<p>Anybody have any suggestions on how to pick senior elective classes? I'm a civil engineering major and the construction engineering, geotechnical engineering and transportation engineering classes that I've taken so far have been interesting and I wouldn't mind continuing taking classes in these areas. But within each of these 3 concentrations are different topical classes.......are you supposed to pick classes with respect to what you want to do more of after college? what happens if you have no idea?</p>
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Yes, that’s how you develop some depth</p>
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<p>I think you probably do have some idea what you like if you think about it harder. If you had to work on something for 40 years (you don’t, but let’s just say you did), what would you pick. What are you excited about. You say that you found some stuff interesting. Why? What about them was interesting? What questions do you have that you want to understand more of? What can’t you do now that you want to know how to do? What are you curious about? </p>
<p>If you really can’t decide, then attend the first lecture or first few lectures of some of your top options and pick the one or ones you want after getting a feel for each class. Sit in the bookstore and read the first few chapters of the textbooks.</p>
<p>Do employers look at what classes you have taken? I’m pretty unfamiliar with how they evaluate college graduates. (aka will taking a certain class or not give you an advantage/disadvantage?) Or are these electives just for your own benefit?</p>
<p>Personally for me, an EE, whether you took electives related to what we do is THE most important determining factor in whether I call you up for a phone screen. </p>
<p>I assume that people took the electives because they are interested in the topic. I WANT to work with people who are both interested and have developed some extra capabilities in the topic. </p>
<p>Hiring someone requires a large time investment from one of my staff before a new person becomes productive - where the value of their output exceeds the value of their salary plus the value of the time of the person who is assigned to mentor them. I get the highest return on investment by hiring people who are both interested and very capable. Those people are highly motivated to begin with to master the material and produce output without so much mentoring. </p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s the same in CivE, but I suspect it is for any field. </p>
<p>Developing depth in an area that you want to work in surely gives you an advantage in that area.</p>
<p>Ok sounds great! I’ll definitely take some time over the next few days to reconsider my course selection for this spring</p>