Just graduated with a BSME last week. What now? 3

[varun213]

Hey everyone,

fast forward about 3 months from my older threads I finally graduated with a BSME from the University of Alaska Anchorage (ABET accredited). Small school but great engineering program. For now my plan is to take the FE exam on June 29. I want to work in LA but dont know if i should start applying now or wait till after I take the FE exam?

a bit more about me is I'm 26 years old turning 27 in September and I have only a summers worth of internship experience that is mostly civil/construction engineering based. So not much experience coming out of college but better than nothing I guess.

Could anybody give me some advice on what you would do at my age to get a job and get going in the Mechanical engineering industry? I keep hearing how hard it is to get a job out of college so I dont know what to do except to mindlessly apply to any engineering opening I find.

thanks for any input

 

[IRstuff]

I'm confused? Did you not do any job applications BEFORE you graduated? Did you take advantage of your school's career center?

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[varun213]

I applied about to 30 different places and no word back from any of em. Here In Alaska it is really tough to find a job in the ME field because this state is mainly funded on Oil and gas and when that is down companies begin to lay others off. BP and conoco laid off a lot of engineers here recently.

The career center/recruiting events were bullshit. They straight out say they are looking for civils and not mechanical majors. Must be too many of em. They don't have much to offer honestly.

Makes me think college was a mistake, I thought engineering majors find jobs much quicker than other fields? I guess not in 2016 lol

 

[IRstuff]

Yes, BUT, just because engineers are more likely to be hired in general, does not mean that they are more likely to be hired everywhere. You may just have to consider relocating to a different city or different state.

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[SomptingGuy]

I thought higher education was about studying in new places, then taking your qualifications even further afield. I don't know many engineers who never left home.

Steve

 

[varun213]

I understand what you guys are saying , I lived in Seattle for all my teen years and moved to alaska at 21. I just graduated now with a BSME and have been looking at jobs in LA. I dont like the rain in Seattle so I dont really want to move back there.

 

[JohnRBaker]

When you say you "...have only a summers worth of internship experience…" does that mean ONLY a single Summer? And if so, what did you do the other "summers"?

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[TheTick]

Why LA? Hate yourself that much?

Lots of ME product designers needed in SF and Silicon Valley.

 

[varun213]

My internship was only for ONE summer. The following summer It was really tough and many students including myself couldn't find any work. Now This summer I have already graduated and working towards getting my FE exam out of the way.


@TheTick

whats wrong with LA? SF would be awesome but cost of living is so high out there

 

[Panther140]

What do you want to do? It is hard to achieve anything without goals. I have tried the method of "applying to 30 different jobs", but getting a job is not a lottery system. Pumping out 30 generic applications with a cookie cutter resume is like deer hunting with a butterfly net. You should find an attainable job that you're excited about, then reconstruct your resume for that particular job. You need to apply your engineering skills to the art of getting a job.

It took me 8 hours to create a decent resume. Sending this generic (but well made) resume has never led me to a promising inquiry.

For all successes that I have had on the job hunt, I put much more effort in. It took me about 4 hours to reconstruct my resume for the job that I have now. I was very explicit in how I offered exactly what this position did, and my enthusiasm for the position. My cover letter lent itself well to prompting the next step, which was a phone call.

Getting your degree was not a bad idea. How you handle it can be. I see some people who get their degree and think that makes them employable, or that they are "done". Everybody has a degree. You need self-education and/or experience to get a job of the caliber you want. You can get that before or after you graduate, but not before you hang your hat.

"Formal education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." ~ Joseph Stalin

 

[wtxhorsman]

I agree with Panther on that. ME is such a broad field to be working to start, look at the scope of classes you took for your degree. The next step in my mind is figure out what classes you loved or since you're starting excelled in. Look for a position that utilizes those skills. After which, look into companies who specialize or at the very least have a couple of senior engineers, and gear your resume for their open roles. For the best results on that try to use the technical buzzwords. Also don't be afraid to reach out to staffing companies such as meador, burnett specialties, michael paige, etc. (Not sure about the spelling on all those but Google will fix that.)

 

[varun213]

@Panther140 ,

I like the idea of reformatting a resume for certain jobs. Would you know of any resources where I can build a solid template from and reformat it from there accordingly?

To answer your other questions I want to work in the energy field or renewable energy area. But thats the thing some people tell me I need to get any job I can find since I have no full time experience. but then I get responses of people saying you need to pinpoint what area you want to work in.
Not sure who to follow.

 

[hendersdc]

There are a couple of entry level positions at NREL if you are willing to move to Colorado for them: NREL Jobs. You can look around at the other national labs as well and see what they have openings for. Don't be surprised if the hiring process is less than speedy though, it is the government.

Experience is always helpful but what people are generally looking for in an entry level position is what a former manager of mine described as "good clay", meaning that you had a good knowledge base, problem solving attitude, and were capable of being formed into the engineer that we will need down the road.

 

[KENAT]

varun213 - I graduated with no relevant summer internships and took a few months to find my first job - worked some temp jobs while I searched. (I had applied to a few places while at school & to some summer placements but none panned out).

I basically found a copy of the membership directory of the relevant industry association at the local library and applied to every vaguely interesting company listed.

This was just before the internet got really big so involved a bunch of envelopes, stamps and access to either my sisters typewriter or then girlfriends PC.

Just so happened one of my letters landed on the desk of a technical director the very day they were about to put an add in the local classifieds and the rest, as they say, is history.

So while it would be better if you'd interned every summer, won every design contest for battle bots or what have you your school has and be some how connected to the head honcho of ACME Mechanical Engineering company it can be done.

Good luck.

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[CheckerHater]

Just graduated with a BSME last week. What now?

Now it's time to figure out what exactly you want to do with your life.

What were you dreaming about (besides money) when applying to school?

How do you plan to make this world a better place by means of Mechanical Engineering?

Set a goal that is worth pursuing, the rest will come. Good luck!

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[davefitz]

There are jobs out there, but you will have to be flexible and be willing to move to another location initially. The good news is that Alaska is "a good place to be from". Maybe outsourcing your job search to an outfit that specializes in finding a first job is one option.

If you are flexible, then one good starting point is as a "field engineer" for a mfr of large capital equipment, such as turbines , boilers , compressors, etc. A lot of travel but you will get your foot in the door.

As far as a career goes, you will need to recognize that many structural changes are occurring in the economy, and if you want a 30 yr career, you will have to focus on emerging technologies and kiss goodbye to the older technologies now being phased out ( and which were the only things discussed in college) . New disruptive areas such as robotics, wind turbines, micro CHP, etc. would be the basis of new career.

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

 

[BSMEclassof2012]

Varun:
From your post, it looks like you will have to learn a lot in terms of "Real World Engineering". The first and most important question is, can you afford not working for the next few months or a year? In other words, Are you rich? Why do you want to work in LA? Can you work somewhere, where you can get your dream job "Mechanical Engineering Industry"? Again, You sound very green from you post but don't worry, there are many experience engineers here who can help you. There are many who will discourage you here because from the questions you are asking, it looks like you should go back and get your degree again.

 

[varun213]

LOL get my degree again? what is that supposed to mean? We all know college doesn't teach you anything about the real world because their purpose is to teach you how to think and approach problem solving. So your advice on going back to school is probably the most illogical thing I heard. Sorry dont mean to sound discouraging

But yea I can afford to go back home and live with family. I either have the choice of just running the family business or keep searching engineering jobs and work for somebody for a shitty starting pay.

The only reason I want to work in the engineering field is because there is room for creative thinking and innovation.

 

[BSMEclassof2012]

LOL get my degree again? what is that supposed to mean?

This means, trash your degree and go back start your BSME from freshman and learn everything from scratch.

 

[varun213]

Doesent make any sense. College doesn't teach you any real world experience. Great advice though