Any Engineers?

[shakurov]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've actually decided to graduate this Spring and get a Bachelor's and see what the job market is like in the summer. If nothing comes up I have an offer to do a Ph.D that I might pursue.

Hi Eugene, I just graduated with a BS in mechanical engineering from a small school in Wisconsin. I moved to Chicago a few weeks ago to start a job as an energy consultant. My emphasis was energy systems and power plant design.

I'm a mechanical engineer. I do building facilities, energy analysis, HVAC, plumbing and drainage, fire protection, blah blah blah.

How hard was it finding a job? How heavy were they on SAE/3D Solid Modeling experience when looking for potential employees? Also, is the work you're doing now what you thought you were going to do when you got out of school?

Thanks in advance.

[m911gt]

Originally Posted by shakurov

Thanks for the replies guys. I've actually decided to graduate this Spring and get a Bachelor's and see what the job market is like in the summer. If nothing comes up I have an offer to do a Ph.D that I might pursue.


How hard was it finding a job? How heavy were they on SAE/3D Solid Modeling experience when looking for potential employees? Also, is the work you're doing now what you thought you were going to do when you got out of school?

Thanks in advance.

The job market should be getting better as time goes on so by this summer you should have better odds than my graduating class. It wasn't particularly difficult for me to get a job due to my luck with getting experience while in school. Only four of my thirty classmates received offers prior to graduating in December, so overall it still isn't great. I received two hard job offers, neither of which were concerned with modeling skills but neither job was to be a traditional engineer either. I didn't think I would be doing what I am today but I am glad I'm in the energy field; it's so interesting and new developments in technology make it exciting.

Best of luck with your decisions.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by shakurov

How hard was it finding a job? How heavy were they on SAE/3D Solid Modeling experience when looking for potential employees? Also, is the work you're doing now what you thought you were going to do when you got out of school?

Thanks in advance.

Finding a job wasn't terribly difficult, but I started while the construction industry was absolutely booming back in 2006. I interviewed in May of my final year of school and started work in June. I probably spent two months seriously looking. Things were really lean for the first half of 2009, but they picked up last October. I think most companies have significant backlog now to see them through to mid-2011.

3D/solid modeling isn't a huge part of what I do. That said, we're moving in the direction of Revit and it (building information modelling, aka BIM) is becoming a valuable tool for clash detection for mechanical services.

Mechanical engineering is such a ridiculously broad field, particularly when you're in school and are being prepared for potentially dozens of different industries, I'm not really sure if I can say that I'm doing exactly what I expected when I was sitting in lectures. I took a year off engineering to finish an English degree, and decided then that I wanted to work in the building industry. There's a lot less heavy math and a lot more "people work" (internal coordination, working with our managers, meeting clients, working with contractors). What I'm doing now is pretty much on par with what I thought I'd be doing once I interviewed for this particular position. It's a great job and I'm happy with how it's all turned out.