<p>Does anybody has any experience with or know this type of engineering (FPE)?
[Google "Fire Protection Engineering"]</p>
<p>A friend of mine who works in the industry told me that there is currently a high demand for, and a shortage of FPEs. There are only 2 universities that offer FPE programs in the US (wpi and maryland college park). The prerequisite to enter MS FPE programs are ANY BSc in engineering. </p>
<p>I did some research and it seems it's a niche field that will be growing pretty fast in the future. Demand may grow due to more stringent gov't regulations, and graduates can usually work in gov't, private, insurance companies. Combined with the fact that you can't really outsource this type of job, it may be a lucrative field in the future.</p>
<p>I just want to throw this out there for new, current and graduated engineering students who are still planning their eng career and ones who might be looking for work in this great recession. </p>
<p>Hope this helps and can be a good information.</p>
<p>expanding off what aibarr said, a civ E for example could work as a Fire prot. E. but obviously not vice versa for the numerous other industries that a Civil can work in </p>
<p>People are wrong to discourage Civil so much…or Mechanical, Electrial for that matter, or even Bio Med or whichever, they’re all engineering major’s u know? In my opinion it’s mostly people that aren’t competitive enough that are being overly cynical…yet competition has always been a factor in engineering, it’s why I get rejected by companies and it’s why I get accepted by companies.</p>
<p>I’ve thought about this field as well, and I didn’t know there were colleges that offered degrees in it. I thought that these jobs went to people with civil/chem degrees.</p>
<p>Well that is unbelievably asinine. What cyclone10 said isn’t something I agree with either, but it has nothing to do with him being in schools still.</p>
I apologize. I tend to get upset when someone says something arrogant and ignorant like that when just last week I held in my hand a stack of resumes of many qualified unemployed licensed CivEs (many phd’s from ucla and usc and years of experience) for ONE ce associate position.</p>
<p>It just tells ME that such person is not humble; and also don’t forget that karma is a beeyotch.</p>
<p>I was referring to people entering undergrad or still in school; not ones already out in the industry; there’s an enormous difference. I know the “great recession” is a touchy subject but people shouldn’t react by being overly cynical discouraging people towards such a broad branch of engineering like Civil…or denying that competition is always a sobering truth…i tried not to seem pretentious by pointing out it’s the reason why ‘I’ get rejected by companies.</p>
<p>speaking of karma/ignorant/arrogant… your telling me if I have a phd from USC and years of experience I’m going to be unemployed, you are portraying an overly cynical representation of the industry…you’re part of a group of people that I tend to get upset when they talk…</p>
<p>My my… whadowehave here? A little arrogant clown, eh?</p>
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<p>Re-read my post carefully.
I was merely saying how tough the job market is that a lot of qualified people are under/unemployed. We received 50 resumes of highly qualified engineers for ONE entry-level ce associate position. </p>
<p>I get p!$$ed when you - who has ZERO experience in the industry - arrogantly said that these people are under/unemployed because they are not competitive. Now, tell me straight to my face that these people with their ucla and usc phds, with years of experience and licensed are not competitive. </p>
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Nope. We trashed the new grads and picked the youngest phd with the most relevant experience. Sending out offer sometimes next week.</p>
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Why sleep when we’ll sleep eternally later? :)</p>
<p>my comment to students in school is to increase their competitiveness, this can be done with a higher gpa, more industry experience or Co-ops, making the most out of your tech electives, among many other things that can be done, to meet the increased competition in the job market. </p>
<p>Students in school are all aware of this advice but some choose to ignore these opportunities to step it up a notch to make a difference in their career prospects and instead react by portraying an overly cynical representation of the job market. </p>
<p>rheidzan, you don’t know what experience I have, or how I have been affected by the recession, you are obviously bitter and trying to antagonize me…I assure you it’s a waste of your time.</p>
<p>There are jobs to be had if you look outside of California. California’s economy sucks right now, yes. Also, rheidzan, you’re in a pretty visible department, and you’ve said you have a pretty good job. There are plenty of small firms who aren’t necessarily advertising open positions. I’d say you probably have a stack of resumes that largely represents the subset of people who don’t really know how to talk their way into a job, or how to network their way into a job. </p>
<p>And yes, you have to send out 150 resumes in this market to land an offer or two… It’s possible that the person y’all offer the job to will have another offer. It’s possible that half of those people aren’t even really <em>interested</em> in a job with your department, and that you’re just their backup.</p>
<p>Stay optimistic. Be realistic, but don’t spread cynicism… That stack of resumes you have is only one piece of the whole puzzle.</p>
<p>This thread is taking too much of my time already.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>aibarr, If you noticed, in the past few months I have turned from “the sky is falling down” to “it’s gonna recover, but probably in 2-3 years.”
I have told others that as long as they graduate in approximately 3-4 years from today, they’ll be fine. God helps us all that we should be getting out of depression 2.0 by then.</p></li>
<li><p>My position of saying civil is not as flexible as other eng majors (on another thread) is based on MY experience. I may sound cynical or bitter then, but it’s MY experience, so take it for it’s worth. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>3.
I disagree that just because someone is not competitive they become cynical. What do you have to support this statement?
A lot of these phds that we interviewed are just as cynical (nowadays); does that mean they’re not competitive? </p>
<p>And yes I know he’s referring to:
But when you’ve been on the other side of the desk, you clearly will not say this. At least not these days! There are clearly many competitive students who are having problems with employment. And yes, even outside CA. </p>
<ol>
<li>Lastly, it is not humbling to hastily generalize these cynical people as non-competitive. It is even more arrogant when one says it with ZERO industry experience.</li>
</ol>
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