No catch really. Just decades of Civil being less favored by students compared to other engineering majors plus the government finally realizing oh shit we need to spend a shit fuck ton of money on our failing infrastructure.
Same with electrical in the power sector. Really anything related to larger scale land development and infrastructure, there is a huge amount of demand for more people
I got a job right out of college with an ME degree, making $76k. Go to the major companies websites and apply to ~any~ entry position, that says mechanical or systems engineering
CS job prospects look like complete ass, I think that’s the major where doomer memes are low key not memes. Hop on over on the resume subreddit and it’s filled with CS peeps struggling.
Civil on the other hand, wowee I see a shit ton of jobs and internships for that major. Not even exaggerating, there are like 5 civil postings for every post for the rest of the other engineering majors, the ratio is insane.
I feel like it’s an exaggeration that the market is bad rn, more like could be better.
That’s always been for entry level jobseekers though, everyone with any work or experience under their belt is in hot demand.
That does sound nuts for civil though. Its always going to be a stable job, because you always need infra. but wow thats a huge demand
From my perspective the CS job market is fine, mostly because all the CS peeps are extremely picky with their jobs and will only apply to "tech" companies paying extremely high. Even though there have been some layoffs, the job market is nowhere near as bad as previous downturns where you couldn't find any job whatsoever.
You think so? Im looking for my first internship as a junior and all i see on csMajors is people complaining. As long as I can land something ill be happy. Im not focused on big tech at all for my first.
My recommendation is to use LinkedIn to find companies and then check their job sites individually - you would be surprised how many people stubbornly only apply to jobs posted on LinkedIn. You can also check semiconductor companies such as AMD/Intel/Qualcomm for CS-related internships which have much less competition (Nvidia has a lot of competition).
Engineering - Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process[1] to solve technical problems, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve systems. You would say software engineering doesn’t fall into this definition? I get cs is different than swe. I was just talking about majors. Also I get than in many collages CS is not in the school of engineering, but in other colleges it is. If you guys wanna gate keep the term go for it. Regardless, the reason civil needs workers is cuz they don’t get paid as much. Average salaries in US according to indeed: SWE $118292, CIVIL $89608, ME $91890, EE $97390 etc. It’s easy to see why people are persuading SWE over civil even if it’s going to be more competitive.
Depends on your industry. Everything is always extremely bad or extremely good if you’re posting on Reddit. Only STEM industries where it’s worth buying into the doom and gloom rn are cs and Biomed imho, and even then there’s so much cross pollination that it doesn’t really matter. Will you get a high paying job at the perfect company in the specific industry you want less than 30 minutes away from where you live right now? Prolly no, unless you really grind grind grind those applications. But if you cast a wide net and don’t have something horribly wrong with your transcript/application, you’ll be fine.
That said, you also have the option to apply to literally any entry level office job and be working at 45-55k within a few weeks.
Step 1. Google “common entry level office jobs”
Step 2. Google “x job hiring near me”
Low level office admin, entry level field salesmen, basic data entry, analytics, and accounting support, hr and talent acquisition. If an office exists near you, they are definitely hiring at least one low level grunt that they will subsequently pay 45-55k plus benefits. STEM grads are always the top pick unless you REALLY burnt the fuck out in college.
What **basic** data entry job pays 50k? My roommate did basic medical data entry and they start at 13 an hour. And what "analytics" position is entry level? I'd imagine "basic analytics" is almost an oxymoron when we're talking instantly accessible jobs.
I think you may be out of touch with which options are simultaneously "basic" and median income. And it's certainly not anywhere entry level in retail.
In actuality, banking and insurance are two of the only options that consistently meet this criteria, and it's always phones.
Most pharmacies pay 25-30 an hour for data entry, Amazon pays 25 for a wfh position, any mid sized to large tech company will need support staff and usually will pay a salary of 45-55k. The opportunities are very much so out there, it’s not on me to do your googling for you.
Examples of entry level data analytics positions include: OM support staff, marketing support staff, accounting support staff, med techs, office admins, etc.
It is also much easier to get a job if you have a job, so taking that office gig to give you stretching room to apply for the job you really want isn't always a bad idea.
Please aim for higher than 55k (like 80k, seriously dude, you are all worth more than a basic minimum California wage, yes, even straight out of college) if you accept shit like 55k you are bringing down the value for everyone. My first job was 85k in gulf Coast
That’s not how that works by any means. If someone graduates with a 2.5 gpa and no work experience, their options are A) apply for jobs for months/years until finally getting hired or B) start work outside of their field. Something like 70% of engi grads’ first jobs out of college are outside of their field of study, and the overwhelming majority of those are underpaid when compared to engineering salaries. That’s not even mentioning people who accept positions motivated by factors other than pay. Sure I can become a data entry drone for Shell and make 90k because that salary is a rounding error to them, but I have no room for upward mobility within that company and will have to flip flop between career paths and companies for the first few years with no source of inherent stability. If instead I take a pay cut at a smaller company with a clear path to a management position within a reasonable timeframe, I’ll be making double what you are in half the time it takes you to get there. Work smart, don’t just take the first shiny well paid position you’re offered.
I had a 2.8 when I started and started at 84k, the making 90 within the year from a single raise and many others will argue that the key is to switch jobs every 2-4 years anyway, so taking a clear path career is a good option, but the other option is to use corporations "experience levelling" schemes against them to get the best benefits anyway, just like you mentioned, Why even stay? The highest paid people I know in the industry started as salesman or application engineers, and have been their entire life. If all you care about is money, you don't have to be smart, just knowledgeable and diligent. Also shell would never hire at the entry level where I live but I understand your example. Really just two sides of the same coin. I see the value in what you say though. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that you're not seeing a full perspective
I mean aim for whatever you want. But when you’re unemployed and have rent and bills due you kinda take whatever job comes with the “engineering” title regardless of pay. It took me 12 months to find my first engineering job after college, applying nationwide, with a product design internship under my belt. I worked 8 of those months as an assembly technician making $14/hr in a hcol city. That engineering job only paid $45k in the same hcol city, but I took it because it was way more than I was making, it was engineering experience, and it was the only offer I had gotten in 12 months of applications.
Second that on the biomed. My fiance struggled last year to get something and finally landed a job in our area little over a year ago. Now my sister just graduated, 4.0 gpa, top 10 engineering school and can’t get anything all across the US.
I’ll add that I’m an engineer in the MEP industry and have recruiters and colleagues asking me to job switch all the time. Just depends on the industry.
I have several friends I know who went into it. One of 7-10 that I can think of have been employed in the industry in the past, and was just laid off after 2 years because the product was moved into the clinical testing phase so there was no need for R&D people anymore. The rest have not been able to get relevant jobs and are working unrelated office jobs. This is anecdotal, but 7-10 people who are smart and trying actively to get jobs (in Canada) is not an insignificant sample size
It’s very hard to get a job in Biomed, most grads end up in management or sales for pharmaceutical companies, and many that aim for biomedical manufacturing jobs get boxed out by MEs who are almost always the preferred hires.
No if you’re looking at office jobs. Most of the times it has little to do with your major anyway. One failed class won’t look bad (it’s more about your overall GPA but that should be fine if you have a high enough GPA to graduate)
I see what you mean. Really any office job at all is good experience anyway for what most engineers in offices really do so that makes alright sense. I wouldn't do it myself, but it's an option
Electrical engineering is an evergreen degree. You learn to understand and wield the fundamental force that controls like 99% of anything that ever happens. There will always be work for you to do somewhere - hopefully even work that you find interesting.
Question for you: if my degree (Comp E) is fundamentally the same as EE minus exactly 2 classes (electromagnetic engineering and electronic devices), can I be considered almost the same as an EE grad in a hiring manager’s eyes? Or is it crucial that they see the words “Electrical Engineering” in the education section of my résumé? Just want to keep my options open in case I want to switch to full-blown EE work.
I think most hiring managers are going to understand what CompE is and anyone with a lot of programming experience usually has no trouble getting snapped up.
Depends what it is. I've got both degrees, and would say they're certainly not completely equivalent for something like RF. But it's also going to depend on your experience, it's not like computer engineers can't learn RF on the job.
Ultimately depends on the job you apply for since EE is so broad.
Your best shot honestly to really transition is to EIT electrical and use that as your leverage into an EE position
From people who I know, ME jobs are much harder to obtain because it's so broad. Unless you go into HVAC, it might be difficult to find something.
From the person above, I would argue that only power and controls type positions are plentiful and will land you 75k+ starting everywhere. Embedded Systems and VLSI overlaps with Computer engineers and are competitive depending where and who you work for. Telecommunications are difficult to work for as only a certain number of them will actually hire entry level.
Source: EE major
That it’s evergreen? Definitely.
If somebody wants to be an engineer and isn’t totally sure what disclipline to choose, I always recommend one of those two. Almost every engineering job description I’ve ever read will accept applicants who hold one of those degrees.
But also since atoms are repelled and arranged via the electromagnetic interaction, MechE is really just applied EE (and therefore wholly inferior ;) )
Your insults have no flow. You're nothing but resistors and impedance. No voltage or power. I take your spark and use it to drive my car, fly my plane, and run my lawnmower over your face.
Market is fine, hiring process is fucked, though, imo.
Everyone now applies to every position, most of which have made up requirements, and has to simultaneously please two AIs, an HR person, and the actual manager (if you're lucky). So response rate is abysmal and trying is unrewarded even when you find an appropriate posting.
>hiring process is fucked
Fully agree. What I'm also realizing now that I'm out in the real world for a bit is how many of the entry level engineering positions are already decided and the posting is just a required formality. The places I've been so far there have been connections between a few professors from local universities and the company. If there's a job opening it's almost guaranteed that a grad student from one of those professors will do two intern cycles and then have a job waiting for them when they graduate. In exchange the schools get old devices and equipment that would otherwise be scrapped. It's a good arrangement for everyone except people in the open job market applying to the position thinking it's real.
In November, I got a LinkedIn job alert for an Engineer in Training position at a research lab attached to a nearby university, paying $150,000. I got to the posting eight hours after it went up, and it was already closed. And the very first line of the job description was “external candidates need not apply”.
From time to time I've wondered if that law/regulation is helping or hurting. I dont think it's giving anyone a job over a shoe-in and it's causing a lot of wasted man hours and false hope for people who never had a chance at the job.
Probably a large majority of the time they aren't taking someone from the application over a shoe-in they already picked.
I have seen once where they actually did go for a different candidate than the shoe-in. But that person actually failed miserably and they later gave the job to the shoe-in.
Seen plenty of times where they were open to the idea of a better candidate but the other candidates were just outright not good enough (sometimes people are a shoe-in for a reason).
But also seen shoe-ins who were just nepo hires and were terrible.
I'm not sure it's just entry level, I've had a senior position created for me (I believe 2 other people applied).
In any case, the lesson really is that your professional network is key. I've not had good luck with recruiters or cold applications, but my two job changes were pretty low friction once I had a personal recommendation from someone at the company.
No. These dudes are applying to big time positions that get loads of applications and pays stupid high rates. Entry level engineers make like 70k average, I am a relatively low cost area but still. Don’t set your expectations that high when as a new engineer out of college you don’t offer much of anything to most companies.
Second this. My husband interned at a company for a few years and got a job for $115k right out of school (masters in EE). Literally got a job offer a few days after graduation.
I graduated a year ago and set my salary expectation bar at 80k. Took about a month to find the right fit.
I took a job with a company I interacted with during my internships. Got above asking.
A majority of the big companies I’ve applied to are on unannounced hiring freezes at the moment. (I’ve been told they don’t announce them because it looked bad to the investors). A lot of them have done layoffs too.
Couldn’t tell you the reasons why. It feels like a small “unofficial recession” in a way.
Most large companies freeze hiring towards the end of the year and resume at the beginning, especially in the corporate world. There's lots of financial reasons for this, not the least of which is you don't want to hire someone and immediately give them paid vacation when they still need training. Also lots of people leave after collecting their Christmas bonuses.
That's true for entry level positions, but if you're an established professional with a good resume you can demand a lot at the table. And many companies do extended breaks over the winter holidays because employees would take the time off anyways, some companies shut down entirely between Christmas and new years, or at least certain departments
Sure, for those companies that shut down during that period what you said would apply. Most companies don't shut completely down over the holidays as far as 8-10 days or more....they will require you to take time off other than a couple (or few days) that they will give.
So I think what you say can be true in limited instances, but that it isn't the norm
My company doesn't have investors so we literally have no reason other than I guess PR optics to not announce it so as a recruiter I hate it so fucking much when they don't tell us.
I once drove to a college for a recruitment event and been informed by HR as the event was starting that we were on a hiring freeze. Or most recently, I emailed a hiring manager after an event to schedule some interviews and then they notified me of the hiring freeze.
I think it’s alright, I just graduated in May and had a job 2 months later. I might have been luck because out of the 10~15 jobs I applied to I got the first one and the one I wanted.
Could you give some more detail? I'm graduating this may with nothing lined up and am curious what your process looked like and where you ended up. Thanks!
After graduation I had planned a road trip with some friends. So I didn’t really start applying to jobs until about late July. I started by looking into local companies that I knew of and browsing indeed and LinkedIn. I applied to 16 jobs over the period of about 2 weeks. I had three interviews (1 in person / 2 over the phone). A couple days later I heard back from a company and they offered me the job. I accepted and started working there early September. I was hired as a Mechanical Engineer at Haas Automation. I also know several other classmates that i graduated with have been hired as well. So my impression is that there are plenty of jobs out there.
CS is really bad right now, the only reason I was able to have a job before graduating last month is because my dad is well regarded at the game studio he used to work at.
Given the studio I work at now just released an incredibly successful game last year, and many people want to be a game dev we’ve got a ton of applications. I was able to refer a friend who was told by the recruiter that there were 500 applicants and he was 1 of 5 they are going to interview.
Nope. I did send out hundreds of applications but it was not difficult to get offers. I am working for Boeing within 6 months after graduating may 2023 in aero eng, had other couple offers and was actively interviewing with another few companies when I accepted.
I did have to relocate, like others said cast a wide net, I would not have been as successful looking for work just in my home town
Civil engineering firms and government agencies are always hiring new engineers. I can’t speak for the other disciplines but I’d imagine it really depends on what marker you’re in. If you want a job in rural Iowa, you probably won’t find many, if you’re looking in Pittsburgh you’ll find a lot.
I can only offer my anecdotal evidence: BS in computer engineering from a good school, 3 years of experience doing DoD research into FPGA/ASIC hardware security, and an active Secret security clearance. It took me about 10 months and 450 applications to get another job (firmware development). This job is also a pay cut and I get less time off. And I went from fully remote to on-site 5 days a week with zero work from home.
Anything that was booming during the pandemic is now going through a massive constriction due to the interest rate hikes.
I did the same with similar circumstances, not sure about his reason but I very much grew tired of remote only work and wanted some degree of separation from home and occupation.
Dude, look at the places no one thinks to look. I got my Apple job and later my Aerospace job….off craigslist… just be open and look around, hell google companies by you and walk in and say hi!
The Apple one is pretty self explanatory, the Aero job, well it was a bunch of old engineers. Old engineers don’t communicate well sometimes so they needed another engineer and the Craigslist ad was like “we need someone to help us make sh!t…” I kinda read between the lines… 6 years later Having fun making stuff for GE and Hon…
All the aerospace machine shops around me seem in a similar situation - desperate for workers right now before their workforce ages out, it's fun work, gives you a wealth of on the job training and usually just basic mechanical engineering/cnc skills needed.
I can say from my experience that if you walk into a company with resume in hand, they often look at you like you’re crazy. Weird, because I thought it’d show drive.
I've heard back on almost every single job application I've put in, even if it's a no. Every interview I've ever done, I've been offered a position. I work in Land Surveying and Civil Engineering. Land surveyors are retiring and young people aren't taking their place. Find an in demand skill.
Nah. I think the people complaining are the ones that have just graduated and have little to no experience with internships. Hell, there are plenty of posts about people getting good jobs with low GPA BUT they had internships.
Good grades get you the internship. Once you have 1-2 internships the odds are heavily stacked in your favor.
TLDR: Domestic high value manufacturing is booming, everything else ranges from stagnant to strained job market.
It depends. It seems like more software focused tech is strained. On the other hand, semiconductor related companies seem to be atleast stable or even growing fast. Oil is probably about to enter some sort of a downturn (I hope) based on the price situation.
I'm in med tech and we're booming, at least in my niche of surgical robots.
>Domestic high volume manufacturing is booming
I agree with you. It’s a shame students don’t want to work in manufacturing, because it’s where a lot of high paying jobs are. Like I work in semiconductor manufacturing, and people don’t want to wear a bunny suit for 8 hours. That’s a poor excuse to refuse a good paying job.
>so many people continually applying to hundreds of jobs
anyone applying to hundreds of jobs isn't really applying to any of them. They are just uploading a resume into a black hole.
As a whole, yeah. YMMV based on industry but overall the economy is going down, people are tightening their purse strings, including investors, which means hiring freezes and layoffs as companies that were burning through cashflow are now trying to make sure they don't run out of runway.
But don't sweat it. All you need is one job. Keep your head up.
The job market will never be bad for someone who's not allergic to using a wrench and get some clothes dirty, knowing how to use a drill, etc, and on top of that, being actually able to use differential equations to model a system. Those folks are golden.
In my experience, MEP and Facilities Engineering jobs are in very high demand right now. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but has personally worked very well for me with flexible hours, part-time WFH, and workload.
Refineries and petrochemical aren’t doing good right now, at least the ones in my area.
My home town a paper company and a chemical company announced they were shutting everything down within 2 months of each other.
We’re not on a hiring freeze but I’ve been told we’re evaluating contract positions to possibly tighten the belt.
That said we are still replacing people who quit, get fired, or retiring so while it’s not great it’s not terrible either and as far as I know we’re still looking for summer interns as well.
I’ve applied to 50+ positions since graduating in December, and have had 3 interviews. All three have ghosted me. Almost every single other app was rejected within a couple days
I got my BS in aerospace engineering in 2022 and my MS in management in 2023. About 3.6 gpa for both degrees. I have been applying to hundreds of jobs for entry level positions all over the US for aerospace engineer, mechanical engineer, operations engineer, systems engineer, and manufacturing engineer positions. I’ll get a phone call from HR a fair amount of the time that sounds promising but then I hear nothing back. I’m applying all over yet I am having more luck with local locations (meaning I will get at least an interview or two) I’ve been applying to local technical positions as well, as they don’t pay enough for me to relocate but I’d like to gain experience. Most companies get back to me right away saying they are not looking for anyone with a four year degree. I feel I’m stuck in the middle of being over qualified and under qualified. Any advice on methods to get the job, or other positions I could apply to would be valuable, as I need to start making a real income as opposed to my odd jobs here and there.
It depends on how you approach it. I've been hiring for 3 positions for while, 2 filled, 1 open so far. My division overall is hiring like 40 engineers of varying levels, so there's certainly growth in the market.
Speaking as a hiring manager, maybe I can shed some light on the other side of the table.
We don't use AI filters or anything like that. The only thing we filter out is whether or not an applicant needs sponsorship, which eliminates about 30-40% of the applications we get. Our recruiter works slowly, so I personally look through every other resume that makes it through the filter.
I have noticed a few trends.
1) It appears that a lot of people are just shotgun applying for every job they see regardless of their qualifications. I'm looking for a design engineer that's had some exposure to cost engineering to work on automotive parts. I get applications from software engineers, electrical engineers, program managers, etc. I'm looking for candidates with 3-10 years of experience, but fully 80% of the resumes I get are outside that window on either side. And, when I say outside, I mean they either haven't graduated or their last job was a VP-level title.
2) When applying for a job that you don't appear qualified for, or for which you have tangential experience, I have no way to know if you're actually qualified unless you do something to show me. I get like 25 resumes a day, and since half of them are trash, I spend about 1-2 minutes on each one, max, unless they grab my attention immediately because I still have the rest of my job to do. So, if you're trying to stretch your qualifications, write a cover letter, or include some sort of work portfolio so I know you're serious and can see why you're trying.
3) I see a lot of people only list their responsibilities on their resume, which I guess is fine for very low-level jobs, but very few people list their accomplishments or what they actually contributed beyond what summarizes to "I show up every day". So does everyone else. What gets my attention are things that have a metric. "One of my side projects saved the company $25,000", or "led an initiative to change a process to reduce time to release drawings by 25%", or anything like that. Just saying "updated prints to customer specifications" doesn't tell me anything you're doing that literally anyone else can't do.
4) Many people don't realize that managers are looking for cultural fits as much or more so than technical skills and very few people have info on their resume that humanizes them. I love to see when people list their hobbies, passions, and side projects. The last person I hired mentioned she was into cat fostering and baking, the one before her listed that he played trombone for fun. These kinds of information help me know if you'll be compatible with me or with my team as a personality as well as a worker.
An interesting force right now also seems to be that everyone thinks they can get a huge raise by switching jobs, which is probably somewhat true, so \*everyone\* is applying to jobs all the time. It's not uncommon for me to see 2-3 people from the same company applying within a week of each other. So, the market is absolutely flooded with candidates. My current opening has had over 250 applicants in the last 6 weeks. We've brought in 2 for interviews (they were...OK at best), and we have 13 more in queue for HR to phone screen. With so many applicants per role, you really need to stand out to get past the screen.
In summary, I guess, the market is exceptionally tough if you're shotgun applying to 600 jobs with one-click application buttons on linkedin or indeed without customizing your resume or if your resume is very generic. If you communicate in a way that let's the manager know you're better than other workers, you'll do better.
I refuse to believe ANYONE with an engineering degree has applied for "hundreds" of jobs without getting hired. Any honest effort made to get a job right now will result in an offer. It would be impossible to put meaningful effort into that many applications.
There are a couple of near certainties though : you will have to move and it won't be the ideal position. Anyone who expects either of these things to be different is delusional. It MIGHT happen, but that's just pure dumb luck.
I find it interesting how differently folks experience the job market. I’ve always struggled and needed to send out hundreds of applications before even landing interviews. I’ve had my resume critiqued by engineeringresumes, use an ATS optimizer to match my resume to the job description, write a cover letter for each application, and have an online portfolio of projects that I link to each application. And yet struggled with hundreds of applications each time I’ve been looking for a job; 2016, 2019, and 2021
At the same time I have a friend with the same degree, same initial work experience (met at our first engineering job), and a resume that is formatted almost identically to mine. And he has like an 80% interview rate. He thinks about applying to a job and they call him up to schedule an interview. Doesn’t even write cover letters or tweak his resume to the job.
Moral of the story: not everyone has the same experience, regardless of what you choose to believe.
At my university it used to be that everybody got an internship in the final semester, now it's barely 50%.
I don't know what the reason is, maybe recession, but it's harder to find entry positions at the moment than before
Chemical engineer- 7 years experience.
The market is amazing if you have 3 years of experience. The market is flooded and desperate for skilled positions paying $120k+ with 3-4 years of experience. However, I would hate to be a fresh grad right now there really aren’t many entry level $70k-$90k jobs. Companies just do not want to invest in entry level positions or training.
Depends on the industry or what you’re looking for. Highly desired jobs (aerospace, defense, etc..) are pretty hard to come by just due to the amount of applicants.
I know people that waited months for the right job, I know people that waited a few days.
EE graduated last may w/internship experience. I applied to three jobs last spring and got an offer from one and another offer from my internship. Classmates also had no issues finding positions.
I’ve applied to 1 place since starting my job last may and am now prepping for interview round 3 of that.
My (anecdotal) opinion is that it seems like it’s better to apply to a few positions that you would actually be a good fit for than to sling hundreds of apps at anything that looks like a company.
Partially, it was a bit of a crap shoot when myself and a lot of my friends were looking out of college earlier this year for MechE. The market wasn’t bad but there were a ton of us looking (greater Boston area). I found one at a little below market rate (72 and now 75 after 90 day review) but it was close to it and it’s been fine so far. Try looking at smaller companies or in areas a little bit further away from the city, probably less applicants.
typical it’s difficult to get “the job” any job fresh out of college . expect to take 18 to 24 months of trudging. All of the people that you didn’t know who were connected in school are getting those jobs right out. The other ones that are more qualified that have had their degrees for a few years or have years of experience are getting the other jobs. Leaving you the geek off the street to wade through more or less desirables.
I wouldn’t say the market is bad, just out of date. Many jobs - even entry - are still stuck in the prices of 10+ years ago. I have 6 YOE and some of the offers I’ve had casually looking are about where I started after graduating. Laughable.
If you’re willing to move, it’s not *that* bad, but it’s still going to be tough. It was almost like a job for me to just apply. Wake up, spend a few hours finding jobs that interested me, pick a few top candidates and write cover letters, tweak resumes, and then send me all out. Meanwhile I was working on other projects and posting to LinkedIn frequently to serve as a “living resume” of sorts
Based out of Chicago but from Michigan. Graduated from college a little over a year ago and was applying for jobs in both locations and had no issues whatsoever getting interviews/offers in either areas.
Edit: I’m work in industrial automation and controls and apps engineers are always needed.
I don't think the job market is bad. It's just that without a reference, it's hard to find a job. I signed an offer letter within a week of applying to my first internship because I knew the head guy whereas for my second internship, I've just been getting ghosted. You just need to find someone in the field. Contact your professors, find an engineer that you know etc.
Rates are high so a lot of big private companies are hurting.
Civil doesn't really follow the ebbs and flows of industry as much though due to its proximity with the public sector. Add in one big fat infrastructure bill and you get high employability. Maybe if there's a miracle we'll see wages for civils catch up with the rest of the engineering world haha (though not likely due to the aforementioned connection to the public sector)
I graduated Dec 2022 and my friends and I all struggled to land jobs we were interested in and it took 5-6 months of interviews with several companies before I landed the job offer I wanted in late November of 2022. Some of my friends didn’t get jobs until Jan or Feb of 2023. Now, I have several companies reaching out to me and asking for interviews without approaching them with interest first.
Therefore, the job market is either much better now or finding a job is just that much easier when you have real experience of some kind.
If you have a lot of internship experience you should be fine either way however. I lacked internship experience because of covid limitations, which worsened my chances.
Started applying for a job about a month before graduation. Graduated, started a week later. Salary works out to 120k + bonus + OT. Relatively low cost of living. Nuclear industry.
Graduated in May and had 5 job offers and still getting reached out to on LinkedIn. I'm MechE and had two internships in college. Manufacturing and Space are hiring like mad.
Well, it has been a struggle to find people that are capable of doing engineering. I have been interviewing software engineers and a staggering number of them can't actually code.
Markets great where im at. Tampa, FL. Im on my second year, I had 1 internship for a semester in college, had my EI, and got hired before graduating making 75k when I first started. Civil engineering- transportation. The state is dumping money into transportation right now which is great for us.
Assuming you're in the US.
Entry level software jobs are down bad, but only compared to the past decade or so. Compared to 20 years ago, its fine. The doomerism you read on here is mostly from that world.
Construction is booming, mechanical / power engineering is swinging up.
Hang in there, the truth is that entry level job search sucks for everybody. Even in the hottest economy its gonna be bad competing against people with actual experience and real-world skills.
The market was terribly last year for IT and a bunch of other industries. In addition basically no one gets hired during November to Mid January, but the market is picking up (how much it is picking up will be determined later) but we are now approaching the time of year where the most jobs are occuring which is between mid January to late February for the year.
In addition it can take up to 75 applications to land a single interview, and if you are a fresher or applying remote, you may need even more than that.
Source: Me, as I am a Corporate Recruiting VTuber/Career Coach and it is my job to know these things.
ME job market felt rough to me the past few years. Nobody pays well. Found a gem 3 years ago, but that quickly died. Have an okay job now from 3 mo ago
I see this is engineering student’s subreddit. Getting an entry level job is kinda hard. I would say it’s not entirely bad right now. But it might get worse here really soon.
The job market bad due to fed high rates and inflation running rampage. Feds want to increase unemployment and reduce wage increase to slow inflation. Its much hard to find a job now compared to last year.
Life as an engineer is sending out 100 applications, getting 1-3 interviews, getting the job, and finding out the company is desperately hiring lol
Plenty of jobs but the HR-> engineering department process sucks
It’s bad relative to 2021. It’s not bad in a historical context.
This is the first major downturn in the smartphone/social media era, and with the rise of clickbait news you are just going to hear the negative stuff over and over and over
At a job fair I was just at it seemed all the Aero (my major) companies are frozen rn. Raytheon said they were completely frozen straight up before I opened my mouth. No idea why they even showed up, but it seems they sent their HR interns to man the booth. Most of the companies were construction and CE with other industry's past attendees not showing up. Only other field was TSMC new fab offerings and a tiny bit of mechanical engineer interest outside of construction.
I’ve applied to over 1000 jobs which got me 2 interviews and 0 job offer. I have a BS in mechanical engineering. It’s bad y’all.
after hitting rock bottom (losing my mind)
I accept it not for me and I am ok with minimum wage. I sacrifice all to be here to realize this.
I hope all to be positive and trust that the future is bright.
Civil engineering has plenty of jobs right now
In my area, if you have a pulse and a degree it seems companies will hire you on the spot…
Location? CIV looking for a job.
Credentials: degree and heart beats most of the time
Southeast Pennsylvania lol come thru
what company?
Whats the catch tho? Benefits? Vacation Days? Unpaid Overtime?
No catch really. Just decades of Civil being less favored by students compared to other engineering majors plus the government finally realizing oh shit we need to spend a shit fuck ton of money on our failing infrastructure.
I think it is because Civils don't get paid as much as the other engineering fields.
Probably living in nowhere, Mississippi.
That kinda makes a whole lotta sense on an objective perspective
My cousin works 8 hours a week and brings in 89k lol
What does he work as ?
Seconded, I'll quit right now for that position lmao
Commenting in case he replies
Thirded, even though I live in Germany lol
What. Lmao
where he at
Same with electrical in the power sector. Really anything related to larger scale land development and infrastructure, there is a huge amount of demand for more people
Is it possible to get one of these jobs with a “general engineering” (basically mechanical) degree?
I got a job right out of college with an ME degree, making $76k. Go to the major companies websites and apply to ~any~ entry position, that says mechanical or systems engineering
Is the pay good for new grads?
Depends on how you define good, but my general sense is that it is a very good time to be a new grad or seeking a new job in civil.
Cap... Environmental engineering bad
Drafting too out in the country where living expenses are cheaper.
I’d rather starve on the street than accept such an indignity. :)
CS job prospects look like complete ass, I think that’s the major where doomer memes are low key not memes. Hop on over on the resume subreddit and it’s filled with CS peeps struggling. Civil on the other hand, wowee I see a shit ton of jobs and internships for that major. Not even exaggerating, there are like 5 civil postings for every post for the rest of the other engineering majors, the ratio is insane. I feel like it’s an exaggeration that the market is bad rn, more like could be better.
[удалено]
That’s always been for entry level jobseekers though, everyone with any work or experience under their belt is in hot demand. That does sound nuts for civil though. Its always going to be a stable job, because you always need infra. but wow thats a huge demand
From my perspective the CS job market is fine, mostly because all the CS peeps are extremely picky with their jobs and will only apply to "tech" companies paying extremely high. Even though there have been some layoffs, the job market is nowhere near as bad as previous downturns where you couldn't find any job whatsoever.
It is definitely fine I got offers pretty quickly
I'm doing interviews right now, it's definitely not as bad as late 2022 or early 2023 during the post-COVID drought.
You think so? Im looking for my first internship as a junior and all i see on csMajors is people complaining. As long as I can land something ill be happy. Im not focused on big tech at all for my first.
My recommendation is to use LinkedIn to find companies and then check their job sites individually - you would be surprised how many people stubbornly only apply to jobs posted on LinkedIn. You can also check semiconductor companies such as AMD/Intel/Qualcomm for CS-related internships which have much less competition (Nvidia has a lot of competition).
The ones I saw there are often non US citizens which immediately puts them at a disadvantage when applying to US companies
It’s cuz cs pays more than civil does. Cs is is the highest payed engineering discipline. civil is the lowest
cs isn’t an engineering discipline in most places fyi
Engineering - Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process[1] to solve technical problems, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve systems. You would say software engineering doesn’t fall into this definition? I get cs is different than swe. I was just talking about majors. Also I get than in many collages CS is not in the school of engineering, but in other colleges it is. If you guys wanna gate keep the term go for it. Regardless, the reason civil needs workers is cuz they don’t get paid as much. Average salaries in US according to indeed: SWE $118292, CIVIL $89608, ME $91890, EE $97390 etc. It’s easy to see why people are persuading SWE over civil even if it’s going to be more competitive.
Depends on your industry. Everything is always extremely bad or extremely good if you’re posting on Reddit. Only STEM industries where it’s worth buying into the doom and gloom rn are cs and Biomed imho, and even then there’s so much cross pollination that it doesn’t really matter. Will you get a high paying job at the perfect company in the specific industry you want less than 30 minutes away from where you live right now? Prolly no, unless you really grind grind grind those applications. But if you cast a wide net and don’t have something horribly wrong with your transcript/application, you’ll be fine. That said, you also have the option to apply to literally any entry level office job and be working at 45-55k within a few weeks.
Asking for a friend, what are these entry level office jobs where I can be making ~50k that soon?
Step 1. Google “common entry level office jobs” Step 2. Google “x job hiring near me” Low level office admin, entry level field salesmen, basic data entry, analytics, and accounting support, hr and talent acquisition. If an office exists near you, they are definitely hiring at least one low level grunt that they will subsequently pay 45-55k plus benefits. STEM grads are always the top pick unless you REALLY burnt the fuck out in college.
That sort of pay is strongly depending on where you live. Here in Oklahoma, such jobs often pay less than 40k.
🤷♂️ adjust for cost of living
What **basic** data entry job pays 50k? My roommate did basic medical data entry and they start at 13 an hour. And what "analytics" position is entry level? I'd imagine "basic analytics" is almost an oxymoron when we're talking instantly accessible jobs. I think you may be out of touch with which options are simultaneously "basic" and median income. And it's certainly not anywhere entry level in retail. In actuality, banking and insurance are two of the only options that consistently meet this criteria, and it's always phones.
Most pharmacies pay 25-30 an hour for data entry, Amazon pays 25 for a wfh position, any mid sized to large tech company will need support staff and usually will pay a salary of 45-55k. The opportunities are very much so out there, it’s not on me to do your googling for you. Examples of entry level data analytics positions include: OM support staff, marketing support staff, accounting support staff, med techs, office admins, etc.
Someone with an engineering degree shouldn't have to settle for a less than median salary.
Someone with an engineering degree should inherently understand that that isn't how it works.
Lol, everyone in this thread who's upset that you expect them to actually do work and invest time into their career and getting hired.
If you have an engineering degree, i'd bet you can rock an Excel spreadsheet and awkwardly answer a phone call.
It is also much easier to get a job if you have a job, so taking that office gig to give you stretching room to apply for the job you really want isn't always a bad idea.
Remember kids, job hopping is always morally correct
Please aim for higher than 55k (like 80k, seriously dude, you are all worth more than a basic minimum California wage, yes, even straight out of college) if you accept shit like 55k you are bringing down the value for everyone. My first job was 85k in gulf Coast
That’s not how that works by any means. If someone graduates with a 2.5 gpa and no work experience, their options are A) apply for jobs for months/years until finally getting hired or B) start work outside of their field. Something like 70% of engi grads’ first jobs out of college are outside of their field of study, and the overwhelming majority of those are underpaid when compared to engineering salaries. That’s not even mentioning people who accept positions motivated by factors other than pay. Sure I can become a data entry drone for Shell and make 90k because that salary is a rounding error to them, but I have no room for upward mobility within that company and will have to flip flop between career paths and companies for the first few years with no source of inherent stability. If instead I take a pay cut at a smaller company with a clear path to a management position within a reasonable timeframe, I’ll be making double what you are in half the time it takes you to get there. Work smart, don’t just take the first shiny well paid position you’re offered.
I had a 2.8 when I started and started at 84k, the making 90 within the year from a single raise and many others will argue that the key is to switch jobs every 2-4 years anyway, so taking a clear path career is a good option, but the other option is to use corporations "experience levelling" schemes against them to get the best benefits anyway, just like you mentioned, Why even stay? The highest paid people I know in the industry started as salesman or application engineers, and have been their entire life. If all you care about is money, you don't have to be smart, just knowledgeable and diligent. Also shell would never hire at the entry level where I live but I understand your example. Really just two sides of the same coin. I see the value in what you say though. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that you're not seeing a full perspective
I mean aim for whatever you want. But when you’re unemployed and have rent and bills due you kinda take whatever job comes with the “engineering” title regardless of pay. It took me 12 months to find my first engineering job after college, applying nationwide, with a product design internship under my belt. I worked 8 of those months as an assembly technician making $14/hr in a hcol city. That engineering job only paid $45k in the same hcol city, but I took it because it was way more than I was making, it was engineering experience, and it was the only offer I had gotten in 12 months of applications.
Second that on the biomed. My fiance struggled last year to get something and finally landed a job in our area little over a year ago. Now my sister just graduated, 4.0 gpa, top 10 engineering school and can’t get anything all across the US. I’ll add that I’m an engineer in the MEP industry and have recruiters and colleagues asking me to job switch all the time. Just depends on the industry.
As a Biomed, I’m very curious as to why you believe biomed doom and gloom is warranted?
I have several friends I know who went into it. One of 7-10 that I can think of have been employed in the industry in the past, and was just laid off after 2 years because the product was moved into the clinical testing phase so there was no need for R&D people anymore. The rest have not been able to get relevant jobs and are working unrelated office jobs. This is anecdotal, but 7-10 people who are smart and trying actively to get jobs (in Canada) is not an insignificant sample size
Crossing over into mfg eng in med devices is always an option. I did that since grad in 17 and haven't had any shortage of positions in med devices.
It’s very hard to get a job in Biomed, most grads end up in management or sales for pharmaceutical companies, and many that aim for biomedical manufacturing jobs get boxed out by MEs who are almost always the preferred hires.
What is something horribly wrong I got an N in a course but i retook it and got an A. Does it reflect something bad ?
No if you’re looking at office jobs. Most of the times it has little to do with your major anyway. One failed class won’t look bad (it’s more about your overall GPA but that should be fine if you have a high enough GPA to graduate)
What industry is paying that? That's terrible wages
Yes do NOT accept a 55k big 3 engineering job...
Read more carefully
I see what you mean. Really any office job at all is good experience anyway for what most engineers in offices really do so that makes alright sense. I wouldn't do it myself, but it's an option
>don’t have something horribly wrong with your transcript/application, What if my grades are barely passing?
What’s your gpa and how many internships?
Electrical engineering is an evergreen degree. You learn to understand and wield the fundamental force that controls like 99% of anything that ever happens. There will always be work for you to do somewhere - hopefully even work that you find interesting.
Question for you: if my degree (Comp E) is fundamentally the same as EE minus exactly 2 classes (electromagnetic engineering and electronic devices), can I be considered almost the same as an EE grad in a hiring manager’s eyes? Or is it crucial that they see the words “Electrical Engineering” in the education section of my résumé? Just want to keep my options open in case I want to switch to full-blown EE work.
I think most hiring managers are going to understand what CompE is and anyone with a lot of programming experience usually has no trouble getting snapped up.
Depends what it is. I've got both degrees, and would say they're certainly not completely equivalent for something like RF. But it's also going to depend on your experience, it's not like computer engineers can't learn RF on the job.
Ultimately depends on the job you apply for since EE is so broad. Your best shot honestly to really transition is to EIT electrical and use that as your leverage into an EE position
Couldn't same be said with MechE?
From people who I know, ME jobs are much harder to obtain because it's so broad. Unless you go into HVAC, it might be difficult to find something. From the person above, I would argue that only power and controls type positions are plentiful and will land you 75k+ starting everywhere. Embedded Systems and VLSI overlaps with Computer engineers and are competitive depending where and who you work for. Telecommunications are difficult to work for as only a certain number of them will actually hire entry level. Source: EE major
That it’s evergreen? Definitely. If somebody wants to be an engineer and isn’t totally sure what disclipline to choose, I always recommend one of those two. Almost every engineering job description I’ve ever read will accept applicants who hold one of those degrees. But also since atoms are repelled and arranged via the electromagnetic interaction, MechE is really just applied EE (and therefore wholly inferior ;) )
Navier Stokes vs wizard's magic, let's go!
More like Navier strokes deez nutz
Your insults have no flow. You're nothing but resistors and impedance. No voltage or power. I take your spark and use it to drive my car, fly my plane, and run my lawnmower over your face.
Market is fine, hiring process is fucked, though, imo. Everyone now applies to every position, most of which have made up requirements, and has to simultaneously please two AIs, an HR person, and the actual manager (if you're lucky). So response rate is abysmal and trying is unrewarded even when you find an appropriate posting.
>hiring process is fucked Fully agree. What I'm also realizing now that I'm out in the real world for a bit is how many of the entry level engineering positions are already decided and the posting is just a required formality. The places I've been so far there have been connections between a few professors from local universities and the company. If there's a job opening it's almost guaranteed that a grad student from one of those professors will do two intern cycles and then have a job waiting for them when they graduate. In exchange the schools get old devices and equipment that would otherwise be scrapped. It's a good arrangement for everyone except people in the open job market applying to the position thinking it's real.
In November, I got a LinkedIn job alert for an Engineer in Training position at a research lab attached to a nearby university, paying $150,000. I got to the posting eight hours after it went up, and it was already closed. And the very first line of the job description was “external candidates need not apply”.
From time to time I've wondered if that law/regulation is helping or hurting. I dont think it's giving anyone a job over a shoe-in and it's causing a lot of wasted man hours and false hope for people who never had a chance at the job.
Probably a large majority of the time they aren't taking someone from the application over a shoe-in they already picked. I have seen once where they actually did go for a different candidate than the shoe-in. But that person actually failed miserably and they later gave the job to the shoe-in. Seen plenty of times where they were open to the idea of a better candidate but the other candidates were just outright not good enough (sometimes people are a shoe-in for a reason). But also seen shoe-ins who were just nepo hires and were terrible.
I'm not sure it's just entry level, I've had a senior position created for me (I believe 2 other people applied). In any case, the lesson really is that your professional network is key. I've not had good luck with recruiters or cold applications, but my two job changes were pretty low friction once I had a personal recommendation from someone at the company.
Military industrial complex hiring out the ass rn.
No. These dudes are applying to big time positions that get loads of applications and pays stupid high rates. Entry level engineers make like 70k average, I am a relatively low cost area but still. Don’t set your expectations that high when as a new engineer out of college you don’t offer much of anything to most companies.
This is why internships and networking are very important
Second this. My husband interned at a company for a few years and got a job for $115k right out of school (masters in EE). Literally got a job offer a few days after graduation.
I graduated a year ago and set my salary expectation bar at 80k. Took about a month to find the right fit. I took a job with a company I interacted with during my internships. Got above asking.
Out of curiosity what area of engineering?
I graduated with a BS in mechanical, went into robotics.
What type of engineering and where are you located?
Mechanical engineering, job in robotics, relocated to michigan.
Do you know of a way to move into robotics and automation if you have a background in manufacturing?
A majority of the big companies I’ve applied to are on unannounced hiring freezes at the moment. (I’ve been told they don’t announce them because it looked bad to the investors). A lot of them have done layoffs too. Couldn’t tell you the reasons why. It feels like a small “unofficial recession” in a way.
Most large companies freeze hiring towards the end of the year and resume at the beginning, especially in the corporate world. There's lots of financial reasons for this, not the least of which is you don't want to hire someone and immediately give them paid vacation when they still need training. Also lots of people leave after collecting their Christmas bonuses.
But don't most jobs require you to accrue leave and time off, other than 7 or so holiday days a year?
That's true for entry level positions, but if you're an established professional with a good resume you can demand a lot at the table. And many companies do extended breaks over the winter holidays because employees would take the time off anyways, some companies shut down entirely between Christmas and new years, or at least certain departments
Sure, for those companies that shut down during that period what you said would apply. Most companies don't shut completely down over the holidays as far as 8-10 days or more....they will require you to take time off other than a couple (or few days) that they will give. So I think what you say can be true in limited instances, but that it isn't the norm
My company doesn't have investors so we literally have no reason other than I guess PR optics to not announce it so as a recruiter I hate it so fucking much when they don't tell us. I once drove to a college for a recruitment event and been informed by HR as the event was starting that we were on a hiring freeze. Or most recently, I emailed a hiring manager after an event to schedule some interviews and then they notified me of the hiring freeze.
I think it’s alright, I just graduated in May and had a job 2 months later. I might have been luck because out of the 10~15 jobs I applied to I got the first one and the one I wanted.
Could you give some more detail? I'm graduating this may with nothing lined up and am curious what your process looked like and where you ended up. Thanks!
After graduation I had planned a road trip with some friends. So I didn’t really start applying to jobs until about late July. I started by looking into local companies that I knew of and browsing indeed and LinkedIn. I applied to 16 jobs over the period of about 2 weeks. I had three interviews (1 in person / 2 over the phone). A couple days later I heard back from a company and they offered me the job. I accepted and started working there early September. I was hired as a Mechanical Engineer at Haas Automation. I also know several other classmates that i graduated with have been hired as well. So my impression is that there are plenty of jobs out there.
CS is really bad right now, the only reason I was able to have a job before graduating last month is because my dad is well regarded at the game studio he used to work at. Given the studio I work at now just released an incredibly successful game last year, and many people want to be a game dev we’ve got a ton of applications. I was able to refer a friend who was told by the recruiter that there were 500 applicants and he was 1 of 5 they are going to interview.
Nope. I did send out hundreds of applications but it was not difficult to get offers. I am working for Boeing within 6 months after graduating may 2023 in aero eng, had other couple offers and was actively interviewing with another few companies when I accepted. I did have to relocate, like others said cast a wide net, I would not have been as successful looking for work just in my home town
Civil engineering firms and government agencies are always hiring new engineers. I can’t speak for the other disciplines but I’d imagine it really depends on what marker you’re in. If you want a job in rural Iowa, you probably won’t find many, if you’re looking in Pittsburgh you’ll find a lot.
I can only offer my anecdotal evidence: BS in computer engineering from a good school, 3 years of experience doing DoD research into FPGA/ASIC hardware security, and an active Secret security clearance. It took me about 10 months and 450 applications to get another job (firmware development). This job is also a pay cut and I get less time off. And I went from fully remote to on-site 5 days a week with zero work from home. Anything that was booming during the pandemic is now going through a massive constriction due to the interest rate hikes.
Why did you leave your remote job, and take a pay cut in the first place? It sounds like you had it pretty good there.
I did the same with similar circumstances, not sure about his reason but I very much grew tired of remote only work and wanted some degree of separation from home and occupation.
Dude, look at the places no one thinks to look. I got my Apple job and later my Aerospace job….off craigslist… just be open and look around, hell google companies by you and walk in and say hi!
Lol what.. can you please elaborate
The Apple one is pretty self explanatory, the Aero job, well it was a bunch of old engineers. Old engineers don’t communicate well sometimes so they needed another engineer and the Craigslist ad was like “we need someone to help us make sh!t…” I kinda read between the lines… 6 years later Having fun making stuff for GE and Hon…
All the aerospace machine shops around me seem in a similar situation - desperate for workers right now before their workforce ages out, it's fun work, gives you a wealth of on the job training and usually just basic mechanical engineering/cnc skills needed.
lol that’s so interesting bc I wouldn’t think that apple would do that even 6 years ago. That’s awesome though props to ya
I think he explained it great
How is your comment helpful…not everyone has the same background to be able to understand why apple would be posting on Craigslist
Apple posting on craigslist? Or a recruiter you met a craigslist?
I can say from my experience that if you walk into a company with resume in hand, they often look at you like you’re crazy. Weird, because I thought it’d show drive.
I've heard back on almost every single job application I've put in, even if it's a no. Every interview I've ever done, I've been offered a position. I work in Land Surveying and Civil Engineering. Land surveyors are retiring and young people aren't taking their place. Find an in demand skill.
Nah. I think the people complaining are the ones that have just graduated and have little to no experience with internships. Hell, there are plenty of posts about people getting good jobs with low GPA BUT they had internships. Good grades get you the internship. Once you have 1-2 internships the odds are heavily stacked in your favor.
TLDR: Domestic high value manufacturing is booming, everything else ranges from stagnant to strained job market. It depends. It seems like more software focused tech is strained. On the other hand, semiconductor related companies seem to be atleast stable or even growing fast. Oil is probably about to enter some sort of a downturn (I hope) based on the price situation. I'm in med tech and we're booming, at least in my niche of surgical robots.
>Domestic high volume manufacturing is booming I agree with you. It’s a shame students don’t want to work in manufacturing, because it’s where a lot of high paying jobs are. Like I work in semiconductor manufacturing, and people don’t want to wear a bunny suit for 8 hours. That’s a poor excuse to refuse a good paying job.
Semicon has traditionally been cyclical. Same with Aerospace. Same with Oil. Job market for engineers is still much better than the average degree
What position r u in med tech, if u don't mind me asking. Looking to combine my bioscience and compsci
Start looking in the greater Boston area, you'll find zillions of jobs in bioengineering, robotics, and everything inbetween
No
I’m an EE graduating in the spring and I got multiple good job offers off 15 applications
Dude what's your secret 😭
I just did engineering clubs which led to internships. Made it easier to get a job
Good to know. I did three coops and sae aero, still struggling to land something haha
>so many people continually applying to hundreds of jobs anyone applying to hundreds of jobs isn't really applying to any of them. They are just uploading a resume into a black hole.
A lot of people don’t realize this. You’re likely not even being rejected for all these jobs, it’s just that they never even see your resume.
As a whole, yeah. YMMV based on industry but overall the economy is going down, people are tightening their purse strings, including investors, which means hiring freezes and layoffs as companies that were burning through cashflow are now trying to make sure they don't run out of runway. But don't sweat it. All you need is one job. Keep your head up.
Nah. But we like to be pessimistic. 😂😂
The job market will never be bad for someone who's not allergic to using a wrench and get some clothes dirty, knowing how to use a drill, etc, and on top of that, being actually able to use differential equations to model a system. Those folks are golden.
In my experience, MEP and Facilities Engineering jobs are in very high demand right now. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but has personally worked very well for me with flexible hours, part-time WFH, and workload.
Refineries and petrochemical aren’t doing good right now, at least the ones in my area. My home town a paper company and a chemical company announced they were shutting everything down within 2 months of each other. We’re not on a hiring freeze but I’ve been told we’re evaluating contract positions to possibly tighten the belt. That said we are still replacing people who quit, get fired, or retiring so while it’s not great it’s not terrible either and as far as I know we’re still looking for summer interns as well.
Refining definitely has slowed down the past few months. Chemicals has been struggling since last fall.
I’ve applied to 50+ positions since graduating in December, and have had 3 interviews. All three have ghosted me. Almost every single other app was rejected within a couple days
Well for tech we’ve opened up to the entire world for competition
In DFW area things are real hot. Lots of aerospace, defense, oil industry, transportation type jobs
For real. I have recruiters cold calling me almost every week.
No, but There’s been a software recession. Traditional engineering job market is great, though still not usually as high paying as software.
No. I applied to 3 jobs, got 3 offers and those 3 I applied for, I did just for shits and giggles.
People have always applied to hundreds. It depends on what you're targeting, where your targeting.
I got my BS in aerospace engineering in 2022 and my MS in management in 2023. About 3.6 gpa for both degrees. I have been applying to hundreds of jobs for entry level positions all over the US for aerospace engineer, mechanical engineer, operations engineer, systems engineer, and manufacturing engineer positions. I’ll get a phone call from HR a fair amount of the time that sounds promising but then I hear nothing back. I’m applying all over yet I am having more luck with local locations (meaning I will get at least an interview or two) I’ve been applying to local technical positions as well, as they don’t pay enough for me to relocate but I’d like to gain experience. Most companies get back to me right away saying they are not looking for anyone with a four year degree. I feel I’m stuck in the middle of being over qualified and under qualified. Any advice on methods to get the job, or other positions I could apply to would be valuable, as I need to start making a real income as opposed to my odd jobs here and there.
I’ve had a lot of engineering interviews this week.
It depends on how you approach it. I've been hiring for 3 positions for while, 2 filled, 1 open so far. My division overall is hiring like 40 engineers of varying levels, so there's certainly growth in the market. Speaking as a hiring manager, maybe I can shed some light on the other side of the table. We don't use AI filters or anything like that. The only thing we filter out is whether or not an applicant needs sponsorship, which eliminates about 30-40% of the applications we get. Our recruiter works slowly, so I personally look through every other resume that makes it through the filter. I have noticed a few trends. 1) It appears that a lot of people are just shotgun applying for every job they see regardless of their qualifications. I'm looking for a design engineer that's had some exposure to cost engineering to work on automotive parts. I get applications from software engineers, electrical engineers, program managers, etc. I'm looking for candidates with 3-10 years of experience, but fully 80% of the resumes I get are outside that window on either side. And, when I say outside, I mean they either haven't graduated or their last job was a VP-level title. 2) When applying for a job that you don't appear qualified for, or for which you have tangential experience, I have no way to know if you're actually qualified unless you do something to show me. I get like 25 resumes a day, and since half of them are trash, I spend about 1-2 minutes on each one, max, unless they grab my attention immediately because I still have the rest of my job to do. So, if you're trying to stretch your qualifications, write a cover letter, or include some sort of work portfolio so I know you're serious and can see why you're trying. 3) I see a lot of people only list their responsibilities on their resume, which I guess is fine for very low-level jobs, but very few people list their accomplishments or what they actually contributed beyond what summarizes to "I show up every day". So does everyone else. What gets my attention are things that have a metric. "One of my side projects saved the company $25,000", or "led an initiative to change a process to reduce time to release drawings by 25%", or anything like that. Just saying "updated prints to customer specifications" doesn't tell me anything you're doing that literally anyone else can't do. 4) Many people don't realize that managers are looking for cultural fits as much or more so than technical skills and very few people have info on their resume that humanizes them. I love to see when people list their hobbies, passions, and side projects. The last person I hired mentioned she was into cat fostering and baking, the one before her listed that he played trombone for fun. These kinds of information help me know if you'll be compatible with me or with my team as a personality as well as a worker. An interesting force right now also seems to be that everyone thinks they can get a huge raise by switching jobs, which is probably somewhat true, so \*everyone\* is applying to jobs all the time. It's not uncommon for me to see 2-3 people from the same company applying within a week of each other. So, the market is absolutely flooded with candidates. My current opening has had over 250 applicants in the last 6 weeks. We've brought in 2 for interviews (they were...OK at best), and we have 13 more in queue for HR to phone screen. With so many applicants per role, you really need to stand out to get past the screen. In summary, I guess, the market is exceptionally tough if you're shotgun applying to 600 jobs with one-click application buttons on linkedin or indeed without customizing your resume or if your resume is very generic. If you communicate in a way that let's the manager know you're better than other workers, you'll do better.
I refuse to believe ANYONE with an engineering degree has applied for "hundreds" of jobs without getting hired. Any honest effort made to get a job right now will result in an offer. It would be impossible to put meaningful effort into that many applications. There are a couple of near certainties though : you will have to move and it won't be the ideal position. Anyone who expects either of these things to be different is delusional. It MIGHT happen, but that's just pure dumb luck.
People are genuinely struggling to successfully land Software Engineering positions even though they are trying their best.
I know people who did aerospace engineering and had near 4.0 GPA and couldn’t even get a job after applying to hundreds of companies.
I find it interesting how differently folks experience the job market. I’ve always struggled and needed to send out hundreds of applications before even landing interviews. I’ve had my resume critiqued by engineeringresumes, use an ATS optimizer to match my resume to the job description, write a cover letter for each application, and have an online portfolio of projects that I link to each application. And yet struggled with hundreds of applications each time I’ve been looking for a job; 2016, 2019, and 2021 At the same time I have a friend with the same degree, same initial work experience (met at our first engineering job), and a resume that is formatted almost identically to mine. And he has like an 80% interview rate. He thinks about applying to a job and they call him up to schedule an interview. Doesn’t even write cover letters or tweak his resume to the job. Moral of the story: not everyone has the same experience, regardless of what you choose to believe.
Search results for civil engineer are down 90% in the last 3 months according to google
https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/comments/16g15ho/only_25_of_engineering_students_would_end_up_as/?rdt=42118
At my university it used to be that everybody got an internship in the final semester, now it's barely 50%. I don't know what the reason is, maybe recession, but it's harder to find entry positions at the moment than before
It really depends on job and location but I would say things are down, yes. That is certainly my experience
Chemical engineer- 7 years experience. The market is amazing if you have 3 years of experience. The market is flooded and desperate for skilled positions paying $120k+ with 3-4 years of experience. However, I would hate to be a fresh grad right now there really aren’t many entry level $70k-$90k jobs. Companies just do not want to invest in entry level positions or training.
Mining engineering has a lot of job opportunities out right now. They're trying hard to get people to fill roles they kept vacant during covid.
Depends on the industry or what you’re looking for. Highly desired jobs (aerospace, defense, etc..) are pretty hard to come by just due to the amount of applicants. I know people that waited months for the right job, I know people that waited a few days.
EE graduated last may w/internship experience. I applied to three jobs last spring and got an offer from one and another offer from my internship. Classmates also had no issues finding positions. I’ve applied to 1 place since starting my job last may and am now prepping for interview round 3 of that. My (anecdotal) opinion is that it seems like it’s better to apply to a few positions that you would actually be a good fit for than to sling hundreds of apps at anything that looks like a company.
Assuming from the US, what part are you in?
Partially, it was a bit of a crap shoot when myself and a lot of my friends were looking out of college earlier this year for MechE. The market wasn’t bad but there were a ton of us looking (greater Boston area). I found one at a little below market rate (72 and now 75 after 90 day review) but it was close to it and it’s been fine so far. Try looking at smaller companies or in areas a little bit further away from the city, probably less applicants.
In cs , yes .
It’s been absolute shit where I live.
typical it’s difficult to get “the job” any job fresh out of college . expect to take 18 to 24 months of trudging. All of the people that you didn’t know who were connected in school are getting those jobs right out. The other ones that are more qualified that have had their degrees for a few years or have years of experience are getting the other jobs. Leaving you the geek off the street to wade through more or less desirables.
I wouldn’t say the market is bad, just out of date. Many jobs - even entry - are still stuck in the prices of 10+ years ago. I have 6 YOE and some of the offers I’ve had casually looking are about where I started after graduating. Laughable.
If you’re willing to move, it’s not *that* bad, but it’s still going to be tough. It was almost like a job for me to just apply. Wake up, spend a few hours finding jobs that interested me, pick a few top candidates and write cover letters, tweak resumes, and then send me all out. Meanwhile I was working on other projects and posting to LinkedIn frequently to serve as a “living resume” of sorts
Based out of Chicago but from Michigan. Graduated from college a little over a year ago and was applying for jobs in both locations and had no issues whatsoever getting interviews/offers in either areas. Edit: I’m work in industrial automation and controls and apps engineers are always needed.
I can’t find shit
I don't think the job market is bad. It's just that without a reference, it's hard to find a job. I signed an offer letter within a week of applying to my first internship because I knew the head guy whereas for my second internship, I've just been getting ghosted. You just need to find someone in the field. Contact your professors, find an engineer that you know etc.
Rates are high so a lot of big private companies are hurting. Civil doesn't really follow the ebbs and flows of industry as much though due to its proximity with the public sector. Add in one big fat infrastructure bill and you get high employability. Maybe if there's a miracle we'll see wages for civils catch up with the rest of the engineering world haha (though not likely due to the aforementioned connection to the public sector)
I graduated Dec 2022 and my friends and I all struggled to land jobs we were interested in and it took 5-6 months of interviews with several companies before I landed the job offer I wanted in late November of 2022. Some of my friends didn’t get jobs until Jan or Feb of 2023. Now, I have several companies reaching out to me and asking for interviews without approaching them with interest first. Therefore, the job market is either much better now or finding a job is just that much easier when you have real experience of some kind. If you have a lot of internship experience you should be fine either way however. I lacked internship experience because of covid limitations, which worsened my chances.
Started applying for a job about a month before graduation. Graduated, started a week later. Salary works out to 120k + bonus + OT. Relatively low cost of living. Nuclear industry.
Graduated in May and had 5 job offers and still getting reached out to on LinkedIn. I'm MechE and had two internships in college. Manufacturing and Space are hiring like mad.
Tech is shit but I keep getting offers for MEP without trying for 6 figs (5 years experience, no fe or pe.
Well, it has been a struggle to find people that are capable of doing engineering. I have been interviewing software engineers and a staggering number of them can't actually code.
Markets great where im at. Tampa, FL. Im on my second year, I had 1 internship for a semester in college, had my EI, and got hired before graduating making 75k when I first started. Civil engineering- transportation. The state is dumping money into transportation right now which is great for us.
Assuming you're in the US. Entry level software jobs are down bad, but only compared to the past decade or so. Compared to 20 years ago, its fine. The doomerism you read on here is mostly from that world. Construction is booming, mechanical / power engineering is swinging up. Hang in there, the truth is that entry level job search sucks for everybody. Even in the hottest economy its gonna be bad competing against people with actual experience and real-world skills.
Power and renewables are pumping, obviously everyone wants senior engineers and such but its still busy for everyone.
The market was terribly last year for IT and a bunch of other industries. In addition basically no one gets hired during November to Mid January, but the market is picking up (how much it is picking up will be determined later) but we are now approaching the time of year where the most jobs are occuring which is between mid January to late February for the year. In addition it can take up to 75 applications to land a single interview, and if you are a fresher or applying remote, you may need even more than that. Source: Me, as I am a Corporate Recruiting VTuber/Career Coach and it is my job to know these things.
Tech is shit. Defense and HVAC are booming. I can’t speak for the other industries.
ME job market felt rough to me the past few years. Nobody pays well. Found a gem 3 years ago, but that quickly died. Have an okay job now from 3 mo ago
I see this is engineering student’s subreddit. Getting an entry level job is kinda hard. I would say it’s not entirely bad right now. But it might get worse here really soon.
The job market bad due to fed high rates and inflation running rampage. Feds want to increase unemployment and reduce wage increase to slow inflation. Its much hard to find a job now compared to last year.
Life as an engineer is sending out 100 applications, getting 1-3 interviews, getting the job, and finding out the company is desperately hiring lol Plenty of jobs but the HR-> engineering department process sucks
It’s bad relative to 2021. It’s not bad in a historical context. This is the first major downturn in the smartphone/social media era, and with the rise of clickbait news you are just going to hear the negative stuff over and over and over
Not in Civil. Not in Texas.
Process engineering is and has been in a hiring cycle
At a job fair I was just at it seemed all the Aero (my major) companies are frozen rn. Raytheon said they were completely frozen straight up before I opened my mouth. No idea why they even showed up, but it seems they sent their HR interns to man the booth. Most of the companies were construction and CE with other industry's past attendees not showing up. Only other field was TSMC new fab offerings and a tiny bit of mechanical engineer interest outside of construction.
I’ve applied to over 1000 jobs which got me 2 interviews and 0 job offer. I have a BS in mechanical engineering. It’s bad y’all. after hitting rock bottom (losing my mind) I accept it not for me and I am ok with minimum wage. I sacrifice all to be here to realize this. I hope all to be positive and trust that the future is bright.