<p>I love writing and thought it would show that I am not solely a technical person.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback.</p>
<p>Writing is probably a great minor for CE majors. After all, it’s a pretty easy minor and it’s easy to get A’s in. You can take some writing classes every semester to boost your GPA due to the fact that CE classes are so hard and tend to lower your GPA.</p>
<p>An employer would much rather you take some additional design classes than ones in writing. The only exception I can think of would be technical writing. Employers WANT a technical person. They don’t care if you’re well-rounded.</p>
<p>@MaineLonghorn</p>
<p>Does anyone ever really care about your minor though? It seems like companies could care less about what you minor in, just what you major in.</p>
<p>Personally, if I saw a resume with “Minor in Writing,” I would ask the applicant why he or she didn’t spend the time taking more design classes.</p>
<p>I was just suggesting writing because the classes for engineering are insanely hard and very easy to fail. I was thinking that if he took a writing minor it would raise this guy’s GPA, and it seems like employers look at GPA more than they look at the minor. However, you have a point though.</p>
<p>There’s more to engineering than technical skills. Being able to communicate is also critical. I’d say writing is a perfectly good minor for civil engineering.</p>
<p>You don’t say how many classes are required to get the minor in writing. IMHO, a couple of writing classes are a good thing. Taking too many and you take away from the number of engineering classes that you could take. You don’t necessarily have to get a minor in writing (or anything else) to take a few classes to help with your enjoyment and breadth of your education.</p>
<p>I would always be looking for the most prepared, smart (read good GPA in engineering classes, so using writing classes to raise your GPA wouldn’t work) and someone that really enjoyed engineering to hire.</p>
<p>As an engineer (retired), I can’t tell you how many times I had to completely re-write material because the original was so poorly written and difficult to understand. It doesn’t matter how talented an engineer is technically if he/she can’t communicate effectively. In my position, I had to present findings to a Board of Directors and routinely communicate with clients and contractors. Often we prepared communication for use by people of non-technical backgrounds. In my mind, an engineer who cannot write clearly and succinctly is useless. As an employer, I would have been thrilled to see a minor of writing on a resume!</p>
<p>I don’t think that a minor in writing would help you much when finding that first job, unless it was in technical writing or technical marketing. However, down the road, having writing skills might open career paths within engineering. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t suggest that an engineering major add a minor if it would lengthen their time to graduate, or interfere with taking other more useful classes. But, if you’ve got a bunch of AP credits and room in your schedule, I don’t see the harm.</p>
<p>I agree that engineering reports are useless if you can’t understand them because of the author’s poor writing skills. However, if one is considering a minor in writing, then I would venture to guess that their writing skills are already quite good. </p>
<p>It would more likely that someone who wouldn’t necessarily consider a minor in writing would be someone that could probably use the writing classes.</p>
<p>I’ll offer some advice based on what I’m seeing on the front line as I apply for engineering internships.</p>
<p>Employers do not want candidates with writing minors, they want candidates with ultra sharp technical ability, and that seems to be proven via high gpa, cool projects you executed (preferably in a competition setting), and best of all, relevant work experience.</p>
<p>The minors or additional coursework most highly desired:
-computer science (really just ability and willingness use whatever language that the company uses)
-area specific courses related to the job or company (i.e. if the company does mission design for satellites, a grad level class in orbital dynamics is a plus)
-technical writing
-some cross discipline engineering coursework (company/job specific)</p>
<p>Outside of that, employers at best see coursework outside your major as “for fun” electives or at worst get confused trying to guess what your priorities are. I was standing in line to talk with a speaker from nasa and I was behind a friend of mine. He tried to sell his double major in aero engineering/astronomy to a nasa manager who promptly made him choose a one over the other.</p>
<p>All that said, if you want to do it for fun/personal enrichment, go for it. But don’t try to sell it as a reason for your employer to hire you.</p>
<p>da6onet, I would agree with what you’re saying for the most part. However, students with a lower GPA (not low) and good communication skills (writing and speaking) will get the job over someone with a high gpa and bad communication skills. Being able to effectively communicate during an interview and on a team in industry is much more important than having an ultra high GPA. </p>
<p>However, I would agree minors add very little. I graduated with a minor in math and I was never asked about it during multiple job interviews, employers just didn’t care. If you really want a minor in writing, do it, that’s what college is for. Your engineering degree should have some sort of ethics class and/or technical writing class that should help you become a better writer. </p>
<p>My advice, skip the minor. Be personable in an interview and mention outside interests (working out, college football, hobbies etc). That will get you far in proving you are not just a technical person who can’t relate to people.</p>
<p>Well yes companies certainly want effective communicators, but that skill is implied, to the point where it can be the number one method of differentiating otherwise qualified interviewees. The point I should have made more clearly (aha!) was that you have to get to the interview first; I believe, from my own experiences, that usually involves looking great on paper.</p>
<p>How is a foreign language minor for engineering? I’m fluent in Spanish, and would like to learn French in college. Are extra languages a bonus?</p>
<p>Many foreign language minors begin counting AFTER you’re done (or tested out of) the first couple years’ worth of classes. I.e. the 6 courses for a minor begin after French 101, 102, 201, 202 (or similar, 1st and 2nd year French) going straight into grammar (for those who think DiffEq is difficult, try French grammar :)) or literature… It seems to vary by language, some count language courses, some don’t.</p>
<p>I realize that I would have to complete introductory French classes first 
I just want to be trilingual, I think it’d be cool and open doors. But would employers look down on choosing that as a minor?</p>
<p>Unless you do it as a 5th year for the 4 intro classes + 6 minor classes I doubt it. Think of it this way. In civil engineering, whom would you impress enough to hire you where knowledge of French would be an asset? Civil Engineering is either ‘local’ work where knowledge of a foreign language may not be a big deal or ‘international’ in which case I’d hedge my bets on Arabic… </p>
<p>When I was an aspiring Civil Engineering student 30 years ago, knowledge of Arabic was the jackpot. Things have changed now of course. My younger daughter is nearly bilingual French/English but only because she wants to go to college or live/work there (EU passport also helps :)). A friend who is bilingual (Cajun) also did a 3 year work assignment in France so there are some options to actually work there. But for a big firm like Bechtel to be interested, I would check. </p>
<p>Do this - go to the global construction firms and see where they operate and see if they do lots of work in Francophone countries. Lots of places in SE Asia and Africa still speak French, so…</p>
<p>Would employers look down on a foreign language minor?<br>
No, but neither would it give you much of a boost, unless you are applying to work in a country where that language is spoken. And even then, probably not for a first job right out of college.</p>
<p>And I’ve never heard of anyone getting an engineering job in another country right out of undergrad in the US, unless that person is returning to their own country (and hence are native speakers of that language). Experienced engineers are much more likely to be in demand to go work in another country. New PhDs with particular expertise might be able to find work in another country.</p>
<p>I had a Technical Communications Concentration (5 courses). No regrets here. In my case, it allowed me to interview with a large company not hiring MechE that particular year. But my hiring manager was delighted because he really did want an engineer for the service manual engineering / tech writing job. This is a rare situation, but it worked well for me. </p>
<p>The 5 courses were - Rhetoric, Tech Writing, Speech, Business Letter Writing, and a Mass Media course that I was able to pick up a a local college during the summer. I also had to take my psych class in the summer to make more room for the extra coursework. The other slots were covered via AP credit and a free elective. </p>
<p>The Business Letter Writing class was back in the days of typed documents. We had some valuable assignments for Cover Letters and Resumes. You can bet it catches your attention when you Resume gets graded as a B minus.</p>