The process of finding a job as an engineer as a new grad can be hard enough for anyone. One has to endure, sometimes, endless rounds of interviews before an employer decides to extend an offer. So here are a few bits of advice for your next interview.

Probably one of the most important aspects of landing that good engineering position in a company is your interview. While it is essential to put together a knockout resume and cover letter to get your foot in the door, these documents won’t count for much if you don’t know how to answer job interview questions.

You have mastered freshman physics with calculus, how hard could it possibly be? After all, you are a well-rounded, personable engineer who has the future at his feet. You are confidant and more than proficient in your field of study. You are willing to learn and work with a team and you have the company’s best interest at heart. In order to get all of this across to your potential employer, you have to be well versed on how to answer job interview questions.

There is a distinct difference between interview questions and answers that are rehearsed and basically committed to rote memorization. So, instead of trying to memorize popular responses like your trying to pass an exam, you might want to try getting some sound advice from professionals in the field.

While you may be tempted to go out on your own (after all, you want to be yourself, right?) you can get some valuable insight into the proper way to answer job interview questions when you are in the hot seat. Conducting research into the topic and gathering sound advice is a good investment in your future.

Yes. You want to be yourself and you want to speak naturally. Memorizing interview questions and answers that you may come across isn’t going to do the trick. You’re going to look rehearsed and not real. You really need to learn how to be a receptive (but active) listener. You also need to give the appropriate answer to interview questions time and time again.

Here is an interesting video about various types of interviewers.

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I once worked with a guy who told me that a perfect employee review was like the kiss of death. I first didn’t understand why he said this, but after he explained I finally understood. No one is perfect, and if you get a perfect employee review you really have two problems. For one, that means no one is really paying attention to what you are doing, and they are not giving your suggestions for improvement. Also, a perfect review gives you no breathing room. If you go from a perfect one to one that suggests you have some work to do, it might appear you are slipping in your duties. Neither of these will do your engineering career much good.

As a new engineer at a new job, your first employee review should be something you don’t take too much to heart. You need to study what they have said, and you must work to improvement, but you should not take it too bad if it isn’t what you had hoped. When you first start out you have a lot to learn no matter how many years you spent in engineering school. Think of your first employee review as a list of possible personal skills that you need to work on, and think of it as life experience. We’ve all been there and survived and you will too.

If you think your employee review is too harsh, you should talk to your superiors about what is going on. Don’t walk in and say that you know you are doing a better job, and certainly don’t go in with an attitude problem. Take your employee review in and ask them for help. Say that you are bothered that you did so badly, and you would like some guidance about what you can do to improve your job performance. They will see that you are easy to work with and that you care about your job, and those are two of the best qualities you can have.

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Most of the good jobs you will find won’t be listed in the classifieds. Your engineering job search might first lead you first to the classified ads, and you should definitely look there. You may also do a engineering job search online using job boards like Monster, and you may find things there that are not in newspaper display ads. However, you should know that some of the best jobs are not listed in either place. You may have to send your resume out to every company that you might want to work for. Often the good jobs are not advertised at all. You have to do the legwork, but it may well be worth it.

A big part of your engineering job search should include networking with those in your line of work. Quite often this is how you find the best jobs. Those who work in your field often know of job openings before they even open, and they might be able to give you leads or even recommend you. Networking can be hard to do when you are new in the field, but you have to make it a part of your engineering job search if you hope to find the job of your dreams.

Another key to a good engineering job search is to be persistent without being overbearing. You can’t just send out resumes and sit back and expect the phone to ring off the hook with offers. There might be ten other people with a resume that looks just as good as yours on an employer’s desk. You up your chances of getting an interview if you do a follow up call. There are always going to be people with your qualifications doing a engineering job search, so make sure you stay one step ahead by selling yourself effectively without going overboard. This might take some practice, but you have to learn how to do it for the very best jobs out there.

He discusses topics such as choosing the right path, how to network, salary and pay, what kind of experience an engineer needs and how to be in an interview.

The rest of the interview can be seen at http://www.ingeneersnetwork.com.au

Duration : 0:8:50

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But, writing a personal statement is a compulsory assignment that’s difficult to circumvent, because it can be important to applying to that college or a job position. People dread writing the personal statement, and the first thought that comes to mind is usually, “what do I say?” And, then “I really don’t want to write this.” Then they try Google to find some other personal statement examples and use those to model theirs without plagiarizing. After all that, you’re too embarrassed to let others proofread your work because – well — it’s corny and it doesn’t sound like you at all.

It’s too bad that the personal statement has become so important. The university or employer doesn’t really know anything about you, and you can’t really get to know someone through a transcript or resume. These documents can tell you about a person’s grades or accomplishments, but they can’t tell you what that person is like. Hey, maybe grades or past accomplishments aren’t everything. You can generally assume that the person is ambitious or hard working, but two different applicants who share both of those characteristics can still be very different people. So the personal statement is what these organizations thought of as a way to get a brief glimpse into your personality. Admittedly, cramming all of who you are into one essay can be a challenge.

The problem behind writing a personal statement is this how do you write what you really feel without making it not what they want to hear? And then how do you say what they want to hear without obviously sucking up? The fact is that you do have to lay the flattery part up part on a bit, but your personal statement doesn’t have to be complete sap.

So here is the answer. Make a start by getting into the right mindset. That means caring. Writing a personal statement is easiest when you actually care. You might not care too much for the personal statement, but hopefully you care about the institution that you’re trying to get into. In this case, you have to be honest with yourself and think about why you’re doing this. Write down a list of your thoughts to get them out of your head and see them in front of you. This will help you out a great deal. Now, once you have that concretely written down, you can begin to polish it so that it appeals to the reader. The process is now much easier.

When writing a personal statement, the sucking up part is not in what you say, but how you say it. “I’ve wanted to be an engineer ever since I took my first breath” is sucking up in what you say. Now, “I want to be an engineer and help society” is what you’re thinking, and then you can modify it to sound better: “I want to study at (insert institution) to develop the skills necessary to practice engineering effectively.” A good personal statement presents personal content that’s been translated into appealing language. You’re not making up words; you’re taking your own words and polishing them up. And don’t worry about being too perfect.

It’s a good idea to have other people read your draft, even if it makes you cringe. You should feel less self-conscious if you were honest and didn’t make your personal statement sound cheesy. In this way, you can see if other people understand the translation of your thoughts. Don’t underestimate this step. Go ahead and pick people who will give you good criticism. Hey, this isn’t the right time to seek an ego boost. Discerning readers are the ones who will really help. With a combination of authenticity, attractiveness and good editing, your personal statement will be the best it can be

photo credit: JoshMcConnell

If the wrong choice to go into engineering is made, it needn’t be the end of the world. Students have been halfway through an engineering curriculum and decided that it wasn’t for them. Many of them successfully switch courses to something that they are suited for. Doing an engineering or science subject at school doesn’t really give an insight into what it will be like to study it in depth at college. After the studies are over, career choice is the next step. Some people are lucky and definitely know what they want to do from a young age. Others change their minds a million times.

It’s difficult to decide on an engineering job and one doesn’t really know what it is like until one tries it. Young people are not encouraged to study engineering just for the status of it and so a lot of time and effort has been put into choosing classes designed for the correct career path. Career advisors at school can help or talking with an adult who does engineering. Some engineering jobs appear to be very glamorous and it’s easy to forget that they are probably hard work as well. There is a downside to most jobs, even being a model or a business tycoon. Career choice should have enthusiasm; it’s no good selecting something purely on the grounds that it offers security. Very few careers offer cast iron security these days, especially engineering employment, but it’s important to remember that a lot of hours are spent at work and no one wants to die of boredom.

It’s also vital to be realistic when planning an engineering career. The best thing is to work to one’s strengths and most people know what they would be bad at, at least. Career choice in a technical field is a matter of choosing something that will be enjoyed but is not an unrealistic dream, forever out of reach. Perhaps a hobby could be turned into a career. Everyone has at least one skill or interest that can be developed.

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There are a lot of posts on blogs about job recruitment. Lots of recruiters have things to say about it. They talk about their techniques. Why it works. Even to the point of being able to measure results. But an actual recruitment success story follows the following pattern.

A recruiter places a post on twitter looking to fill a job requisition. A few hours later she gets an email from Facebook from someone interested in the job because a friend of hers (the job prospect) told her about it. The link to Facebook account was found by following a link from the twitter profile. Next, she has a phone interview. Then, she comes in for her first round of in-person interviews and a few more interviews results in a job offer. All of this was done in just a few days.

The main importance to engineering employment is that community matters. Your online networks matter. Your relationships built up using Facebook and twitter are vitally important because recruiters and potential employers can use them now with very little cost.

I think as long as you graduated then you should be able to find a job anywhere and your pay range will be the same for that major. If i am wrong, please correct me
6 minutes ago – 3 days left to answer.

They will definitely affect your job hunt, since a "good" company will get more applicants and an applicant with a better GPA has more chances than you. Getting the job however is more than just your GPA, the interview affects a lot.

I read once of a guy that studied law in Harvard Law School got a low GPA when he graduated, and made it impossible for him to get a good paying job (more than 60k a year). Where people that graduate with honors get easier access to that top of the line job. Although this answer is biased towards that example there could’ve been many other problems as to why he didn’t get that job. But that could vary depending on the company and the contacts you have inside that company.

Duration : 0:6:38

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