I’m not an engineer. As a health care provider, I know what my daily work requirements will be, no matter where I work. The only variables are patient volume and the complexity of their diagnoses. Engineering is different, very different. Two anecdotes got me thinking about this and wondering…how does one know before taking a job, what their day to day existence will actually be like.
My son is doing an internship where the engineers are largely excited about what they do. They have autonomy, the problems they tackle are ever changing, they have access to great support and are well funded. One engineer told him that it’s the best job he’s ever had, by a long margin and it’s the eighth company he’s worked for.
I have a friend that was recruited to a big name company, to a team doing stuff that would seem very cool. In order to protect his privacy, I’ll simply leave it at that. After six months on the job, he’s having the opposite experience. He has little autonomy and the engineering they are doing isn’t even up to the standard of the little company he left. Beyond that, I can’t tell you what that means, because, I’m not one.
So, TLDR, how do you vet a job when searching and then interviewing to really know what the day in and day out will be like?
Your son is already in a good position because of his internship. He’s getting info from other engineers who like it there, plus getting job experience. If he gets a full time job offer out of it, that is a bonus. He has some real world work experience to compare other potential offers to. I’m not an engineer either but I’m not sure in most fields that you can ever truly know with certainty what the "day in and day out will be like " until you get into the actual job. Sometimes, taking a particular job is a leap of faith . And companies and their cultures even within the same field can vary greatly. You can certainly talk with fellow employees, look for the vibe when at the company, look at reviews on websites about companies, look at info related to things like work/ life balance, best places to work, best perks, best training opportunities, etc.
Kids these days tend to move around more. So, even if the first job out of college ends up not being the best fit, other opportunities are likely to come up for a talented engineer. Good luck to your son!
They’ve already offered to bring him back. It’s an honor to have that opportunity. He’s not certain that he would or wouldn’t take them up on the offer. It’s too early to know. It is in a tough place to live. There’s simply not much to do. There’s value in that though too as he’s always said he’d take the best job no matter where the location. I think he’s moderating that hard stance.
I ran across another student who spent the summer at a big aerospace company with a very well organized and desirable internship program. He’d mentioned that he was glad that he was able to do “engineering” because one of his friends, also interning at the same company hadn’t done anything meaningful even several weeks into his position.
I’m sure there is a crap shoot component to it no matter the company.
Just remember that an interview is a two way process. Your son should be interviewing them as much as they are interviewing him. He should ask about the typical work people in his role do, as well as what are the best and worst things about working in that role. He should ask about anything that is important to him. He can also learn a lot about a role and what they value by the questions they ask him. Understanding the product and design cycle can be informative as well.
When I looked at jobs the type of things I looked at was:
Industry: Military Industrial, Telcom, Auto, etc. etc
Level of Hands on: Very, not at all
Role: Design, Quality Assurance
Funding: how stable is the funding
Project: What type of thing will you be working on
Geography: Where in the country is it
Also keep in mind that junior engineers won’t have tons of autonomy. Is your friend being realistic?
@bopper, my son would certainly be a junior, but the friend I was speaking of has more than 10 years of experience largely with one company. He had lots of freedom. There was a very collegial, collaborative environment among the engineers. I’m not certain he’s finding that is part of the culture at his new job.
