Graduate Electronic Engineers

finnpark wrote:

Mine have not.

Even some of the ones who got 1.1s are just working as Technicians. There are few graduate engineer jobs going for electronic engineering that is .

This is predicted to continue this year as the graph shows...http://www.electronic.ie/images/demand_graph.gif - and that graph is for all engineering jobs.

The article that picture is taken from is actually trying to promote EE from the perspective that the demand for engineers is growing, not neccessarily greater than supply.

Demand exceeding supply is a luxury many industrys do not have. It's a competitive market, you are in competition for jobs even when demand exceeds supply because the industry does not neccessarily want you just because you survived an EE qualification. They want bright, talented and interested people.

<Cathal's Alarmist Theory of Supply and Demand>
I believe that employment straight from universities may in fact drop, but the companies will tell the government that their demand for graduates has increased - and they will not be lying - they will retain their standard for good graduates, and the supply of these is decreasing.
</C.A.T.S.D.>

Anyway, Midas Ireland lists 7 multinational and 9 indigenous semiconductor companies interested in increasing Irish EE graduate output:

Analog Devices, Cadence, Intel Ireland, Cypress Semiconductor, Duolog, S3, Xilinx

Anatech, Cratlon, Edalics, Eagle IC, IC Mask, Lightstorm Networks, Silansys, SensL, Wildflower Semiconductor.

I'd suggest that any EE graduate should have applied to most of these before becoming disillusioned about availability of jobs. I certainly didn't know the existence of a number of these when I graduated, so I figure the same is true of others.

Furthermore, in response to Finnpark's comment about taught Masters:

IMHO, the taught Masters offers an useful option to graduates for several reasons:
For individuals coming from less-recognised institutes or with poor grades that may be stigmatzed - fairly or unfairly - in getting jobs, doing a taught masters at a university is probably the shortest route to improve your CV to become competitive - on paper - with good university graduates. The coursework typically blends 3rd/4th year undegrad EE courses with graduate courses so that this person gets a well rounded education - or in some ways, a second chance at graduating with honours.
Also, the taught Masters allows postgraduate study without specialisation - somewhat like the US professional MEng degree, but at the same time providing substantial exposure to research. At the end of the taught Masters, the individual will have given him/herself a non-trivial amount of education pertinent to further postgraduate research programmes or to industry to accelerate his/her career.
Obviously, a research Masters will benefit an individual more in terms of a career in research - but the benefits over the taught Masters in industry are not obvious - unless you want to get into industry research. I recall a Analog Devices graduate presentation last year, where they said that the initial financial benefits of having either Masters was identical - but I don't know is this typical.

Jeeves, I've recently joined a company that may appeal (they'd certainly be interested in you I think). It's called CGG (Compagnie General de Geophyisique) they prospect for oil all around the world. The jobs based at sea on a survey ship, with 5 weeks on board, followed by 5 weeks off at full pay (works out at €30k a year, tax free if you're out of Ireland for 6 months + I gather). If you're interested in travel like myself, it's a great oppourtunity (provided you can put up with the seafaring portion, no sea experience required).

If you want hands on, the Observer position might interest you.

Their recruitment manager told me they're trying to get more Irish staff. If anybody is interested/wants to know more about it, please PM me.

Hi, I'm looking for an engineer who would like to do some CB repairs/upgrades/mods in their space time (paid work). They need to be in the North Dublin/Meath area.

If there is someone on the board already do this, can you pm me.

Thanks

You are right that the people who graduated are very smart.

Wow 15 years - I feel old now! So did everyone get a job in the end?