how long did it take you to find a job after grad?

<p>how long did it take you to find a job after you graduated from your university for your engineering degree?</p>

<p>I had a job lined up before graduation. This was last year.</p>

<p>wut kind of engineering did you do?</p>

<p>Ken285 do you mind me asking you your Alma matter?</p>

<p>Civil engineering. Got a bachelor’s from The Cooper Union and a MS from Columbia. I had been working for the company as an intern.</p>

<p>Most people usually do have something lined up before graduation, though I’m not sure how it is this year.</p>

<p>Thank you for the information. As a fact I am really happy you come from Cooper Union because, i might end up at Rose-Hulman for my B.S and its the same kind of school.aLSO, My plan for graduate school is either Columbia, MIT,Stanford or Cornell. Rose-Hulman is one of my best alternative so far but I want to take the right decision and the good jumping off.</p>

<p>I had a job lined up in April before graduating in May. My first offer came to be in January. This was also last year, and just with by B.S. in Civil Engineering. Most of the people I knew (95%) had something lined up within their field. The only ones who didnt either a.) were lazy and b.) awful interview skills and less than stellar stats.</p>

<p>I had a job offer last October for my graduation date of this May, nearly 7 months in advance! That was just with a B.S. in ME from UIUC. I turned it down to go to graduate school though. Most if not all of my friends here have jobs lined up already, over a month before graduation.</p>

<p>Most students have their job lined up before Christmas. On-campus interviews in September, off-campus interviews in October, offers come in from October to November, and you make a decision in December.</p>

<p>At Georgia Tech, it’s a 75% overall placement rate at graduation, but that goes up to close to 100% if you have a GPA above 2.5 and at least one internship.</p>

<p>Many moons ago, I had a job offer all lined up before graduation. Then oil prices fell from $27 a barrel to $13, and the Texas economy died! The owner had to rescind the offer, and I had to start looking from scratch. That was the same month I got married! My husband was also looking for a structural engineering job, and we had a hard time finding two jobs in the same city. We sent out 270 resumes all over the country, even Hawaii - “We are a newly married couple looking for work as structural engineers in the _____ area.” Even with master’s degrees and excellent grades, we got only a few nibbles. It took over 4 months to find work, and that’s how we ended up in Maine! We’re very happy the way things turned out, though.</p>

<p>I would think that engineering employers have a bias against young married grads. I mean its not that common nowadays, and they might think that it would distract them from work. idk just my guess</p>

<p>I think that the important message one can glean from MaineLonghorn is that engineers looking for work need to be open to all options-including location. Obviously they did not limit themselves when looking for employment by sending resumes (270) all over the country. I think that jobs are out there–too many times people limit themselves to one locale. In this economy one needs to be open to options as much as possible in finding employment.</p>

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<p>It’s a bigger problem for women, than men. Women are more likely to move to support a husband’s career than a husband is to leave to support a woman’s career. Also, you have to worry about training a female engineer, then having her leave the workforce (for months, or perhaps permanently) when she has a baby.</p>

<p>As a result, we advise married female students to go to a first interview without her wedding ring on. Obviously, for the site visit she should wear her ring and invite her husband to visit with her.</p>

<p>Sexist? Yes, but also realistic. If more men left the workforce after having a baby, or relocated to support their wife’s career, it would be more balanced. Businesses are just responding the state of the country.</p>

<p>The funniest thing about interviewing as a married couple was that the interviewer never knew quite knew how to handle us! Together, separately? And on three occasions that I can think of (when were newly married, and then in the early 90s), the employer told us flat out that he liked both of us, but could hire only one, so it was up to us to choose who would accept!</p>

<p>I guess we were a rarity, working at the same firm in Maine. The president of the company made a special trip just to meet us. Our new co-workers told us he’d never done that with any other new hires! It was kind of fun.</p>

<p>I honestly never felt any discrimination as a female engineer. When I had kids, I did work as a precast concrete detailer for awhile, and THAT was a different story. I worked part-time, and contractors would get annoyed when they couldn’t reach me and one even said, “You must be a MOM,” in a very sarcastic tone. Sigh.</p>

<p>The problem we always had with married couples was that we’d like one and not the other. So you’d have to make a tough decision. Do you offer to just one then offer “family job placement assistance” to the other? Do you turn them both down? Do you like the one enough to “put up” with the other?</p>

<p>We were never lucky enough to get two qualified engineers such as you guys.</p>

<p>G.P., I never thought about that! That would be a dilemma.</p>