs. a BS is pretty minimal, as jmilton90 said. If you get a phd, that's when it may hurt you if you decide not to work in research.</p>