<p>I was just reading this thread which is full of mechanical engineers who can't find work. Many are working at target and costco. Is it really this bad out there?</p>
<p>Mechanical</a> Engineer Jobs Forum - Entry Level Mechanical Engineer | Indeed.com</p>
<p>The short answer is no. You are reading the hysterical laments of the vocal minorty. I had job offers before I graduated as did probably 80% to 90% of my classmates this past May.</p>
<p>The people on that forum are either lying about their qualifications, overestimate their qualifications, or have really bad resumes or interviewing skills most likely.</p>
<p>^ If I didn’t know better I’d say you were writing a review of dice.com.</p>
<p>I don’t know a thing about dice.com, but I can tell you that the thread this guy posted is rife with people who can’t form sentences and who talk about being qualified and all that stuff for ME jobs, then say that their 1 year of experience is in a totally unrelated field. It is just goofy. These people can’t be serious, can they?</p>
<p>Of course I should have qualified my original post with the fact that, for the most part, if you go to a school that is a little better known in engineering, you are more likely to get a job during the recession, as companies that slow down hiring are more likely to temporarily stop recruiting at the small, non-target schools than the big powerhouses.</p>
<p>I would also like to add that a lot of the people on that forum were complaining about not having a job after getting an MSME… if you don’t have a job after getting an MSME, you are doing it wrong. In a traditional MS, you end up meeting plenty of people from different companies who are directly linked to your research. You typically have a pretty decent shot of hitting up said connections for employment assuming that you aren’t completely socially inept when interacting with these people and assuming that you actually did work that was good enough to impress them. That tells me there is something going on other than “I can’t find a job” like they are all just saying.</p>
<p>once again, i agree with boneh3ad on this one.</p>
<p>if you are half-decent then you will find something.
if you are good, you’ll find something interesting.
if you are top-notch, you’ll be immune to the economic situation.</p>
<p>no</p>
<p>ten char …</p>
<p>The problem with that linked thread is you’ll only get responses from people without jobs. Otherwise they wouldn’t be on indeed.com!</p>
<p>Placement at a good engineering school is around > 90% (2009)</p>
<p>if your sub 3.0 there will be a delay till you get the job and it won’t be exactly what you hoped for and prolly pay crappy but you’ll get it…so generally stay above 3.0 and get internships and you’ll be set. if you want to work for a really competitive position or a top grad school or whatever then it’ll take an above average gpa plus several other factors.</p>
<p>I second rocketDA’s post, said well and in few words</p>
<p>pretty much all engineering is down, especially electrical. But if work your butt off (in college) , you should find a job. Nowadays networking is crucial so make lots of friends :)</p>
<p>Agree with the postings above. I go to T20 school that is not known for Engineering (medicine, econ, etc.). Engineers are still killing everybody else on the job/intern front.</p>
<p>Amongst engineers (I am an ME who is graduating early and was inundated with internship offers-- didn’t happen that way last year), I found there to be several odd trends regarding recruiting success.</p>
<p>1) ME’s held up really strong (surprising because it is not nearly our strongest engineering major).
2) Chemicals did very poorly
3) Biomeds don’t get jobs in biomed (generally), and trend to have difficulty generally just getting an offer.
4) A general tier of ease of getting offers
–CE/EE/CS tied with ME (lots of demand-- MEs surprised me)
–Chemical and Civil were about equivalent (had difficult, but could manage).
–Biomeds were SOL
5) Job interviews and offers a much easier to get than internships (especially with good firms)… I would not recommend grabbing your junior-senior internship company for postgrad if it is not a top tier company and you can avoid it.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, why did ME surprise you, Mr_jones?</p>
<p>To reiterate what boneh3ad pointed out, none of the people on that forum can write complete sentences. I have a hard time taking people seriously when they sound like complete morons. I’m not trying to be mean, but if these people are really as qualified as they claim to be, they would certainly know how to write coherent sentences. The job market has definitely been better but engineering is still a better place to be than most other professions. I would not put any stock in that forum.</p>
<p>I didn’t know it was bad…?</p>
<p>Like this thread very much.</p>
<p>
Don’t scare me! What was the situation at your school? Just not enough openings for ChemE’s?</p>
<p>ChemE-- I should have clarified. I was most surprised because of the caliber of individuals that it takes to complete the curriculum. Simply, I thought they were better engineers that did not deserve to have to struggle (the ChemE class was strong straight through vs approx just the top half in MechE, EE, etc).</p>
<p>That said, they still did well. I feel that their difficulty was due to the fact that they were looking at some typical process design, etc jobs that are what I perceive to be more “typical” jobs for their degree. It took many of them to branch out and pursue less typical roles which were more plentiful and equally lucrative-- operations, QA, Systems, statistical roles, and grad opportunities.</p>
<p>To also build upon this previous paragraph, there are very few roles exactly related to the specific majors. I only interviewed for one mechanical design position (out of 15 or so different firms/positions), while others involved operations, QA, statistical analysis, etc. I feel that the most successful people in all majors were the ones to realize how to apply their skills to related but less obvious subsets (was difficult for chemicals to figure out at first). Notice how everybody on that linked page (above) is looking only/specifically for mechanical design type roles. Learn the buzzwords and the skill associated (six sigma, lean manufacturing, validation, requirements generation, etc.)</p>
<p>Interesting, I’ll keep this in mind. Thanks for the response.</p>
<p>mr_jones, out of my curiosity - were the BMEs that attempted to get jobs just looking for jobs after a BS program? I am BME and most people I know either get jobs (where they generally intern) or stay for grad school. Its not really that bad of an engineering major - I don’t know why everyone dislikes the major so much on these forums.</p>
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<p>IE anybody?? </p>
<p>Like I’ve always said, design positions for any engineering major constitute about 10-15% of the jobs out there. There are tons of jobs in operations, supply chain, lean, etc., that any engineering major can qualify for.</p>
<p>
Not that bad? What are considered the “good” engineering majors as far as employment prospects?</p>