Best-paying college major: engineering

[mOeeOm]

<-- graduating in chemical engineering in about 3 weeks.

Been applying to jobs for 6 months even technician work I'm overqualified for, easily 100+ places. Not a single reply. No experience no thanks and entry level jobs probably get swarmed by better qualified graduates.

Sad engineer, I have a useless paper and a useless ring to show for all my hard work.

 

[Gibson486]

It's a tough time to graduate. If you did not do stuff to set yourself apart from other grads, your did yourself a dis-service. hang in there. It took me 9 months to find a job, and I had close to 2 years experience when I graduated from various coops. Best advice I can give new grads is to take initiative and get yourself noticed. the whole apply and wait does not work very well.

 

[DanFungus]

As someone who lives in the silicon valley and is close to graduating with an MS in Comp. Eng., 60K is very low by CA standards (wrt graduating with a BS) - average salaries were about 20-40% higher when I was looking 2 years ago (at medium-large sized companies). It all depends on where you live/what the cost of living is, what the demand is, what your skill set is, and how well you sell yourself.

 

[mOeeOm]

It's a tough time to graduate. If you did not do stuff to set yourself apart from other grads, your did yourself a dis-service. hang in there. It took me 9 months to find a job, and I had close to 2 years experience when I graduated from various coops. Best advice I can give new grads is to take initiative and get yourself noticed. the whole apply and wait does not work very well.

Yea, I should have done some co-op/internship, but never got around to it. Now I'm graduating with 0 experience and meh GPA (although GPA doesnt matter for the most part). Not going to focus on that, not helpful at this point.

I pretty much refresh the major sites for new jobs everyday, send a customized cover letter and resume. Been doing this for months now, not a single reply back (had my resume checked etc). Other than that not sure what to do about it, tried to network, but not much help there.

Giving myself 6 months to job search post grad before I give up and join engineering officer training program doing a min wage job for 6 months will probably drain my soul I'll do anything.

What has been draining is applying to technician work to get some field related experience, but no replies there either. Bleh.

 

[Leros]

Argh with a biotech degree a 3.0 or a 3.8 doesn't mean much in pay. Worked my ass off for no reason.

Recruiters and interviewers would often comment on my GPA (it fluctuated between 3.7 and 3.8). I think it made a huge difference in getting past the first level of filtering.

I credit my GPA with getting me a prestigious internship. That internship on my resume has had a huge effect in my desirability to employers and my ability to negotiate (e.g. I used it to negotiate a 76% higher wage than was originally offered).

 

[Gibson486]

Recruiters and interviewers would often comment on my GPA (it fluctuated between 3.7 and 3.8). I think it made a huge difference in getting past the first level of filtering.

I credit my GPA with getting me a prestigious internship. That internship on my resume has had a huge effect in my desirability to employers and my ability to negotiate (e.g. I used it to negotiate a 76&#37; higher wage than was originally offered).

LOL....it actually works the other way too....

I got a coop at a prestigious company....i did not get a job.

Half the interviews I got after college were, "Well, you got a coop there and you did not end up getting a job there? i find it hard to believe....you must be bad".

Also, if you were able to get 76% more than the original offer, that must have been 1 low offer.

 

[Leros]

LOL....it actually works the other way too....

I got a coop at a prestigious company....i did not get a job.

Half the interviews I got after college were, "Well, you got a coop there and you did not end up getting a job there? i find it hard to believe....you must be bad".

Well, I got an offer there, but I was looking for other options. I can see how not getting an offer would hurt.

 

[96Firebird]

Yea, I should have done some co-op/internship, but never got around to it. Now I'm graduating with 0 experience and meh GPA (although GPA doesnt matter for the most part). Not going to focus on that, not helpful at this point.

I pretty much refresh the major sites for new jobs everyday, send a customized cover letter and resume. Been doing this for months now, not a single reply back (had my resume checked etc). Other than that not sure what to do about it, tried to network, but not much help there.

Giving myself 6 months to job search post grad before I give up and join engineering officer training program doing a min wage job for 6 months will probably drain my soul I'll do anything.

What has been draining is applying to technician work to get some field related experience, but no replies there either. Bleh.

This is one reason why I'm glad RIT requires 4 quarters of co-op to graduate, even though it took my 5 years instead of 4 to graduate. I have experience, references, and I learned quite a bit at my latest co-op. However, I've been applying everywhere as well, only had a couple interviews that led to part-time position until I graduate, and waiting on a full-time for after I graduate.

 

[Bignate603]

Recruiters and interviewers would often comment on my GPA (it fluctuated between 3.7 and 3.8). I think it made a huge difference in getting past the first level of filtering.

Same here, a high GPA won't get you a job but it will help getting your resume noticed and into the short list of what is considered.

 

[skim milk]

<-- graduating in chemical engineering in about 3 weeks.

Been applying to jobs for 6 months even technician work I'm overqualified for, easily 100+ places. Not a single reply. No experience no thanks and entry level jobs probably get swarmed by better qualified graduates.

Sad engineer, I have a useless paper and a useless ring to show for all my hard work.

did you go to your school's career fairs?
it is probably the easiest way to get interviews. Go through on-campus recruiting. Apply for interview spots, send your resume for resume drops, etc.

I got tons of first round interviews this way.

 

[Gibson486]

This is one reason why I'm glad RIT requires 4 quarters of co-op to graduate, even though it took my 5 years instead of 4 to graduate. I have experience, references, and I learned quite a bit at my latest co-op. However, I've been applying everywhere as well, only had a couple interviews that led to part-time position until I graduate, and waiting on a full-time for after I graduate.

coops are not good enough to set yourself apart anymore. The number of schools trying to integrate into their program is growing. I'd say take the part time position. Also, even if you do not want to....take the FE exam. Companies like CDM and AECOM will put you at the front of the list if you have that exam passed and done. Working at those types of companies may not be the funnest work, but it beats being unpaid and unemployed.

 

[Leros]

did you go to your school's career fairs?
it is probably the easiest way to get interviews. Go through on-campus recruiting. Apply for interview spots, send your resume for resume drops, etc.

I got tons of first round interviews this way.

Career fairs are great.

A lot of schools let you attend the career fair for one year after you graduate, so it might not be too late.

I never got any kind of response (other than a few automated rejection many months later) from any applications I did outside the school's career system.

 

[jteef]

I thought long and hard about going into engineering. Decided against it after seeing how it turned out for my father (Electrical/mechanical engineer). Basically, after you turn 45 or older, you're likely out of work, and getting new positions becomes exponentially harder the older you get. Age discrimination is a huge issue in engineering.

So I've decided to shoot for actuary.

the defense contractors I've had experience with label their old timer engineers with the title "greybeard" and it's usually a pretty elite status within the company.

 

[magomago]

imo i've seen too high of a GPA work against a person. If I had to do it again, I'd rather take an engineering GPA of around 3.6;

I say that with personal experience; most people I know with 3.8+ GPAs are really good at being students, but don't necessarily transfer that to the work place well. In one extreme case, the person was super smart, but that person had the worst interview skills ever. 30+ job interviews and the person didn't take a hint that it was interview style that sucked; i think the person switched to teaching...

I also think HR is full of a bunch of shit. Sifting through resumes at the moment, I can say without hesitation that they are probably filtering out a lot of great qualified candidates that would know what to do; it isn't even about GPA at that point (although, at that point, when I only see 3.9+ GPAs I wonder how many smart kids with 3.5s that we aren't looking at).
How can I say it so emphatically? My resume was filtered right out of HR - it took the right grad student who remembered that I was an insightful student that tried hard and actually did my own work to say "you know what, give me your resume I'll talk to one of my bosses because I think you would do well there". Guess what, I'm doing well there

 

[KillerCharlie]

That number would be lower if you took out the offers from the large defense contractors like Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrup-Gruman, etc.

I disagree.

 

[blinky8225]

$70k with a 2.8. Only other offer I knew the number on was a girl with a 3.3 at $65k. /shrug

We also went to Duke, where Philosophy majors graduate with $80k+ offers.

 

[Leros]

We also went to Duke, where Philosophy majors graduate with $80k+ offers.

doing what kind of work?

 

[Gibson486]

imo i've seen too high of a GPA work against a person. If I had to do it again, I'd rather take an engineering GPA of around 3.6;

I say that with personal experience; most people I know with 3.8+ GPAs are really good at being students, but don't necessarily transfer that to the work place well. In one extreme case, the person was super smart, but that person had the worst interview skills ever. 30+ job interviews and the person didn't take a hint that it was interview style that sucked; i think the person switched to teaching...

I also think HR is full of a bunch of shit. Sifting through resumes at the moment, I can say without hesitation that they are probably filtering out a lot of great qualified candidates that would know what to do; it isn't even about GPA at that point (although, at that point, when I only see 3.9+ GPAs I wonder how many smart kids with 3.5s that we aren't looking at).
How can I say it so emphatically? My resume was filtered right out of HR - it took the right grad student who remembered that I was an insightful student that tried hard and actually did my own work to say "you know what, give me your resume I'll talk to one of my bosses because I think you would do well there". Guess what, I'm doing well there

Like I said....it's about initiative. you cannot just depend on one thing. People are so scared that they will offend people or come off wrong. guess what, the worst that will happen is that they will say no.

 

[KillerCharlie]

My friends, who are Ph.D graduates, have had starting salary of $90K+.

If they would've went straight to work after getting their BS degree, they would've been making 90k by then anyways. On top of that, they've been making money during that time they would've been getting advanced degrees.

 

[Eos]

I dropped out of my engineering technician program because I couldn't hack it. I was 20 years out of high school, no math beyond "basic math" while in HS (what's a cosine?), no physics (vectors, eh?) experience, etc. I was not ready to attempt even this simple AAS.

So instead of one degree, I'm getting an AutoCAD cert and one each of AAS in Network Admin and Database Admin. Yay!

Engineering tech looked fun as hell, but it wasn't for me.

 

[Leros]

If they would've went straight to work after getting their BS degree, they would've been making 90k by then anyways. On top of that, they've been making money during that time they would've been getting advanced degrees.

A lot of positions required PhDs to advance into. Plus, you can work to a higher wage with a PhD than you can without.

 

[Jeff7]

Depends on your grades. If your GPA is less than 3.2, then $45k sounds reasonable. If your GPA is 3.5+, I'd be shooting for at least $60k.

Ah, guess I should have tried harder. 3.0.

FWIW, I took the "Automotive Option" but the auto industry is still shit so I'm not even looking there...

And I really wish I could negotiate.
I'm increasingly getting the idea that my employer's getting one hell of a good deal.

 

[Leros]

And I really wish I could negotiate.
I'm increasingly getting the idea that my employer's getting one hell of a good deal.

The best way to get a big jump in pay is to jump companies.

 

[dr150]

I was so lazy in college. I spurned the ultra intensive engineering courses at my elite university (Friday/Saturday night homework?! Fuck that!!) for the Social Sciences.

Thank God for the MBA/NYC/Banking/Consulting industry for the pseudo-lazy/frat guys! I would be fucked earning shit pay otherwise!

In retrospect, I would put up with the BS hours in the major and do engineering. It's much more interesting than the BS/scheister services industry.

 

[blinky8225]

doing what kind of work?

They work in banking or consulting, generally. Fields that tend to recruit exclusively at top-tier universities. They also require very little in the way of hard skills, so even English and Political Science majors can get these jobs (you still have to be fairly smart, though). After the end of year bonus, it's not unusual to pull in six figures your first year out of college. Keep in mind that you may be required to work 80+ hours/week, so hourly you engineers still may be making more money. I know that being an engineer often isn't a cushy 9-5 job either, but very few work like i-bankers.