How to be competitive in the industry? 1

[Andres117]

Hi everyone, I'm an Aeronautical Engineer who finished College on July/2014 and I'm looking forward for some feedback on Engineers working in the Aerospace Industry.

Right now I'm working in the Maintenance Planning department in one of the major airlines in my country, the same airline I made my industrial internships; the people I work with are amazing and the enviroment is really cool but I just don't like it.

I feel I'm not really working with "Engineering", here in my country there is only one path for Aeronautical Engineers being it "Maintenance" so we only work in airlines or some small Aicraft Maintenance Organizations (AMOs) and sadly the "Maintenance" industry is really weak. 80% of the airlines here works ONLY with old aircrafts (DC-9, MD-80) so they just buy parts and such from aicraft boneyards and a lot of times it's easier to buy a "new" one than to repair a damaged one.

I work for the only airline who has more recent aicraft (CRJ-700, ERJ-190, etc..) but I still don't feel I'm doing something I like...

I want to work with composite materials, designing parts, structures, testing materials, maintenance of structures, etc.. and that's something I'll only be able to do outside of my country and I'm really scared my CV is not strong enough to even be considerated for any job/postgraduate in this branch...

What would a good company consider important in a recently graduated engineer in the aerospace sector?

Even tough in my current work these skills are not needed I've taken care since college to have some level of proficiency in CAD Software (Solidworks/CATIA really new to CATIA tough), maths software (MATLAB), FEM software (PATRAN/NASTRAN well I'm kind rusty here).

I also take any online courses I can find on the web in stuff I find cool, like "Mechanical Behavior of Materials MITx - 3.032x" or "Composite Materials Overview for Engineers UWashingtonX - AA432x" in platforms like Edx... Stuff like that.

But whenever I look for job profiles I see stuff like "5 years of experience in advanced structural analysis" and I'm like "ohh, well gg"..

I would really appreciate any answer i could get about this topic, from anyone...


Thanks in advance


Andrés

 

[IRstuff]

At this point, what does it matter what the ad says? You aren't the HR person making the decisions. Just bear in mind that a job ad isn't like a specification document for building the perfect engineer. There's almost always something in an ad that you don't comply with, but, perhaps you are 80% or 90% of the way there; so don't let something like that stop you. Isn't it just going to cost you some time, some paper and stamp, or even just time, if you're applying online. What's the worst that can happen? You get turned down and you're exactly where you would be if you didn't apply, other than a passage of some time. And, maybe something in your resume might spark some interest, and if the hiring manager is interested, they'll waive what's in the ad.

TTFN
faq731-376

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Of course I can. I can do anything. I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!
There is a homework forum hosted by engineering.com:

http://www.engineering.com/AskForum/aff/32.aspx

 

[Ron]

Just bear in mind that a job ad isn't like a specification document for building the perfect engineer.

This quote should be tattooed on the eyelids of every new engineer! Excellent IRstuff.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Twice, you used 'tough' where you clearly meant 'though'. Otherwise your English is excellent. You will need to be _that_ fussy with your correspondence, because everyone in the gauntlet between you and the Hiring Manager is looking for any excuse to exclude you from consideration.

You've cleared the first hurdle by getting _a_ job, anywhere, which is not that easy these days.

Nobody gives important work to newcomers; your current job could evolve into something you like better. ... or, you could evolve into something your employer likes better. If you can tolerate the place, give it a few more years.

Most every engineering school teaches you analysis, because that's what they can teach, whereas most everyone wants to do design, which is not the same thing.

Wait, it gets worse. There might be a dozen people in the world actually designing new airplanes; the market just isn't that big or that dynamic.

Wait, it gets worse. In a big company, every job is broken down into pieces, and everybody gets to do one little bit, and only that one little bit. One of the best designers I ever met had wasted eight years at a big engine company, designing brackets to hold fuel lines to one side of the engine. He never got to work on any other kind of brackets, or on the other side of the engine. In a smaller company, no one can be that specialized.

Within your current job, you could probably tune your design skills and increase your value to your current and future employers, not by designing airplanes, but by designing better tools for maintaining airplanes. ... or at least, for a start, by developing better specifications for said tools, or better procedures, etc. At any job, there's room to do a little more to keep your brain alive, and to help out.

Given the global availability of raw materials and components, there are few barriers to entry for you to start designing and building airplanes, or pieces of airplanes, or any other product, right where you are. Well, other than money, but that's a problem everywhere. How about model airplanes? There seems to have been a resurgence in 'very small planes', driven by the convergence of better batteries allowing electric propulsion, tiny computers, lightweight materials, and tiny vision systems.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[KENAT]

OP, sadly depending what country you are from the combinations of Visa & security clearance requirements can also make it tricky. Such that if there is an adequate supply of folks who have those then they may be less likely to look at someone from another country where this may be an issue.

Doing some kind of post grad in the country of interest then applying places seems to help somewhat this.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​