Your first Engineering job

pepsi1234

What was your first Engineering job and how did you get it?

Just qualified from Chemical Engineering (2.1) and wondering what people's experience has been. Looking at Gradireland, it seems it's only the multinational companies that seem to hire graduates. Most of their grad programs are closed now anyway and jobs on Irishjobs and similar sites require at least 2 years experience and experience in some aspects that were not covered on my course.

So I'm a bit lost on how I should even start my career!

godtabh

I had 3 jobs lined up before I even did my exams. 2 in Ireland and 1 in America. Couldnt get a visa for america sorted but would have loved to have gone there

Gurgle

pepsi1234 wrote: »

Looking at Gradireland, it seems it's only the multinational companies that seem to hire graduates.

Yeah, pretty much.

jobs on Irishjobs and similar sites require at least 2 years experience and experience in some aspects that were not covered on my course.

In most of these multinationals, the jobs are semi-technical paper pushing.

2 years experience is hard to claim if you've just graduated, but work placement, final year project and any other research work you've done can be pimped as relevant experience in your application letter.

'aspects not covered on the course' can be fixed with a few hours on google / wikipedia. You just need to talk the talk in the interview, and you won't find much to challenge your brain in these multinationals.

pepsi1234

kearnsr wrote: »

I had 3 jobs lined up before I even did my exams. 2 in Ireland and 1 in America. Couldnt get a visa for america sorted but would have loved to have gone there

Nice work. Any tips on how you got so many jobs? Was it a case of ignoring the work experience necessary and applying regardless?

pepsi1234

Gurgle wrote: »

In most of these multinationals, the jobs are semi-technical paper pushing.

I would be hoping for a hands on work experience with a small company to get to try as many different areas a possible. Doesn't look too realistic though!

Gurgle wrote: »

2 years experience is hard to claim if you've just graduated, but work placement, final year project and any other research work you've done can be pimped as relevant experience in your application letter.

Thanks, I'll try this. Hadn't looked at it this way before.

Gurgle wrote: »

'aspects not covered on the course' can be fixed with a few hours on google / wikipedia. You just need to talk the talk in the interview, and you won't find much to challenge your brain in these multinationals.

Problem is with multinationals they have such rigorous interviewing methods, like assesment centres and such. My grades are good and I'm a hardworker but I would crumble in such a situation especially not having the confidence of a few years work experience behind me.

random.stranger

OP
I was in the same situation as you after graduating. I did a FAS course related to my area of study, it had two work experience blocks in it where I worked for a company while FAS paid my wages. It got my foot in the door & got me a job with that company.

Pretty drastic as it was a one year course, but worth considering if nothing else is working for you.

Good luck.

SparkyLarks

This guy was in the same situation s your self.
http://www.chevron.com/about/leadership/executivecommittee/oreilly/

Couldn\'t find a job in Ireland, Wen\'t abroad and did pretty well.

there is a fair bit of work going on in the Kazakhstan, countries in that area.

With Oil onthe way back up, that might be a good industry to try

folan

my first job was for a multinational, but it was in the form of an 11 month contract. I was hoping for foot in the door kind of thing, but it didnt work that way. anyway, when i was there i was kind of a jack of all trades, so it worked well for me and got me the experience I was looking for.

godtabh

pepsi1234 wrote: »

Nice work. Any tips on how you got so many jobs? Was it a case of ignoring the work experience necessary and applying regardless?

I worked 4 summers in engineering related roles including one in the US plus there was a much bigger demand

imported_guy

kearnsr wrote: »

I worked 4 summers in engineering related roles including one in the US plus there was a much bigger demand

well done :O most of us are too lazy, but working pays off

godtabh

imported_guy wrote: »

well done :O most of us are too lazy, but working pays off

Its gona take more than hard work these days!

KAGY

It depends on how small the company is; I started as a mech in a building products company, the other engineer (the one with all the experience) left v. soon after so there were just two graduates employed. While I had great aspirations to CE mark their products, without any direction or backup, I just ended up being a CAD monkey (no offense intended to CAD technicians, but it wasn't what I spent 7 years in college for!)
After that I though that maybe a multinational with a mentoring program should have been the way to go. (suppose the grass is always greener....)

mawk

kearnsr wrote: »

Its gona take more than hard work these days!

ah a fine return to the fundamentals of nepotism.

Turbulent Bill

mawk wrote: »

ah a fine return to the fundamentals of nepotism.

Not necessarily. Contacts play a huge part, but not just in a family-and-friends sense. Demonstrating that you can do a good job, and making sure people are aware you can do that job is key.

Money is tight and recruitment is so thorough now that the 'jobs for the boys' mentality is much weaker in most companies. Where a new employee is known to the company, it's generally because they're good.

Cheeble

Being in the grad programmes and looking on Irishjobs just means you're in the same barrel as everybody else. So do these, but also try more imaginative approaches.

Write personal letters to the CEOs of Dow Chemical, AkzoNobel, whoever else you might want to work for. Offer to work for free on any project for three months to prove yourself. Back it up with letters of reference from your degree supervisor, past employers, and your mum. Be prepared to go anywhere in the world that the work is, at least for a year.

In the meantime, don't spend your time on PSP or XBox, go to some conferences and exhibitions, most are free if you can get there. Meet some people, ask about what they're doing, write to them afterwards and show your interest. Make some suggestions, read the relevant academic papers, put together a product or research proposal. Choose a specialist field and study it, maybe even write something yourself.

In short, do anything and everything you can to show that you're different from all your competitors in the job market. And think big!

It's tough out there - good luck.

Cheeble-eers

spideog7

I would advise this to anyone: http://www.iaeste.ie/
It's a technical internship and placement program in loads of countries all over the world. The list of jobs are literally all over the place and with big companies and obscure companies. I only heard about it last year but would have loved to have done it as a summer placement between semesters too. I just graduated and got a job for a year through that program. I'm working at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh at the moment. The job is mostly software whereas my preference and degree is more electronic hardware stuff but experience is experience and both skills are useful in engineering.
I got off the plane in a strange city not knowing anyone and I have to say I'm loving the experience... especially outside of the workplace But if you want something more exotic than the US they have placements all over Europe, Africa, South America and the Middle East. To the best of my knowledge they are mostly non-profit, in Ireland they are partially government funded.

Alot of the people in my year are only starting to find stuff now and some of them are still searching for proper positions so I'm glad I went for it.

Offy

My first job was in 1991, I worked as a cad technician doing some pretty cool 3d modeling, in 91 that was very rare so the experience was fantastic. I got the job because I dropped cv's into all the local engineering companies and one of the companies had just got cad into their office. I had just completed a course in mechanical cad so I was given a contract to show their people how to use cad. A lot of jobs in engineering these days are kinda lightweight and more down the project management road than the engineering road.
If your just starting out be careful what your first job is, it will fairly define your future prospects.

godtabh

Offy wrote: »

If your just starting out be careful what your first job is, it will fairly define your future prospects.

Not really. I started off wanting to do Structural and worked as that for a year before wanting to go into Civil where I am now

Offy

kearnsr wrote: »

Not really. I started off wanting to do Structural and worked as that for a year before wanting to go into Civil where I am now

Structural and civil are very much alike. Take a first job in software validation and see how easy it is to transfer to structural after two years with no other experience!

godtabh

Offy wrote: »

Structural and civil are very much alike.

No they are not.

Offy wrote: »

Take a first job in software validation and see how easy it is to transfer to structural after two years with no other experience!

Thats just a stupid comment.

But I do no people who have done mech and gone in to civil

jamesplarkin

Have you applied for a level 1 enineering positions? In theory its one step up from a graduate engineer but a lot of multinational companies start their graduates at level 1 straight away.

If it was me, I wouldnt be too bothered about graduate programs, from my experience there only an excuse to pay graduates peanuts.

I would also recommend getting in contact with a recruitment agency for a trial interview. Most interviews have a standard format which is repeated in most companies. A trial interview would help you loads

dan_d

Still in my first job!!On site.Don't know how much longer it'll last, and REALLY don't know what i'm going to do when it stops. Which will be soon.
What does 4 years of site experience and a degree get you?