Where to apply for the first job? 4

[claudiodeviaje]

Hello everyone!

Since I'm almost finished with the university I've come to the point where I have to start looking where I'm going to apply for my fisrt job. I've spoken to some people about this and there are different opinions...

Big companies (multinationals) offer trainee jobs, where you get to know many departments of the company. You get, as the name says, trainment in the activities you'll have to deal with in the future. Besides they pay in average, more than smaller companies and the possibilities to climb and get better positions are better. The Problem is that since they have soooo many engineers, you might end up being the screw-xyz-spezialist and stay there for ever. And at last if you plan to work overseas (I would like to), it allways looks nicer in your CV if you worked for one of the big ones.

Smaller companies don't offer this trainee programs. When you start there, you might get some "coaching" from older engineers, but not always. Sometimes they have just enough engineers to execute the proyect. So you might end up trying to figure out alone how to deal with problems. The good thing here is that you get involved in the whole project and not in just a detail, which makes you learn more.

Are there benefits and disadvantages that I'm missing?
What would recomend... apply with the big ones or the smaller?
And the last one... Are, in general, the trainee programs worth the hassle?

Cheers!

Claudio

 

[plasgears]

Go for the large or at least medium size company. In a small company you may be working for an unqualified oaf. I have been there, believe me.

My best engineering work was in large companies. In one large company we had PhD engineers that you could chat with about various technical questions. I got my PE thru company sponsorship; mgt thought it was a good idea. This same company had a good technical fund of helpful technical papers in engineering practice.

 

[Heckler]

Join the Peace Corps and really apply your knowledge by building a fresh water pump station in Africa. Then you will have a better appreciation for the society you live in. If not then join a company large enough to have resources to complete your job and not to large that you will not get pigeonholed as a bolt engineer.