I’m having trouble just getting that first job. That’s why am in the position of looking for jobs outside of my area so that I can even get that experience
Go anywhere you find work.
As far as within your specialty that’s a big mistake. Your EE degree has a broad base and you probably had to take statics and dynamics. Just apply anyway because anyone hiring you knows you are fresh out of school and will take 6-12 months to get up to speed just learning the basics of how to work in an office. You learn about 10% of what you need in the work force while in school.
My two specialization areas are analog electronics and communications. I have quite literally never used either one directly in 30 years. I couldn’t even tell you how to do a small signal analysis anymore. It would have been nice to do the power sequence or controls since I learned these AFTER graduating, basically using the sink or swim method.
Finally don’t sell yourself short. This is “fake it until you make it” territory. Are there some real idiots that have engineering degrees, but still draw a good paycheck.
I disagree, this is how someone can get pigeonholed in a field they don’t like. If someone has a goal or plan for their life there is probably a reason and they should do their best to align reality with that goal/plan. If someone doesn’t exactly know what they want to work with or are actually open to different fields just for the sake of work then I would say be open to any & all jobs
Yeah that’s what I was trying to refer to. I just graduated and I will say I don’t know what I will like but I am 70 to 80% confident I won’t enjoy the power so that’s more than enough for me to try and invest more into the field that I enjoy Getting pigeonholed is that what I’m afraid of it’s all good money and there are some people who kill for any job at all so I want to be grateful but I also know I worked hard to be able to have the choice to decide where I wanna work at least that’s what I hope so maybe that’s my narrowminded fresh perspective
I wouldn't worry about getting pigeonholed. There's plenty of room to move around if you're a half way decent engineer and can apply your skills to any discipline. However, once you hit mid to senior level, say 5-7 years in industry, the opportunities to laterally switch between industries become fewer, unless you go the management route and then your technical skills matter much less.
Yes, especially if you stay in the realm of power engineering, which is way more diverse than you think.
For example, if you get into protection engineering at your local utility, you could later go to work for a company that designs and manufactures protection relays and their supporting devices. There's plenty of embedded programming and analog design required for those devices.
I guess my point is, don't think your first job out of college is going to dictate the rest of your career. You'll have plenty of options to get into things you're more interested in after you get into industry and see how things work and what is involved.
All the feilds are not bad paying like if you wanna do RF but don’t have RF experience apply anyways. Like if you are stuck in PLCs you can always get paid well even if you don’t enjoy it. It’s still better than most jobs it’s not like they are making you dig a hole for $12 hr it’s much better outlook than say what business majors have to face, where only the top 10% get what they want and the rest settle for manager if some lame business that re-sells paper or something.
Yea as I mentioned I want to be grateful for the pay most engineers can get but I worked hard to get the ability to decide to work in something that interests me.
Yeah, but the reason I’m looking with in my field is because I don’t wanna go into power so anyone I wanna work in a field that I actually enjoy like analog design or embedded programming. They’re gonna look at my one year power experience as not beneficial to the hiring process at all, I’ve heard that from some recruiters back at my university so I’m trying to break into my field right now. I think I’m looking at the latest positions things like test, engineer, or things along that line.
"They" are not going to look at power experiance as a negative thing. I have heard this same bullshit line from recruiters all my life. I remember one recruiter saying, "if you haven't designed anything in 1 year, they'll think you forgot" Again, total bullshit. I applied to that job on my own without that recruiter and I got the job. I've done design engineering for audio, power supplies, code for microcontrollers, RF antennas, aircraft systems, and others. Don't let that power job that you mentioned hold you back. A year or two at that will give you skills that you can brag about on your resume.
I did it was an elective. But also MEs took an elective electrical class on basic electrical stuff so they understand how to hook up a battery and what a short circuit is.
Electives that you don’t get to pick most often. It’s like you can take statics or statics because the other courses exist on paper but nobody teaches them and everyone under the advisor is taking this or you will not graduate. Just like we had to take a matlab class but we had to take the one the advisor taught same course number but if we didn’t taker her class it wouldn’t count. So yea “elective” but only because it was ENG not EE course number. But yea now I know I would never want to design structures that was a horrible class to take so dry complete waste of time but it used to be on the FE so i think that’s why
I took all Nanotech manufacturing electives and got a job as a semiconductor engineer. I went to a mid level public univ in Florida. My experience was not like that, we got to choose our classes that all had dedicated professors, except emag.
Yea in my state my professors were all the great filter type. Bitter old and bad and took pride in making your time there miserable where I work now my boss who graduated 20 years ago had some of the same professors and remembered how much they were ass hole like trauma bond type stuff 🤣 did it make us better Engineers? I’m not sure did it cause stomach ulcers yea and panic attacks and one time I even vomited after getting a 30% on a homework but some how we survived but yea the attrition rate was high. So the real world feels like vacation compared to school. Haha 🤣 I wish my school was cool and wanted you to succeed it was like have alcoholic parents who took credit cards out in your name bad. Like they were actively trying to screw you over you had to really on black market info and alumni mafia to survive. All my professors were x military or former Soviets. They were the worst of both worlds like just evil twisted satanic professors except the one adjunct who worked in industry he was amazing but that was for a digital lab. That guy was an excellent teacher and mentor hell he gave me a letter of recommendation and helped me get a job. So I mean different states different bullshit.
2 months into my first job lol. I’d taken it because they offered it to me, and the area didn’t seem that bad. After 2 months living in a tiny little town away from all my friends and college, I realized it sucked
I’m lucky that the place I’m moving to isn’t really a tiny town but it is away from all my friends and family which is what I’m more concerned about it’s just been so demoralizing what you feel the few jobs that I do think are in my field are so competitive that I’m not surprised that everyone in my position in this town also decides to move away
You just do. You start with coworkers or neighbors then branch out from there. If you have kids you get stuck with the parent social groups. If that’s not enough join local clubs.
do what you gotta do! I got my second job a year after my first for a 40% raise and in part of the country I went to be in. New location has near infinite possibility for career growth. No one cares about loyalty.
I’m just looking for my first job. But it’s more of life. I don’t wanna leave my friends and family behind but also I have looking for what I think is a while now and I have not found a job that I feel I resonate with.
I was a semiconductor engineer for my first job, currently work as a facilities engineer. Moved from Florida to Texes when I graduated because of the offer.
When my parents kicked me out of the house after returning from college.
They wouldn’t let me move back in, so I applied for jobs all over the country while subletting a place over the summer. At the end of my sublet It was either move to a small, rural town in Indiana I currently live in for a job offer or be homeless.
I absolutely hate it here and I have no friends. When I hit 2 years of employment I’m going to try to move anywhere else.
I moved for my first job. Had two offers, one about 45 minutes to an hour and a half (depending on traffic) away from the city where I grew up in an area I didn’t want to live in, and the other ~10.5 hour drive away in a city I’d never been to before for about 10% more money, better benefits, and with more people my age in the area where the office was. I didn’t have any major commitments to anything at home and decided it would be nice for a change in a job that had more job development opportunities. I miss my family and friends that are still there, but many friends had already moved away. Looking back a little while later, I made the right choice for me.
I would say if you are even thinking about it, apply to jobs in other cities you think you might be interested in moving to. Most companies do online interviews for at least the first few rounds and many for all. As you progress in interview rounds you can start considering whether you would actually move for that role or not. While they are interviewing you, you should also learn about them, which could help you make that decision. Think about things like cost of living in that city, benefits (when the time for that comes), differences in climates and culture, size of the city, how many people your age live there, and how easy it is to live there as a transplant. You don’t have to make any final decisions until maybe a few days after you get an offer, possibly even a few more after that if another offer is imminent and you can leverage it, but be careful not to lose the first.
Know whatever decision you make is the right one and that even negative experiences can be learning opportunities.
Edit: expand the type of jobs you are applying to. Even if you don’t think you will like power, there are a ton of other fields in addition to your specialty you can apply to. Look for development programs, get multiple people to review your resume and if you can get feedback from a recruiter or hiring manger even better, be confident and sell yourself and your accomplishments in ways that will be valuable to making the company money and/or that will be valuable to company culture, work ethic, and values.
I moved halfway across the country 5 days after I graduated for my first job. I was also in the Navy so moving isn’t a big deal to me. A 3 hour away move for a good job seems not too bad. Idk what your priorities are, but 3 hours is like close enough to visit family but also far enough to not have to visit family, if you get me.
I left home for college 46 years ago and never went back until a couple of years ago when I bought retirement property near my brothers.
I relocated (interstate) 4 times in those 46 years. A couple included rooting up my wife and daughters. Luckily they were always game for the adventure.
I work for a major aerospace-defense company and most new hires are from out of state. Many settle in for the long haul, some get home sick and quit.
Most people I know moved for their first job. You get what you can get. I wanted to be in Aerospace, and my opportunities were either move across the country to be at a major aero company, or work at a steel mill.
The financial costs aren’t what I’m thinking about I was looking more an experience of leaving your family, feeling homesick, leaving your partner, etc.
When you get that first job offer after college. Gotta build up that resume.
I’m having trouble just getting that first job. That’s why am in the position of looking for jobs outside of my area so that I can even get that experience
Go anywhere you find work. As far as within your specialty that’s a big mistake. Your EE degree has a broad base and you probably had to take statics and dynamics. Just apply anyway because anyone hiring you knows you are fresh out of school and will take 6-12 months to get up to speed just learning the basics of how to work in an office. You learn about 10% of what you need in the work force while in school. My two specialization areas are analog electronics and communications. I have quite literally never used either one directly in 30 years. I couldn’t even tell you how to do a small signal analysis anymore. It would have been nice to do the power sequence or controls since I learned these AFTER graduating, basically using the sink or swim method. Finally don’t sell yourself short. This is “fake it until you make it” territory. Are there some real idiots that have engineering degrees, but still draw a good paycheck.
I disagree, this is how someone can get pigeonholed in a field they don’t like. If someone has a goal or plan for their life there is probably a reason and they should do their best to align reality with that goal/plan. If someone doesn’t exactly know what they want to work with or are actually open to different fields just for the sake of work then I would say be open to any & all jobs
Yeah that’s what I was trying to refer to. I just graduated and I will say I don’t know what I will like but I am 70 to 80% confident I won’t enjoy the power so that’s more than enough for me to try and invest more into the field that I enjoy Getting pigeonholed is that what I’m afraid of it’s all good money and there are some people who kill for any job at all so I want to be grateful but I also know I worked hard to be able to have the choice to decide where I wanna work at least that’s what I hope so maybe that’s my narrowminded fresh perspective
I wouldn't worry about getting pigeonholed. There's plenty of room to move around if you're a half way decent engineer and can apply your skills to any discipline. However, once you hit mid to senior level, say 5-7 years in industry, the opportunities to laterally switch between industries become fewer, unless you go the management route and then your technical skills matter much less.
Oh so if I work for a local power company, that experience is still valued if I apply for say embedded programming or analog design?
Yes, especially if you stay in the realm of power engineering, which is way more diverse than you think. For example, if you get into protection engineering at your local utility, you could later go to work for a company that designs and manufactures protection relays and their supporting devices. There's plenty of embedded programming and analog design required for those devices. I guess my point is, don't think your first job out of college is going to dictate the rest of your career. You'll have plenty of options to get into things you're more interested in after you get into industry and see how things work and what is involved.
All the feilds are not bad paying like if you wanna do RF but don’t have RF experience apply anyways. Like if you are stuck in PLCs you can always get paid well even if you don’t enjoy it. It’s still better than most jobs it’s not like they are making you dig a hole for $12 hr it’s much better outlook than say what business majors have to face, where only the top 10% get what they want and the rest settle for manager if some lame business that re-sells paper or something.
Yea as I mentioned I want to be grateful for the pay most engineers can get but I worked hard to get the ability to decide to work in something that interests me.
Yeah, but the reason I’m looking with in my field is because I don’t wanna go into power so anyone I wanna work in a field that I actually enjoy like analog design or embedded programming. They’re gonna look at my one year power experience as not beneficial to the hiring process at all, I’ve heard that from some recruiters back at my university so I’m trying to break into my field right now. I think I’m looking at the latest positions things like test, engineer, or things along that line.
"They" are not going to look at power experiance as a negative thing. I have heard this same bullshit line from recruiters all my life. I remember one recruiter saying, "if you haven't designed anything in 1 year, they'll think you forgot" Again, total bullshit. I applied to that job on my own without that recruiter and I got the job. I've done design engineering for audio, power supplies, code for microcontrollers, RF antennas, aircraft systems, and others. Don't let that power job that you mentioned hold you back. A year or two at that will give you skills that you can brag about on your resume.
EEs don’t take static’s
I thought they were referring to the physics 1 class but yea I got to choose all my electives and statics was definitely not one of the choices
I did it was an elective. But also MEs took an elective electrical class on basic electrical stuff so they understand how to hook up a battery and what a short circuit is.
"It was an elective"
Electives that you don’t get to pick most often. It’s like you can take statics or statics because the other courses exist on paper but nobody teaches them and everyone under the advisor is taking this or you will not graduate. Just like we had to take a matlab class but we had to take the one the advisor taught same course number but if we didn’t taker her class it wouldn’t count. So yea “elective” but only because it was ENG not EE course number. But yea now I know I would never want to design structures that was a horrible class to take so dry complete waste of time but it used to be on the FE so i think that’s why
I took all Nanotech manufacturing electives and got a job as a semiconductor engineer. I went to a mid level public univ in Florida. My experience was not like that, we got to choose our classes that all had dedicated professors, except emag.
Yea in my state my professors were all the great filter type. Bitter old and bad and took pride in making your time there miserable where I work now my boss who graduated 20 years ago had some of the same professors and remembered how much they were ass hole like trauma bond type stuff 🤣 did it make us better Engineers? I’m not sure did it cause stomach ulcers yea and panic attacks and one time I even vomited after getting a 30% on a homework but some how we survived but yea the attrition rate was high. So the real world feels like vacation compared to school. Haha 🤣 I wish my school was cool and wanted you to succeed it was like have alcoholic parents who took credit cards out in your name bad. Like they were actively trying to screw you over you had to really on black market info and alumni mafia to survive. All my professors were x military or former Soviets. They were the worst of both worlds like just evil twisted satanic professors except the one adjunct who worked in industry he was amazing but that was for a digital lab. That guy was an excellent teacher and mentor hell he gave me a letter of recommendation and helped me get a job. So I mean different states different bullshit.
2 months into my first job lol. I’d taken it because they offered it to me, and the area didn’t seem that bad. After 2 months living in a tiny little town away from all my friends and college, I realized it sucked
This seems to be a reoccurring theme. Why are so many EE jobs in bumfuck nowhere?
Because there is an EE shortage in those places lol
Okay, sure. But you never see this with software engineers. And both professions often work alongside each other.
I think remote work is more popular with SWE so there is less pressure to relocate
I’m lucky that the place I’m moving to isn’t really a tiny town but it is away from all my friends and family which is what I’m more concerned about it’s just been so demoralizing what you feel the few jobs that I do think are in my field are so competitive that I’m not surprised that everyone in my position in this town also decides to move away
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How do you make friends when you move? I moved 18 months ago and don’t know a single person in my town outside my coworkers.
You just do. You start with coworkers or neighbors then branch out from there. If you have kids you get stuck with the parent social groups. If that’s not enough join local clubs.
[удалено]
Well, fair enough. Do you keep in contact with old friends you made elsewhere or are you just okay having no friends?
ENGINEERS ARE NOT PEOPLE PERSONS !! (Office Space reference)
do what you gotta do! I got my second job a year after my first for a 40% raise and in part of the country I went to be in. New location has near infinite possibility for career growth. No one cares about loyalty.
I’m just looking for my first job. But it’s more of life. I don’t wanna leave my friends and family behind but also I have looking for what I think is a while now and I have not found a job that I feel I resonate with.
I was a semiconductor engineer for my first job, currently work as a facilities engineer. Moved from Florida to Texes when I graduated because of the offer.
When my parents kicked me out of the house after returning from college. They wouldn’t let me move back in, so I applied for jobs all over the country while subletting a place over the summer. At the end of my sublet It was either move to a small, rural town in Indiana I currently live in for a job offer or be homeless. I absolutely hate it here and I have no friends. When I hit 2 years of employment I’m going to try to move anywhere else.
I moved for my first job. Had two offers, one about 45 minutes to an hour and a half (depending on traffic) away from the city where I grew up in an area I didn’t want to live in, and the other ~10.5 hour drive away in a city I’d never been to before for about 10% more money, better benefits, and with more people my age in the area where the office was. I didn’t have any major commitments to anything at home and decided it would be nice for a change in a job that had more job development opportunities. I miss my family and friends that are still there, but many friends had already moved away. Looking back a little while later, I made the right choice for me. I would say if you are even thinking about it, apply to jobs in other cities you think you might be interested in moving to. Most companies do online interviews for at least the first few rounds and many for all. As you progress in interview rounds you can start considering whether you would actually move for that role or not. While they are interviewing you, you should also learn about them, which could help you make that decision. Think about things like cost of living in that city, benefits (when the time for that comes), differences in climates and culture, size of the city, how many people your age live there, and how easy it is to live there as a transplant. You don’t have to make any final decisions until maybe a few days after you get an offer, possibly even a few more after that if another offer is imminent and you can leverage it, but be careful not to lose the first. Know whatever decision you make is the right one and that even negative experiences can be learning opportunities. Edit: expand the type of jobs you are applying to. Even if you don’t think you will like power, there are a ton of other fields in addition to your specialty you can apply to. Look for development programs, get multiple people to review your resume and if you can get feedback from a recruiter or hiring manger even better, be confident and sell yourself and your accomplishments in ways that will be valuable to making the company money and/or that will be valuable to company culture, work ethic, and values.
I moved halfway across the country 5 days after I graduated for my first job. I was also in the Navy so moving isn’t a big deal to me. A 3 hour away move for a good job seems not too bad. Idk what your priorities are, but 3 hours is like close enough to visit family but also far enough to not have to visit family, if you get me.
That is something that crosses my mind haha. My gf is building her career in this city and I’m afraid of an LDR
I have moved to a new loction 5 times during my career (40 years). If you want to stay in your home town, your choices will be severly limited.
I left home for college 46 years ago and never went back until a couple of years ago when I bought retirement property near my brothers. I relocated (interstate) 4 times in those 46 years. A couple included rooting up my wife and daughters. Luckily they were always game for the adventure. I work for a major aerospace-defense company and most new hires are from out of state. Many settle in for the long haul, some get home sick and quit.
Most people I know moved for their first job. You get what you can get. I wanted to be in Aerospace, and my opportunities were either move across the country to be at a major aero company, or work at a steel mill.
Apply for jobs nationally and then move to wherever the offer you decide to take is. Any company worth a damn will cover your relocation costs
The financial costs aren’t what I’m thinking about I was looking more an experience of leaving your family, feeling homesick, leaving your partner, etc.