Struggle to land jobs after graduation - need advice!

Since you are already an intern in oil and gas you could keep in oil and gas as a process engineer if you think doing process design in oil production and refining may be interesting to you. It is pretty good paying. Also if you are from an oil and gas producing country it may be benificial for a potential company who does business in a certain country to hire someone who speaks their language. Just about all oil and gas process engineers have a chemical engineering degree.

It would give you an advantage with other employee candidates being you already have some oil and gas experience and would make it look to a recruiter that you already have a personal career path to be a process engineer and you are being proactive to reach that goal. It always looks good to a recruiter when you have definite long term career goals which align with the needs of their business, so that is how I would present myself as my goal is to be a process engineer in the oil and gas industry, which is why I am presently interning in oil and gas, it all makes sense. As opposed to acting like you really don't know what industry you want to work in so if they hire you you may likely leave.

OP
Times have changed. But it may or may not help.
Research your target companies, even small to medium companies. Try to verify who are the manager departments in engineering.
Research the the product. Or the companies type of work.
Write them old fashion letters, and also emails.
It may take persistence and many emails or letters. Volunteering would be very helpful.

OP
Part of your difficulty in getting buy-in from your current company (where you're interning) may be the political climate. Companies just don't know - at this point - what the fallout will be from the November election cycle. Once the dust settles, you may find they become more amenable to hiring ... or not.

Part of the difficulty is that you are an international student; there are a LOT of "home grown" competitors in your prospective job market, which makes it much harder for a company to justify hiring "out of the zone", so to speak.

As a previous poster mentioned - do your research. Large, medium, and small companies. What they do, how (and where) they do it. Make personal contacts. Be persistent (but polite). Extoll your virtues in a manner that resonates with the specific company/individual you are contacting (one-size-fits-all is NOT an option!).

And good luck.

Converting energy to motion for more than half a century

Part of your difficulty in getting buy-in from your current company (where you're interning) may be the political climate

Click to expand...

This right here is a major concern for companies.

You have a great GPA. You can apply for thesis-based masters and possibly get full-funding for it (I highly recommend you look into it). Funding isn't limit to PhDs only. OR, you can apply for PhD directly and be on the accelerated route; 1 year masters and 3 1/2 years PhD. You might want to start reaching out to faculty members in various institutions

I will tell you to aim for both a job opportunity and grad school. If you get both, go for grad school. I say that because
1. You have the job experience from your internships
2.You will more and develop your knowledge and skills especially in semi-conductor/chem world. This puts you on a higher level.

Best of luck!

OP,
A few tips if you are wanting to transition to industry.
- Get you FE and start on your PE. You may never use it, but it looks good on a resume and shows your intent to work professionally in the US. I have known companies that have no need for licensed engineers, but their job postings have "PE preferred" as a qualification.
- Consider most small firms view the additional paperwork of work visas, as a hassle and don't want to deal with it. Many times, it's just a mindset, but you should be aware of the existing bias.
- A few posters have suggested it, but you need to target industries and companies. First refine to the industry you would prefer, then make a list of companies in those industries. Also consider engineering firms that support those industries. Even though it may not be your preferred company, just getting experience in that industry will give you a better opportunity to move to a more preferred company at a future time.
- Do a cross reference between engineering schools (with ChemEng programs) and company locations. For instance, if a company is in the same city as an engineering school, they will likely have the pick of students for internships and direct hires. This puts you at a disadvantage. Consider companies with facilities that are well remote from engineering schools, possibly in smaller cities, towns, rural areas, that would have a difficult time getting entry level people to relocate. They will likely be much more open to working with people with special requirements, such as a work visa.
- Lastly, I hesitate to put this because I am not a fan of them most of time, recruiters. Research recruited who are recruiting for industries / companies you are interested in and contact them with a list or your requirements. It may or may not be helpful depending on their technical understanding but it's at least an option you could pursue.

Op
My vote go get a trades job in the type of work
That interest you. Learn how to built iy.
Learn a trade, and make money, then jump to higher education