So here's my situation,

I am a civil engineering (structural concentration) student and I plan on graduating next spring. When I graduate, I will have 3 semesters of coop experience & 1 summer of intern engineering experience. The internship was related to quality standards (ISO 9001, AS 9100, etc) and the coop was more electrical engineering related (electrical design for office buildings). I should be able to graduate with around a 3.3 gpa (assuming i dont fail roy bordens fucking soil class).

Anywho, for all of you post-grads, how desirable am I to employers? What kind of salary could I expect to make at a large company (I know progress & duke energy hire civil employees) vs. a smaller consultant? Do I have options? Should I look into Duke's Master of Engineering program? Should I look into getting a masters at state?

3/6/2010 8:15:54 PM

people wanna sit around and jack each other off about internships and experience and gpa and blah blah blah

but all that really matters is who you know. the experience you get from coops and internships is great, but hopefully you kiss ass while you're there and make someone think you're not an idiot so you can get a job there after graduation.



[Edited on March 6, 2010 at 9:00 PM. Reason : the sad truth. good luck.]

3/6/2010 8:59:15 PM

^ Very true. Connections are essential. I had four internships and a 3.4 GPA. Hoopty balls, there weren't any jobs out there for me anyway. You're most desirable to the company you co-oped with. If you get a master's degree, only go to a university that will pay for you to go there and get your master's. It is very fucking hard to go to NCSU and get your masters if you are trying to pay all your bills while competing with your classmates to get everything done (assuming you have to stay in school full time to keep health benefits, which some people don't care about). If you can go to school part time and work and pay your bills, awesome, try doing that. If you don't want a PhD, don't worry as much about doing a thesis. It's more stress, and not doing a thesis will give you more credit hours you can use for useful engineering classes to put on your resume. Think about it, what's going to be more useful to a potential employer? Advanced seismic analysis and structural design methodology and finite element analysis of structures (just making up two potential grad-level courses), or FRP applications in pre-cast concrete girder spans not exceeding eight feet for light-duty loads (a potential NCSU grad school thesis). Your professors and advisors will tell you to go for the degree, but you have to realize that they want you to do their research for them and you're not going to pick what you do or know how useful it will be when you graduate. A general graduate-level course on a structural subject will be very useful to you, where research is only more useful if you want to keep doing research for your career.

The job field still isn't good for civil engineers. It's bad. It's bad everywhere. Work your contacts and do your best to get a job. Moving up the educational ladder will confine you more to niche fields, but you'll be more likely to keep a job once you land it (a master's degree is becoming very important, especially in structural engineering). Your bachelor's will get you into more places doing different things, but you're competing with a lot more people to get that job. Construction still hasn't really recovered in the private industry, so structural engineering jobs will be tricky to find. Search for and apply to every last one you can find, make contacts with recruiters, and work your contacts pretty hard. In a recession you are probably looking at 42-48k a year, with 36-44k a year more likely if you're trying to work a job slightly out of your field. It was easier to land a 50k+/yr job before everything went to shit two years ago.

I would try to find a medium to small sized company to work for, as a big bureaucratic machine will work the shit out of you. Smaller companies will keep you busy, and you'll be working overtime some weeks, but you'll be on more of a personal level with your boss and you'll be able to learn more about the company from the interview process (i.e. get a better feel for the company before you commit, so you'll know if you're making a mistake). Your work will also tend to be more diverse, as you'll be managing more aspects of a whole project (small companies can only delegate so much) instead of just running basic structural calculations for all the concrete slabs in one portion of a big building on a project. The best plan of action would be to take whatever structural engineering job you can get right now and to get yourself some experience so you can move on later, if you want/need to.

[Edited on March 6, 2010 at 11:54 PM. Reason : Text wall motherfucker!]

3/6/2010 11:54:13 PM

On the Master's program ... don't do one just because it's the only option. Know you really want a Master's degree for yourself. It may benefit in your career / job search, it may not, but that's not the sole reason you should be pursuing one.

Overall, your credentials look good. Key will be your cover letter and references to further detail "what" you did. I've read several really crappy cover letters but when I ask during interviews, some folks have worked on really interesting / challenging stuff. References thereafter will help affirm "Yes, this person is a team player and not just booksmart".

You've got a full year to search and decide, which is a good thing. If you haven't already, make appointments with your advisor / career center to further discuss. Most of the time the meetings won't change your life ... it'll be 95% of stuff you probably already know. That last 5% you DON'T KNOW can make a difference.

[Edited on March 7, 2010 at 6:47 AM. Reason : .]

3/7/2010 6:43:51 AM

most companies would rather you have your PE than a masters

3/7/2010 11:24:08 AM

Bordon had a better grade distribution than Evans when I took Evans, so no sympathy here...

Epack and Career fair are your best bets. They suck pretty hard before you are ready to graduate, but as I was able to nail a job through the career fair as a Civil/Construction double major and all I had was intern experience for 3 years. The interview was the key.

I don't know about Duke masters... I would look at some other places unless you really want to stay around the Raleigh area, but I wouldn't limit myself to Raleigh for grad school or a job.

[Edited on March 7, 2010 at 9:17 PM. Reason : ..]

3/7/2010 9:15:37 PM

if you're thinking about going to grad school you should think about MBA programs, an MBA/ P.E. combination would be solid

3/7/2010 10:36:58 PM

^ True story

3/8/2010 6:56:17 PM

The reason I got my job was because of my co-op. My company saw that I worked with nuclear-powered ships and thought it applied well with what they did, so the co-op definitely helped me. Other companies weren't exactly going gaga over my other qualifications or my co-op, but my current one seemed to like it. To each his own I guess

3/10/2010 11:17:00 PM

Quote :

"I should be able to graduate with around a 3.3 gpa (assuming i dont fail roy bordens fucking soil class)"

LOL

Great class. He teaches it well. If you have problems PM me.

3/11/2010 2:21:12 PM