College advice from an unemployed engineering graduate
Entry posted by DubWolf in college advice
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I mean to say I'm not and have never been employed as an engineer but that's besides the point. I've had a lot of reflections on my personal matters and shortcomings and I feel like it would be beneficial for people to see what I've thought of. Bear in mind because I have no such professional experience, this is a limitation on my thoughts.
I'll skip a few basic obvious ones.
1. Know your job. Do you know exactly what your job is going to be or do you only have a vague idea of what it entails? An astronomer does more than just sit by a telescope all night, for example. If you're not entirely sure or even if you think you're sure just because you've looked at it on the surface, I encourage you to at some point, look at "day of a ____" video. I'm sure they exist for all kinds of careers. I never really explored engineering that much for example and only assumed it would be as painful as it would be in college. Bad assumption.
And especially consider an internship somewhere. This is where I am disappointed with employers. People should be given a chance to see firsthand what their duties will be like. Why limit this invaluable opportunity to just a tiny select few who are probably good enough to get hired anyways? Doesn't always have to be paid, and maybe I admit there ought to be more free, volunteering options for certain careers... I don't know.
2. Plan ahead of your degree. Echoing back to the first point, do you know what you're going to do with your degree exactly? Do you know where you're going to work? Do you have connections so that you'll have an easy time finding a job, especially with those more "liberal art" majors?
Many degree paths are pretty broad, including engineering (I was in aerospace engineering) but you need to know what specific task you think you'll be doing yourself. You may only be involved with one field altogether within that umbrella of engineering and it's something I felt people kept asking in college. "What are you going to do with your degree?". I could only answer "work as an engineer." If you can't answer past "become a _____", maybe you should do more research or consider if you really know what you're getting yourself into.
3. Question yourself. Echoing back to the previous point. Is this really what you want to do? Do you feel like you are planning ahead of graduation? Consider everything on the table. Don't doubt yourself too much.
4. Know people. Tiring to hear but it's true and invaluable. For starters, get to know your professor outside of class if you feel like you can at least get along with them. Have good questions to ask? Certainly they may also know of opportunities for you to get involved, or they could give you a letter of recommendation once they get to know you better. Get your name out there. Go to a job fair and ask good questions.
5. Apply to MANY jobs/internships/COOP. This is something we're always encouraged to do that was also parroted to me, but few actually explaiend why. You're competing with a lot of people for one position, most of the time. There will almost always be someone better than you out there. If you apply to enough jobs however, YOU will be that "person more qualified than everybody else".
Even if you're at the very bottom of your class but have salvagable things, odds are all those other more qualified people will find a job elsewhere and that one job opening will have employers fill you in.
And I mean MANY jobs. Depending on how good you are, it can mean a dozen applications, or it can mean a hundred.
6. Your degree is just a heading on the top of your resume. And the employer will read it in 2 seconds. Big realization after the fact. Everything else you did while in college is the body. Slay as many dragons as you can and brag about it in your resume. No matter how good a school you went to, it is just one little thing (unless of course, your GPA was near perfect which is often very important too). I went to a great school.
Bottom line, no matter the unemployment rate for your degree, you aren't 100% guaranteed any job almost anywhere***. My unemployment rate in my field is supposedly 0.3%. I don't exactly know if that means "employed anywhere" or employed as an engineer. I imagine its the former.
Personally, could I have been hired eventually? Probably, but I didn't take this advice of my own years ago and it's mostly too late now, and that's fine because I'm going down a different path where I DO take it, and I know I enjoy doing this and CAN answer these questions. The only problem is severe lack of opportunity for the inexperienced.
If anybody has anything counter to this, I'm open to hear. Again, disclaimer: I don't have professional experience. Just blue-collar experience.
Lastly you might be asking if I'm even possible. Two reasons:
- Lost interest in this field, half didn't want to do it.
- It's hard. I have no doubt I'm skilled in other aspects but it asked too much of certain skills I just lacked. Lack of willpower means I couldn't better myself as much. Chicken and the egg.
***With exceptions. Usually blue-collar jobs who need a lot of manpower (like the airlines) will want to hear from as many people as possible to get people flying their planes.
Edited by WWolf
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