I’ve read in several CC posts that engineering colleges with less prestige will result in regional employment, only. It’s true that I’m attending a lesser known engineering school, ranked 88 nationally, as a result of slacking off a bit in High School. Does that mean that I’ll only be able to work in areas in Cincinnati once I graduate from UC’s school of engineering? If that happens to be the case, should I consider transferring? There’s no way in hell that I want to stay in Cincy, let alone Ohio, forever. Do I have a chance of employment past regional areas or will I be stuck working in Ohio alone after graduation? 
I ask this because I’m getting that impression from CC posts as far as prestige and rankings go…
Who recruits at the school’s career fair? That’s one of the better ways to judge the recruiting reach of a given program.
I’d suspect that Cinncinati’s program is going to be primarily regional, but having no experience with it, I can’t say for sure. Still, that doesn’t mean you are stuck there. You can either get a job there and get a few years experience, then move away, or just try and be diligent on tourney about trying to track down jobs where you would like to work. It can’t hurt to try.
You can go anywhere you want. If you’re physically in Cincinnati, it will be easier to find a job around there. But if you want to move to another town to look for a job, there’s nothing stopping you. (Except maybe a lack of money.)
@simba9 is completely correct. Getting regional work is easier, but you can work anywhere if you put in the effort to find those jobs. Plus, U.Cincinnati has a highly respected co-op program and you could try to arrange your co-op with an out of region company. The co-op experience often leads to a job with the same company.
Finally, entering the military as a first job is a good choice and in itself would almost certainly get you out of the region (although maybe not to a region you like). Then when you leave the military, you could do a nationwide, or worldwide, job search.
I think every engineering grad should expect to have to make a plane trip for a job interview. With that said, you should have no problem getting a job anywhere in the country if you are motivated enough to do so. Your engineering program is likely ABET accredited, and with good grades, you should be good to go.
Restricting yourself to jobs only in your regional area can really limit your choices, depending on where you go to school. It’s best to think on a national level to give yourself the most options to choose from.
But hey, the prospects for great jobs in your present region are pretty good, given all the engineering companies located in Ohio and nearby states! I mean, just look at all the major chemical companies and auto manufacturer’s facilities in Ohio; (Goodyear and Bridgestone, anyone? Honda? Dow, DuPont, Sherwin-Williams, Eastman?) If you do not want to live in Ohio, that’s one thing; but the fact of the matter is that the area remains a strong industrial and technological research center.
Strong is probably a debatable term to use here. Ohio was hit particularly hard by the recession and is still lagging behind most of the country if I remember correctly. Still, the corporate base is there, and in 4 years, hopefully that will be a non-issue.
Also, don’t forget GE in Cincinnati.
FWIW, a wedding announcement in the local paper today featured a 2014 Mech Engineering grad who has a job in San Diego.
Using LinkedIn (which tracks a subset of Alumni), I did a quick search of UC Alumni who “do engineering” and came up with the following numbers. As you can see, over half work in Ohio, the rest spread out across the country.
United States=9,903
Cincinnati Area=4,417
San Francisco Bay Area=462
Columbus, Ohio Area=357
Dayton, Ohio Area=317
Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area=277
Greater Chicago Area=225
Greater Detroit Area=186
Greater New York City Area=185
Greater Boston Area=172
Washington D.C. Metro Area=144
Greater Seattle Area=123
Houston, Texas Area=120
Indianapolis, Indiana Area=119
Dallas/Fort Worth Area=112
Greater Los Angeles Area=110
Greater Atlanta Area=106
Portland, Oregon Area=105
Greater Denver Area=88
Phoenix, Arizona Area=88
Greater San Diego Area=85
Austin Texas Area =83
Perhaps a better comparison to see the impact of “National recruitment vs Regional recruitment” would be UF vs UCF. Both schools have large engineering colleges and are based in the same state. However, about 2/3 of UF’s engineering Alumni are OOS, while almost 2/3 of UCF engineering Alumni are in-state. Of course, both Alumni groups are still working in engineering…
Wow, the city of Cincinnati sure swallowed up a huge portion of their graduates! LOL
And where they work in Cincinnati:
GE Aviation=324
Procter & Gamble=156
GE=67
Intelligrated=59
Ethicon, Inc=.55
Siemens PLM Software=55
Belcan Engineering=55
Kroger=53
Duke Energy Corporation=48
L-3 Communications=40
City of Cincinnati=34
Northrop Grumman Corporation=30
Toyota Motor Corporation=28
…
Employment in Cincinnati isn’t dominated by a few large employers. Like Orlando does for UCF, Cincinnati provides a lot of opportunities for UC grads.
To be fair, having a job at GE Aviation is in no way a bad position.