Looking for experience

judas101

Hi all,

Ive recently started a masters in mech eng which leaves me a decent ammount of free time a week.

As I found out the hard way, I realize that in engineering, experience is as important as the qualification.

Im looking to pick up a few days a week in an engineering company.
I will work for free although I do expect some hands on engineering work (not a tea maker!)

I have a 2:1 Bachelors Degree from Bolton St.
I can speak a decent level of German if thats a plus.
Have used alot of Ansys, SolidEdge and CAD.

Please contact me for a CV, or if you know any other avenues I could look into.

Thanks alot.

random.stranger

Hi OP,
I suggest you post this in the Entrepreneurial & Business section, there'd be plenty of people that would be delighted to take you on.

I suggest you only consider offers in a place that has an experienced engineer working there- so you can learn from them, get guidance on where to apply the theory and where to use your intiution.

Working for free is your call, I suggest you offer to work for free for say 6 months with a review at that stage. At least you can leave on good terms and get a good reference, if you are no longer willing to work for nothing.

Best of Luck.

random.stranger

Sorry, posted twice

American Pie

I am in a similar situation to the OP.

In my case I have already completed the Masters in Aeronautical Eng a year and have been unable to find anything relevant. To be honest I have found the past year to be one of the most gut wrenchingly depressing periods of my life at times and I am now at a loss at how to improve my situation.

I have applied to god knows how many jobs over that time and in most cases never here anything back. Not even a notification that an application has been received in most cases. I am applying to any mechanical or suitable engineering jobs too, not just keeping to aeronautical positions (Although that would be my preference). At least 4 or 5 times, jobs that I applied to and would have been very suitable for, had the positions withdrawn before filling them. In one case I had even been interviewed for the position and had to wait almost 3 months for the company to finally inform me that the position would not be filled.

I am amazed at how long some companies take to go through application forms. Currently I have at least 3 applications for graduate positions in the running at the minute and all 3 companies are in the process of sorting applications and short-listing. However this process has been going on for now 2 months for all three positions and I have been told recently that this process could take another "few months" for one of the companies. Surely it is wasteful for a company to advertise and accept applications when the job in question might be in doubt.

Like the OP, I have also started asking about the possibility of working temporarily for free for the experience and even then I am getting turned down. Emigration would be an option, but at a work-abroad exhibition recently I was told that I can't applying for work visa without experience and on a working holiday visa I probably wouldn't find an engineering position ( and probably wouldn't be allowed to work as an engineer even if I could). To put salt in the wound, a friend from college who has the exact same degree as me (result and all), just started his £30,000 / year job a few weeks ago, and yet I couldn't even get an interview. The only reason a career advisor could come up with for not getting looked at was the fact that I was Irish, because everything else was perfect.

So at this point in time, all I want is practical engineering experience. I would work anywhere for any money (within reason) in order to get it, particularly for aerospace experience. If anybody could think of any other avenues or have any advice on the situation, I would be very grateful.

phew..... rant over

PDelux

phew..... rant over

I've got a rant of my own
My company had an engineering position open recently and the quality of the CVs and the candidates for interview was seriously woeful. It's really amazing how little preparation people put into interviews and the lack of effort they put into the CVs. I think it's a case of some people just expect everything to be given to them, spoilt child syndrome. That's the only way I can explain this lack of effort. (i dont mean this specifically about anyone on this forum)
I've given advice before on other forums to people in a similar situation:
put yourself in the position of the employer, who has a position open and needs someone who can do the job. Managers dont want problems, they want solutions. New college graduate who hasn't got a clue about how to do the work=problem. New graduate who shows on the CV and in the interview that they understand what the company does, what the position involves and can do the work=solution.
My particular situation; in my spare time during college i worked with electronics as a hobby, building things, writing software. Then on my CV i listed everything i did and basically said i had 4 years experience working with all of these tools. I had zero industrial experience but technically i did work with those tools in my spare time for 4 years. That got me the interview and in the interview i was able to show i knew what the company did, show how i could work with the tools they use etc.. and got the job.
So if you can't get industrial experience, make your own experience by doing some projects related to whatever your ideal job does and then demonstrate on the CV and in the interview that you have a good chance of doing what they need and you're already head and shoulders above the rest!

2011

It's really amazing how little preparation people put into interviews and the lack of effort they put into the CVs.

Funny, in my company (a well known consultancy) we had a different issue. A senior manager recently remarked to me that he was amazed that they were receiving so few CVs, especially given the current climate! Apparently CV numbers are significantly down from the last few years. As far as I know all positions are now filled.

I think that people simply perceived that there were no vacancies and therefore did not send in a CV.

DJDC

There seems to be thousands of Irish science and engineering graduates waiting around for things to pick up when maybe they should be coming to the conclusion that they live in a small country with a limited number of decent jobs. The bubble in Irish engineering from 1997-2007 is over and the number of engineering jobs available during that boom may not re-occur for the next 10 years. All this talk about green jobs and high tech research is just political posturing and may deliver nothing. The vast majority of engineering jobs will always be in the industrial powerhouses; Germany, France, US and to a lesser extent UK.

There is only so many months people can stay unemployed before this will become obvious.

American Pie

I understand what you're saying PDelux about the bad CV's. I have seen a few bad CV's from different people too. I believe mine is good though and have been told that a few times. A careers advisor also checked it and could see nothing wrong and everything relevant seemed to be in it. CV presentation was actually covered in a couple of modules during the course.

I would love to be able to gain some relevant experience as a hobby, but its not the easiest thing to do with aero. The best I can think of doing is having a go at projects using CAD, which I have actually spent a little time doing over this time. Other then this I have a lot of extra-curricular activities on my CV, from clubs and outdoor hobbies to military and voluntary first-aid experience so it isn’t necessarily blank.

I've also heard the situation that 2011 is describing where CV's have been down with some companies. One agency I am waiting to hear feedback from originally sounded like all they're dreams had come through when I applied for the position because I was the first person to fit the description that had applied. A few others had enquired which partly fit the bill but otherwise they had received few applications which I find amazing. Yet despite being apparently the only person with exactly the requirements for an immediate they wanted I have yet to hear if I am getting an interview or not. This is 2 months after the closing date. I have been regularly phoning the agency about it but they "still waiting on feedback" from the company involved.

And DJDC, I am very tired of hearing people tell me to go to the US or abroad e.t.c. (Not an attack on your advice, just saying in general) I would happily move abroad but even then have found that process very hard. I would move to the USA in a heartbeat, no qualms, would just hop on the plane and fly over tomorrow if I could. I have plenty of family there and a lot of past connections with the US but unfortunately none that can help with getting the visa. Getting a visa to work in the US is exceptionally difficult without either close family or a guaranteed job to sponsor you. Ironically, getting that guaranteed job without the visa is also next to impossible. Other then that it is the Visa lottery, which is exactly that, a lottery. If the visa issue could be sorted I would be deadly serious about being on that plane at the earliest possible moment.

Outside of the US, I have looked into places like Canada, Australia and NZ. My qualification is highly desirable in each of those countries, however without at least 12 months experience in that area, you cannot apply for the visa. That was the answer from each country. That leaves Europe which again, I have been applying to numerous jobs in. I am finding a lot of continental Europe jobs at pitched at people from the where the jobs are located, obviously, so its not easy sometimes to get through short listing. As for the UK, well I think a large amount of jobs that Irish graduates are applying to are in the UK at the moment. Its nice to be able to suggest that science and engineering graduates move abroad, but I really don’t think people generally realise how difficult it can be to move, especially during current times.

BlackEdelweiss

I went down the working for free road this year after college with a fairly big engineering firm. It started off ok, wasent in my line of engineering atall but it taught me the basics of surveying and what actually happens on a site from being a field to a finished building.
My problem was I could only work a few days a wee as I have children and couldent afford to work for free and pay for a childminder. There is another guy there who was also working for free except he had no kids or responsibilities and lives with his mammy so he could afford to do 5 days a week.
He hadent a clue what he was at most of the time but because he was there more than me he got told more and given more responsibility so it has ended up that now I am just his labourer which I am not happy about atall and am considering leaving before I hit him someday, if he tells me to carry his tripod legs while he carries a can of spray paint again I will.
The job would have been good if the company were not so tight that they wouldent pay an experienced engineer to do the job who could have explained things to me as he did them, the only things I have learned off this guy is stuff that I have asked him, even then he barely tells me anything. They even started paying him because everyone thinks he is making such a sacrifice working for free all week. I have 3 kids who I had to pay €40 a day to the childminder to mind while I worked for free, I have a mortgage and all the rest to deal with aswell but my sacrifice is barely noted up there, most of them would hardly even say hello to me when I pass them.
The main engineer is very good and whenever I spend 5 minutes with him I learn something new, whether it be how to nail 2 pieces of wood together to mark a level or how to read and understand the steel drawings, but his hands are tied as he has to do alot in the office while the other edjet has to do stuff out on the site.
If you are going to work for free make sure you are going to be working with an experienced engineer and not just some fool who is on a power trip playing engineers.