ME in need of Professional Development Advice 10

[dswitherowME]

Got my BSME in 2002 and worked for an aerospace company from 03-06. Since then I have been an entrepreneur in a completely unrelated industry (non engineering or manufacturing). I'm now looking to get back to my engineering career. I'm planning to take the FE when I've adequately prepped but in the meantime I still need to get a job. In an attempt to brush up on my skills I got my SolidWorks Cert and now I'm looking for more certs I can get relatively quickly and inexpensively to prove my competence has not diminished. Am I on the right track with this strat? If so, what are some additional certs i can pursue? If not, what should I be doing instead? Any advice here would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[canwesteng]

IIRC, he's in Ontario. I'm in western Canada and over here there is absolutely nothing for new grads regardless of discipline, excepts for computer engineers working in comp sci fields, as for whatever reason tech is booming in my small prairie city

 

[dswitherowME]

moltenmetal, I can't overstate how much I understand the inherent difficulties in what i'm trying to do. Additionally, I reject the supposition that I would expect to be treated as someone who had 3 years experience even if I took an entry level position. I'd simply be happy to be back in a field that I enjoy being a part of. I expect to be treated like a green engineer despite experience because I understand better than anyone that it is irrelevant due to it being a decade ago. I would fully agree with you that 3yrs (recent) + 3yrs (10yrs removed) certainly doesn't equal 6yrs. It equals 3. My goal is to ultimately get my PE so literally anything that puts one foot in front of the other down that path is acceptable by me. That said, I'd agree that most employers would share your supposition and I'm sure that is where I'll have difficulty. The purpose of this post wasn't to ascertain what difficulties lie before me or what rationale brings them into existence, but to ask for opinion/advice to start to overcome those difficulties. In that spirit, as an employer if you see that expressed as part of a resume or cover letter, would that carry any consideration?

 

[Terratek]

HVAC would probably be practically begging you to start working in the southeast where the economy is not soft at all. No knock on moltenmetal, but considering your past experience, you may not want to know how to overcome a fixed mindset like his because it might not be fun at all working for someone like him. Not to say he would not be a good boss - he has some good insight and makes many good contributions here. However, he does appear to have a methodology that does not deviate much. Since you were doing your own thing for a while, this might not be an appealing type of atmosphere for you to work in. Concentrate on appealing to the type of people you want to work for. My guess is that the type of person you would want to work for is exactly the type of person who would find appeal in your non-traditional experience.

FWIW, I am also a hiring manager.

 

[moltenmetal]

Terratek: no offense taken. We learned some hard lessons about what didn't work for us- those lessons cost us a lot of money and brought a lot of suffering to our staff. We found an approach that works for us- hiring co-ops, picking the best and hiring them as fresh grads etc. That approach has worked very well for us for a decade now. All the concerns we hear from others about our approach- about having to mollycoddle millennials, or that they're dumber or less practical than previous generations of engineers, or having them leave after a few years of sunk training cost, or not being able to contribute meaningfully to the bottom line for years- some of that stuff may well be true elsewhere, but our experience shows that none of it is applicable to what we're actually doing. The co-op program gives us a filter which is 100,000x as effective as our best interview process. And that filter works both ways- there are great candidates who come up through our co-op program, who might make stellar employees elsewhere, but whose interests and aptitudes are different than what we need or can provide here.

We deviate from our plan from time to time, when exceptional candidates present themselves, but now we're MUCH more choosy when we do so because they have to compete against a much higher quality default outcome. Our approach wouldn't work for a firm smaller than a certain size, for sure. Others may have a different approach which works for them, and good luck to them with it.

I can guarantee that dswitherowME is going to face concern on the part of hiring managers about salary expectations after a few years, and in fact has asked for advice on how to overcome that concern in a covering letter etc. Aside from just honestly stating what was just said in their last post in a cover letter and getting others to read and edit it for effectiveness, my advice would be to try to find a 1st job through networking and personal relationships rather than by indirect means. The likelihood of making a connection which will give the prospective employer the comfort that you're sincere in this assertion and worth making a personal investment in, is much greater that way. I do wish you the best of luck. I don't know where you're from, or where you're looking for work, but maybe the labour situation is different there than it is here. Here, your situation would be very tough indeed.

 

[CWB1]

Interesting comments all around, sounds like Canada may be night/day difference than the US. My experience in this area is more from the perspective as a part time university mentor/adjunct and traveling "technical recruiter" at university events (in addition to the engineering day-job), though I have worn the managerial hat too. If the OP was in a major metro area here stateside and applying today I would expect him to have the first round of phone interviews within 2-3 weeks and on-site interviews within a month the same as fresh grads. Most manufacturing companies I've interacted with have been on a serious hiring kick since the election last fall and discussion on various manufacturing forums also seems to bear this out. I also wouldn't foresee any future salary issues unless the OP wanted to live out in BFE where his employment options were severely limited, out there companies do pay what they can get away with (bloody rape in some areas) but in major metro areas I'd expect him to be happy. Its been a year or two since I saw a ASME/SAE jobs survey, but last I knew the median for three years experience stateside was ~$80k with a healthy percentage making far more. Only the OP can decide if how much is enough, I wouldn't describe most MEs as rich playboys but well-off and hard-working seem fitting, most working after 25 years do so out of want rather than need including those with poor money-management skills.

To add onto my earlier thoughts, the OP should get his resume out there ASAP and continue applying. Treat the application process as you would the actual job and spend a few hours each night applying. If you know the industry you want to be in, make a list of the large companies then spend some time googling to see who their suppliers, customers, and "partners" are to find additional job leads. One good way to get your foot in the door, especially if you may not want to stay in core engineering forever is to take a "technical specialist" or other such role within a corporate marketing, sales, product definition, or other departments as many companies in recent decades have replaced these typical "business" roles with engineers to provide a better interface between the customer and product/service development, hence a major reason for the drop in those with engineering degrees in "engineering" - bc those folks often earn more. And as always network, network, network....

 

[canwesteng]

When America zigs we zag, at least lately. The housing crisis in the states was actually a good time for job prospects up here, but as the economy improved down south, commodity prices dried up and so did the jobs, and now America is the place to be. Thanks Obama...

 

[rotw]

dswitherowME, Someone said, whoever says he CAN and whoever says he CAN'T are both usually right...I am sure you will make it thanks to your attitude. Your attitude is worth much better that '3+3' versus '3+10+3' comparisons, etc.
By the way, I have nothing against statistics - it may give insight and reveal patterns at some occasions; it is when we try to stretch the reality into a model or a curve or even a number - that things start to not smell very well.

 

[IssacFreeman]

Entrepreneurship + technical background, have you thought about applying for management and sales, or technical sales related positions? I know it's not as glamourous as the actual work, but I bet they pay just as well and have a good alignment with your current skill sets. and better than starting from scratch as a new grad equivalent?

I had friends whom returned to the industry after a long absence, and they had good luck coming back to the industry 'side-ways' in this method! Best of luck!