Odds of finding a job (ME Major)?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Here is some background on myself: </p>

<p>I will be a senior next semester. I made Dean's list (made a 3.85 GPA) last semester with the heaviest load I have ever had in engineering (6 classes and a lab). My overall GPA is a 3.2 while my Major GPA is almost a 3.4 (first semester of freshman year hurt me). While I am a Mechanical Engineering major I love Aerospace, so I am taking an Aero - System Dynamics class this semester. My professor actually took this class as a graduate student at Cornell, so it is technically a graduate level class. I am also starting to work on SAE AERO with my group as it will be my Capstone project next year. I am working on getting my private pilots license as well. I am a very active kid outside of engineering and I grew up racing motocross, hunting, fishing, wake boarding, snowboarding, golfing. You name it I probably do it (although now I mostly do homework lol). </p>

<p>Anyways, I am becoming increasingly more and more worried about the odds of finding a job after I graduate. I have tried really hard for an internship this summer (still trying) and applied to probably 40+ internship positions. I got two interviews with a construction company, but they just didn't have anything to offer to an engineer (they had openings for construction management, etc). I spent many hours on my resume and cover letter with my engineering career services counselor. Bottom line, I have done everything I can do to maximize my potential for an internship. I have become increasingly discouraged about this degree. It seems these employers are looking for kids with the highest GPA's, and if you don't have a 3.5+ good luck finding something. I pour so much time and effort into engineering, and it seems unlikely that I will find something, even with a pretty decent GPA such as mine. My dream is to work for an aerospace firm, whether its large or small (Boeing, Cessna, Lancair, Van's, Lockheed, Raytheon, etc), but it seems like that may be even harder to get into.</p>

<p>I have considered going to commercial pilot school if I don't find a job when I graduate. I know your pretty much guaranteed a job if you have your commercial license. You don't get paid much the first couple years, but once you have your hours built up you can make great money down the road. </p>

<p>The bottom line is, I guess I am a little shocked at how discouraging the engineering field and industry is. For being one of the toughest, if not the toughest undergrad programs you would think there would be a lot more encouragement behind it. If I can't get in the aerospace industry when I graduate...what do I do? If I have a non aerospace related engineering job after graduating is it still possible for me to get into aerospace down the road? Should I be a pilot over an engineer? Just wanted to see what your opinions were, etc.</p>

<p>Thanks for reading my long post. </p>

2

<p>I had a similar GPA to you but had several internships and several jobs lined up before I graduated as an ME graduating right at the height of the recession. Given that, I’d guess there is something else going on other than just your GPA. I couldn’t really tell you what is holding you back here, though. Maybe your resume doesn’t paint you in the best light or something. Did you go to career fairs at your school or did you just apply blindly over the internet to all these internships?</p>

3

<p>If it makes you feel any better, there is another thread from a 4.0 student who is concerned that it is too high… hindering the job search. My advise would be same - make sure you are leveraging the job listings and support services from the campus career center. </p>

<p>" You don’t get paid much the first couple years"- Very true. I was shocked by a recent newspaper article that said that average starting salary for new pilots (who are actually co-pilots) for Rgional airlines is $23K. One in MI was only $17K. </p>

4

<p>Similar to what has already been said here, don’t rely solely on internet job postings. They are easy and convenient, but because they are so easy and convenient, you will end up competing with a much larger crowd of people, with little leverage over other applicants.</p>

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<p>I don’t know where you heard this, but it’s simply not true. Having obtained a PPL w/IFR myself, I find that its more of a perk than anything else. The ability to translate pilot speak to engineering speak, and vice versa can be very valuable for some engineering jobs (i.e. flight test engineer), but I wouldn’t go so far as to say you will be “guaranteed a job” having flying experience. </p>

5

<p>He means guaranteed a job as a pilot, and that is true. There is a massive pilot shortage right now as a result of the poor treatment of pilots.</p>

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<p>I have been to the career fairs, etc. To be honest the engineering career fair at my school wasn’t very good. I really have done everything I can and I have an excellent resume and cover letter.</p>

<p>I mean damn, I got friends that didn’t even finish high school and make 40,000+ a year. Seems ridiculous to me that it would be that tough to find a job with an engineering degree, and I can only hope that when the job searching comes around it isn’t like the internship search was/is. </p>

<p>You always hear, “engineering is such a great field to go into, and we always need engineers, there is a shortage of engineers, etc”. Doesn’t seem that way by any means. </p>

<p>Not trying to be a downer, but I just want to make a living and it would be a shame if this engineering degree turned out to be a complete waste of time.</p>

7

<p>Engineers are needed. However, with your GPA (it’s a good GPA though, don’t get me wrong), you miss the 3.5+ cut-off that a lot of the large and well known companies have. Aerospace firms have been hard to get into (I’ve heard). A lot of my aero friends are doing Mech. Eng jobs and get experience (and therefore be more valuable to employ). You need to expand your search criteria so you can attain valuable work experience. </p>

<p>However I have to note that when people note the lack of engineers and the growing demand, it’s mostly with experienced engineers. Entry level workers need a lot of training before they can actually be effective employees. Companies would prefer not to have to train people (and therefore lose money) if they can get somebody with more experience. </p>

<p>Graduating with any degree, even engineering, is not a guarantee of future success or employment though. </p>

8

<p>If you’re willing to relocate I would emphasize that somehow when you apply or talk with a recruiter. That said, perhaps a couple years in grad school could buy you the time you need to find that first “in.” Though only if you’re comfortable taking on more debt.</p>

9

<p>If you play your cards right then you needn’t take out more debt for graduate school.</p>

10

<p>Im also studying ME, but in Europe and I absolutely get your situation. I unfortunately am not that keen into ME, am more into Electro/IT, but that doesn’t matter. You said that you have a good GPA, but do you have any actual work experience? I don’t know how it goes in the USA, but here no one cares about GPA, everyone just wants the student/person who is looking for a job to have good language skills and especially work experience. Just the other day there was a huge company(Porsche,Boeing,Honeywell etc.) market(sorry, am not sure how to describe this well) at our school and when I talked to the people hiring students, everyone told me that the most important thing is if you understand the topic that the work requires and that you have work experience. No one wants to hire a all-time student because its a sign, that you don’t know how it works in a company and they have to show you everything, which of course takes more time and costs them money, so they don’t want that. I think that might be a problem, although like I said, in the USA it might be different.</p>

<p>I have also seen that the students, who are really going for good grades don’t know anything else apart from school, like business, politics and so on, which again is also a factor when being hired. Try to get some work, even if it’s not engineering, I myself am working at a finance company and am a member of a student club focused on commercials/TV spots/film editing and always the employer met this positively. Good luck!</p>