After reading some articles and talking to some people , I was told it was difficult to get a job for mechanical engineers. I want to know how long it took for you to get a jobs after graduating and how much was starting pay? I also want to know your concentration, gpa and the club’s you were involved during college? It would be much appreciated.
Here are some stats Cal Poly is publishing.
http://www.careerservices.calpoly.edu/content/student/gsr_report
There are some in-depth details on some of the links, including specifically for ME. Not answering your specific questions directly, but pretty close.
In the link @iulianc posted click the “report results” link and you can search where graduates from every major got jobs and what they make. It’s a great tool. Whoever told you that it’s tough finding a job as an ME was either misinformed or too restrictive in their search.
That report shows less than 30% getting a job/or graduate school in ME. Cal Poly always reports a misleading 80+ % employment rate, but that is of those that participate in the survey. Some departments are better in getting participation than others. I don’t think anything is verified. Especially salary rates.
@SanDiego2010, the report does not show that. The only way for you to conclude that it does is to assume that everyone who didn’t reply is unemployed. That’s silly.
My point is the report shows that some grad’s get jobs, but it is hard to conclude by the low participation rate what the actual employment rate is. Grad’s that are known to me, self reported with no verification of salary or place of employment so the data isn’t very reliable. Most of the students are aware of this.
No, your point was “that report shows less than 30% getting a job.” I don’t know if you have an axe to grind with Poly or you just don’t like placement statistics in general, but the statement was both confusing and knowing that every school uses the same methodology, misleading. The OP is concerned about employment with a CP ME degree. There’s no objective information to suggest that it will be “difficult to get a job” as a Poly ME. To expand further, there’s no information right now to suggest that MEs from ANY school are finding employment opportunities to be rare.
Wow. Sorry. Many get confused with self reported statistics. Just trying to clarify that only a small percentage reply to the survey and out of that people are usually reporting a job so the statistics are what they are. Same problem happens with other well known self reported surveys. I mean no harm. Tried to clarify. sorry you took it so personally.
You hurt my feelings! :((
Seriously, I wasn’t personally offended at all. I’m just trying to make sure the OP has a fair picture. The reality is ME is a pretty solid degree.
I agree with your assessment of self reporting. The classic misuse is PayScale. In the end though, it is what it is. You can’t really compel people to report, so you take the data as it is with its known warts.
78k with a B.S in Aero. I got to move back home and pay no rent.
I was pretty lucky; many grads struggle to find jobs, let alone one in their geographic preference and at such a high starting salary. I’d say about half found jobs and half did not based on discussions during senior design classes.
The survey is inaccurate. I did not participate in it, as I did not like the professor who administered the survey and wanted to leave class ASAP. They sent another survey in the mail and did not want to spend time doing it. Many others do not do the survey either. I suspect the people who actually filled it out truthfully were the goody goodies who sucked the professors balls on Saturday night and found a good job because of it.
This is an interesting quote. It’s one persons perspective on how few found jobs. I see it a bit differently. According to the poster’s limited survey, “about half found jobs” WELL BEFORE THEY GRADUATED. That’s pretty encouraging. Most reports, however flawed they may be, are benchmarked to “within 6 months of graduation.”