As the title says, I’m a double major in physics and math trying to break my way into industry. To give a bit more background I’m a rising senior with 1 REU internship and 2 industry internships at prestigious aviation/aerospace firms. I go to a state school that’s pretty good at engineering and physics and I’ve got a 3.8 GPA, although it’ll probably drop once the results for this last semester are in. Although I’ve been fortunate enough to secure some good internships in the past, it didn’t come without many rejections and I feel like most companies in industry are not huge fans of my majors.
So now that hiring season is approaching, I’m not really sure where I stand; with majors that aren’t the most hire-able, but with a good amount of experience in the fields I want to go into (mostly aerospace or CS).
I know physics majors do tend to occasionally secure jobs in engineering, but I’ve heard that often those positions aren’t necessarily equivalent to engineering positions with the same advancement opportunities. To be honest I’m looking to secure a strictly engineering position at a prestigious firm (very preferably on the west coast to stay close to my family/home) and if that doesn’t work out, getting a master’s in engineering seems like a better choice than the alternative.
So my questions are do I stand a good chance to reach that goal or am I better off focusing on grad school and if I do stand a chance, how should I market myself to industry employers as someone who’s got the skills to take on a full time engineering position?
During your senior year, you need to apply for internship positions in engineering through your career services office on campus. Deadlines are earlier rather than later. Once you start to apply for internships, you can see which corporations will hire into your goal of engineering types of tasks.
Yes, it is probably a bit more difficult to get into an engineering job with a physics major but a lot of that is how you sell yourself. Instead of highlighting your major, you need to focus on your skills and your internships have given you the opportunity to develop some of the ones that engineering positions need. As for advancement, unless you need to have a P.E. certification, advancement is really dependent on how well you do your job. Also, once you have your first job, your major won’t matter too much any more when you apply to your next one. As you know it is often necessary to change companies to really advance in your career. The days of staying in one place for your entire career are past.
You really don’t need to go into graduate school right away. Once you have your career started, you might find that a Masters is important to advance or that you really want to get an advanced degree. That option will always be there for you.
The likelihood of getting an engineering job is relatively low, but that doesn’t preclude you from jobs at Boeing, NG, etc. You will have plenty of opportunities, especially in R&D at major companies. Personally, if I am entering senior year, I wouldn’t bother applying for internships - in September, those larger companies will be looking for new FT hires for their 2017 class. If you go through internship recruitment exclusively, you will likely miss opportunities for full time employment. You could look at internships in addition to full time positions, potentially securing one for spring semester that could lead to a FT offer upon completion, and certainly you could look to internships if you aren’t seeing much luck in the FT market.
If you are looking to get into true engineering, then you may be well served by securing employment and then doing a part-time Master’s degree in engineering - you can work full-time and go to school part-time, and some companies will give you tuition reimbursement for all or part of your costs.