17,000 ME Grads Compete for 1,400 Jobs

[ENGR_or_MED]

I graduated in 2005 with a 2 year transfer degree in Engineering. However, I gave up on Engineering after graduating due to discouragement and decided to pursue my own life. For 5 years this plan worked out fine and I was an Entrepreneur being my own boss, calling the shots and fixing things for a living. That was a great experience and I’ve never loved anything more. But then the business crashed and so here I am again at a crossroads in my life, having to decide on a career that I will work in for the rest of my working life. Do I choose Mechanical Engineering, or something in the medical field?

I decided to crunch some numbers to help me figure this out, and what I found was disturbing:

• According to http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm", Mechanical Engineering job growth is expected to be 6% for the decade between 2008 and 2018; only 14,400 new Mechanical Engineering jobs will be added during that decade.
• However, according to http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d01/dt289.asp" , approximately 17,000 students graduate with a Mechanical Engineering degree (Bachelor’s or higher) per year. In this last link I’m projecting based on data only as recent as 2000; I can’t seem to find any more recent data than this.

This means that approximately 17,000 students compete for approximately 1,440 jobs every year, a ratio greater than 10:1 students per job opening. If this data is correct, I have a less than 1 in 10 chance of finding a job as a Mechanical Engineer.
Is this right or am I reading the data wrong?

Thanks guys, much appreciated.

 

[Jokerhelper]

[STRIKE]1,440 ≠ 14,440[/STRIKE]

^ Fail on me for that one.

But yes, you can't compare those numbers really. The 14400 number is the overall predicted difference between those entering the field and those leaving in ten years, whereas if the 17000 graduating students are only potential input. Also, within ten years many might also both enter and leave the field.

 

[Ryker]

1,440 ≠ 14,440

I think he averaged 14,440 over 10 years.

Is this right or am I reading the data wrong?

You're reading the data wrong, because you're not taking into account people retiring, people getting fired, people switching careers etc. So the amount of jobs that are available is going to be much bigger, but there's also going to be more people competing for jobs. Still, the ratio isn't nearly as unfavourable as 1 in 10.

edit: Note, however, that I didn't check out your links, I just went from what you provided.

 

[ENGR_or_MED]

[STRIKE]1,440 ≠ 14,440[/STRIKE]

^ Fail on me for that one.

But yes, you can't compare those numbers really. The 14400 number is the overall predicted difference between those entering the field and those leaving in ten years, whereas if the 17000 graduating students are only potential input. Also, within ten years many might also both enter and leave the field.

14,400 divided by 10 is 1,440 lol. 14,400 jobs will be added over the decade, not per year. So there will be roughly 1,440 jobs added per year.

 

[DrummingAtom]

I graduated in 2005 with a 2 year transfer degree in Engineering. However, I gave up on Engineering after graduating due to discouragement and decided to pursue my own life.

What do you mean by gave up? Gave up because you couldn't find a job? Or found out it wasn't for you?

 

[Ben Espen]

The Occupational Outlook Handbook has a section explaining total job openings:
http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm#total_openings"

[URL]http://www.bls.gov/oco/images/overview_chart_08.gif[/URL]

The text in this section says that for professionals, replacements are 56% of total job openings, new growth the remainder. Thus, we could approximately say that another 1800 openings every year could be expected for replacements, giving us 3200 or so slots per year. This seems small to me. I interview and hire new college grad mechanical engineers, and I don't see the desperation I would expect if 17,000 graduates were competing for 3200 jobs.

I don't see occupation specific replacements for mechanical engineering, but I suspect it would be much higher than the 56% you see in the chart for the professional sector. If you look at the data for ME graduates you linked to, 40 years ago there were 10,000 graduates with Bachelors and Masters. All of those engineers should be retired or retiring. Thus we could expect at least that many slots to a first approximation. I applaud your desire to look at the data, but I think the situation is not as grim as you fear.

 

[ENGR_or_MED]

The Occupational Outlook Handbook has a section explaining total job openings:
http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm#total_openings"

[URL]http://www.bls.gov/oco/images/overview_chart_08.gif[/URL]

The text in this section says that for professionals, replacements are 56% of total job openings, new growth the remainder. Thus, we could approximately say that another 1800 openings every year could be expected for replacements, giving us 3200 or so slots per year. This seems small to me. I interview and hire new college grad mechanical engineers, and I don't see the desperation I would expect if 17,000 graduates were competing for 3200 jobs.

I don't see occupation specific replacements for mechanical engineering, but I suspect it would be much higher than the 56% you see in the chart for the professional sector. If you look at the data for ME graduates you linked to, 40 years ago there were 10,000 graduates with Bachelors and Masters. All of those engineers should be retired or retiring. Thus we could expect at least that many slots to a first approximation. I applaud your desire to look at the data, but I think the situation is not as grim as you fear.

The BLS webpage I linked to is taking into account all those engineers who will be retiring as well. I'll need more input before I make a decision on this. I wonder how many applicants there are per Mechanical Engineering job opening, for example. Also, how many employers are willing to train entry-level graduates vs how many are looking for only experienced Engineers?

It has been my experience that:

1. Employers in general are unwilling to train new people and expect employees to "hit the ground running."
2. Only people who have connections get hired; you have to know someone at your church or be related to someone or be friends with someone who works at the company you want to work at, and have them put in a referral for you, to get hired.
3. There is only 1 internship available per every 20-30 students.

These are just some of the reasons I stopped pursuing Engineering back in 2005.

What do you look for in Mechanical Engineering graduates that you place? And how many of them apply per job opening? Thanks for your input.

 

[ENGR_or_MED]

What do you mean by gave up? Gave up because you couldn't find a job? Or found out it wasn't for you?

I couldn't break into the field in any capacity and was denied every internship I applied to despite my high grades, academic awards and honors. The truth is, employers don't really care about all that. They were looking for vocational-level skills instead such as experience in computer programming, soldering, 5+ years in CAD, and/or electronic troubleshooting.

Now, imagine telling someone who is graduating with their Associate of Science degree at the age of 20 that they must have work experience or specialized training and knowledge in computer programming languages (not required to graduate), soldering (not even on the planner sheet, course list, etc), 5+ years of CAD (this is hilarious, would have had to have started using CAD at 15), or electronic troubleshooting and repair (there were no classes like this offered). The vast majority of the "internships" available were for students experienced in CAD. I concluded that Mechanical Engineering was a job where you sat in front of a computer all day long and used CAD.

There was one guy who knew some computer programming languages and he got an internship at HP paying $13/hour because some guy he knew at his church worked at HP and put in a referral for him.

I started a business back then and taught myself soldering, electronic troubleshooting, HTML and webpage design with FrontPage. But by then I had completely given up on Engineering, having decided it would be way too hard to "break in" to the field and that all the jobs were just doing CAD all day anyway.

 

[rhombusjr]

I couldn't break into the field in any capacity and was denied every internship I applied to despite my high grades, academic awards and honors. The truth is, employers don't really care about all that. They were looking for vocational-level skills instead such as experience in computer programming, soldering, 5+ years in CAD, and/or electronic troubleshooting.

Now, imagine telling someone who is graduating with their Associate of Science degree at the age of 20 that they must have work experience or specialized training and knowledge in computer programming languages (not required to graduate), soldering (not even on the planner sheet, course list, etc), 5+ years of CAD (this is hilarious, would have had to have started using CAD at 15), or electronic troubleshooting and repair (there were no classes like this offered). The vast majority of the "internships" available were for students experienced in CAD. I concluded that Mechanical Engineering was a job where you sat in front of a computer all day long and used CAD.

There was one guy who knew some computer programming languages and he got an internship at HP paying $13/hour because some guy he knew at his church worked at HP and put in a referral for him.

I started a business back then and taught myself soldering, electronic troubleshooting, HTML and webpage design with FrontPage. But by then I had completely given up on Engineering, having decided it would be way too hard to "break in" to the field and that all the jobs were just doing CAD all day anyway.

I may have a misunderstanding of this, but generally people with 2 year degrees in engineering do vocational work. If you want to do something above the vocational level, I think you need a 4 year Bachelor's degree. It is kind of ridiculous that companies post "entry-level" jobs which have "5+ years of experience" as a requirement in the job description.

Have you considered attending a 4-year college? You'll probably have a better chance of landing an engineering job with a BS over a AS.

 

[ENGR_or_MED]

I may have a misunderstanding of this, but generally people with 2 year degrees in engineering do vocational work. If you want to do something above the vocational level, I think you need a 4 year Bachelor's degree. It is kind of ridiculous that companies post "entry-level" jobs which have "5+ years of experience" as a requirement in the job description.

Have you considered attending a 4-year college? You'll probably have a better chance of landing an engineering job with a BS over a AS.

I guess I'm not doing a very good job of explaining myself. My degree was an "Associate of Science Transfer" with the intention to transfer to a university and earn a Bachelor's degree in Engineering. However, I was told that if I didn't get an internship by the time I completed my Associate's degree that I was doomed and would never be able to be an Engineer because employers that hire graduates of Bachelor's programs only want to hire those who have had internships starting immediately after the associate's degree was complete.

Now I know that is wrong. But at the time that is what I was told.

Also, my degree was not vocational in any way, but the internships that were being marketed to Engineering students at the community college all required vocational skills that were not being taught at the college, which always infuriated me. The Associate of Science Transfer Degree drills the student in Calculus, Advanced Physics, Statics, Dynamics, Strengths of Materials, Technical Report Writing, Inorganic Chemistry, etc. None of which matters to the employer offering internships.

The Associate of Science Transfer degree does not teach soldering, electronics troubleshooting and repair, or any other vocational-level skill at all. You may be thinking of an Applied Associate of Science degree, which does teach vocational level skills but will not allow you to transfer to a 4 year college to obtain a formal Engineering degree.

 

[Ryker]

It has been my experience that:

1. Employers in general are unwilling to train new people and expect employees to "hit the ground running."
2. Only people who have connections get hired; you have to know someone at your church or be related to someone or be friends with someone who works at the company you want to work at, and have them put in a referral for you, to get hired.
3. There is only 1 internship available per every 20-30 students.

These are just some of the reasons I stopped pursuing Engineering back in 2005.

You'll find that this is equally valid for any field other than mechanical engineering, as well, so I wouldn't let that deter you. I'm not arguing any way or the other here, because I don't really know the field, but just from the reasons given nothing really strikes me as something that would make one not go into mechanical engineering if the latter is what (s)he finds interesting. You mentioned that going into some medical field, and I guess this is one area where there always seem to be opportunities for people to find a job, at least at this moment. I can't comment on whether that's going to change in the near future or not, though.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm]Overall[/URL] job prospects. Overall job opportunities in engineering are expected to be good, and, indeed, prospects will be excellent in certain specialties. In addition to openings from job growth, many openings will be created by the need to replace current engineers who retire; transfer to management, sales, or other occupations; or leave engineering for other reasons.

You said the BLS website took into account retiring engineers, as well, but this does not seem to be the case. I mean, they might have taken it into account when saying "prospects will be excellent in certain specialties", but you must be reading something wrong, since they explicitly state that this, however, is not accounted for in job growth figures.

 

[ENGR_or_MED]

You said the BLS website took into account retiring engineers, as well, but this does not seem to be the case. I mean, they might have taken it into account when saying "prospects will be excellent in certain specialties", but you must be reading something wrong, since they explicitly state that this, however, is not accounted for in job growth figures.

I haven't seen any statement regarding whether or not Engineers retiring or leaving the field is included in the data that I cited in my original post. In the piece that you quoted in your post, there is no statement to this effect either, and certainly no "explicit" statement on this matter.

 

[Ryker]

OK, I've now looked at the actual data and not just go from what you stated in the original post, and it's pretty clear from the website that the projection is that there are going to be 14,400 more jobs for mechanical engineers in 2018 than there were in 2008. So I really don't see how you came to the conclusion that there are going to be 17000 people competing for 1440 jobs each year. There is absolutely no say of how many people are going to retire, change fields etc., and the only somewhat tangible data is that projection of the difference in the amount of jobs for mechanical engineers. If no one retires, changes field etc., then yes, there are going to be roughly 17000 people competing for 1440 jobs each year, but for every people mechanical engineer that stops working you need to add a count to that 1440 figure.

 

[Ben Espen]

It has been my experience that:

1. Employers in general are unwilling to train new people and expect employees to "hit the ground running."
2. Only people who have connections get hired; you have to know someone at your church or be related to someone or be friends with someone who works at the company you want to work at, and have them put in a referral for you, to get hired.
3. There is only 1 internship available per every 20-30 students.

These are just some of the reasons I stopped pursuing Engineering back in 2005.

What do you look for in Mechanical Engineering graduates that you place? And how many of them apply per job opening? Thanks for your input.

I went through a stack of resumes for interns recently, so I will share with you. I had a stack of probably 150 resumes from 5 different schools. There are about 20 openings for interns. These resumes had already been approved and ranked by one of my fellow associates who traveled to one of these schools for an in-person interview. Thus the first filter had already taken place.

There were certain skills I was looking for. CAD can be very helpful, although I don't happen to need a candidate to have this skill for the project I have in mind. I also look for other internships or relevant work experience, but I am looking at upperclassmen. I look at GPA and extracurriculars. I am trying to judge on paper a person's skill, will, and personality.

Now, some comments on your experience, and then some general suggestions for you. It is true that employers expect you to hit the ground running. This does not always mean you will not be trained. There are some basic expectations for an ME. CAD is one of them. This is easy to learn. A one-semester course from a community college would give you the same CAD experience as the majority of the ME graduates I see. An employer wants you to have the correct foundation, and will not provide you with that. That is what college is for. What you do need to learn is the specifics of your position, and college cannot provide you with that.

Connections are extremely important. I know who recommended which internship candidates. I definitely take this into account. What this should mean to you is: think of ways you can network and develop these connections yourself. Hiring is expensive and time-consuming, I cannot afford to hire people who do not fit my enterprise. Connections are a way of filtering candidates to increase the odds of a successful match between candidate and company. This means connections benefit you too.

Your numbers are roughly correct about the number of applicants for each position. What you have neglected is a given person can apply at many companies, and should. This improves the odds considerably.

Now, some general suggestions. Whomever told you that you had to start an internship immediately after your Associates degree or never get hired was a fool. Internships are important, but not actually required. I never had any internships at all. I probably should have, but it all worked out. What you should do it look for internships through a university instead of a community college.These internships will be better suited to you. I do not recruit from community colleges.

Your work experience is valuable. More valuable than a sophomore-level internship. Students with only two years of college usually don't know enough to be useful. This ought to help you stand out on paper. Engineering students often lack appreciation for the impact they have on the bottom line. You hopefully understand this well.

Do not disdain vocational skills. These are the kinds of things that make an engineer "hands-on". Entry-level engineers need to be able to stick their head inside the machine and figure out what is wrong. A lack of the ability and willingness to do this is a major warning sign. I understand that you do not want to spend your life soldering. I do not intend to do so either.

 

[Shaun_W]

The good thing about a mechanical engineering degree is that it teaches a hell of a lot of transferable skills, from high numeracy ability, to some programming, to teamwork. Hence, it's a highly employable degree, and engineering graduates can be found in a huge range of sectors. For example, in my country (Britain), accountancy takes a large number of engineering graduates (you are just as likely to get into one of the big four with an engineering degree as with an accounting degree).

 

[ENGR_or_MED]

Communication is a tricky thing. I have given the wrong impression in some areas. Thanks for responding in such detail to my posts. I'll respond point by point.

I went through a stack of resumes for interns recently, so I will share with you. I had a stack of probably 150 resumes from 5 different schools. There are about 20 openings for interns. These resumes had already been approved and ranked by one of my fellow associates who traveled to one of these schools for an in-person interview. Thus the first filter had already taken place.

There were certain skills I was looking for. CAD can be very helpful, although I don't happen to need a candidate to have this skill for the project I have in mind. I also look for other internships or relevant work experience, but I am looking at upperclassmen. I look at GPA and extracurriculars. I am trying to judge on paper a person's skill, will, and personality.

That is roughly 8 people applying to 1 internship, but this is after your associate had done a screening, so initially I'm guessing there were somewhere around 300 applications before any screening was done.

Now, some comments on your experience, and then some general suggestions for you. It is true that employers expect you to hit the ground running. This does not always mean you will not be trained. There are some basic expectations for an ME. CAD is one of them. This is easy to learn. A one-semester course from a community college would give you the same CAD experience as the majority of the ME graduates I see. An employer wants you to have the correct foundation, and will not provide you with that. That is what college is for. What you do need to learn is the specifics of your position, and college cannot provide you with that.

Connections are extremely important. I know who recommended which internship candidates. I definitely take this into account. What this should mean to you is: think of ways you can network and develop these connections yourself. Hiring is expensive and time-consuming, I cannot afford to hire people who do not fit my enterprise. Connections are a way of filtering candidates to increase the odds of a successful match between candidate and company. This means connections benefit you too.

I can understand that. The pros of that strategy are that you are probably going to have low turnover, especially if the referrer knows the candidate and your business needs well. The con of that are probably that you're going to miss out on excellent talent and skill because they aren't in your network. However, I suppose that if you can always find what you need through your existing network that this doesn't matter.

Your numbers are roughly correct about the number of applicants for each position. What you have neglected is a given person can apply at many companies, and should. This improves the odds considerably.

True.

Now, some general suggestions. Whomever told you that you had to start an internship immediately after your Associates degree or never get hired was a fool. Internships are important, but not actually required. I never had any internships at all. I probably should have, but it all worked out. What you should do it look for internships through a university instead of a community college.These internships will be better suited to you. I do not recruit from community colleges.

I've been accepted to a local University and soon I'll be looking into their internship opportunities; hopefully they will be more in number and better quality in terms of the type of experiences being offered, compared to the 2-year college.

Your work experience is valuable. More valuable than a sophomore-level internship. Students with only two years of college usually don't know enough to be useful. This ought to help you stand out on paper. Engineering students often lack appreciation for the impact they have on the bottom line. You hopefully understand this well.

Thank you for that; I really do appreciate it. I believed that my experience as an Entrepreneur would be undervalued by people in positions to hire or recommend people for hiring because it could not be independently verified and because they would see me as a flight risk, thinking I would want to leave them immediately after gaining enough skills so I could once again start a business. The truth is yes, I do want to start a business again someday, and I believe that over 40% of all successful engineers probably do as well. But I would dedicate at least 10 years to any company I worked at and learn and contribute as much as I could.

Do not disdain vocational skills. These are the kinds of things that make an engineer "hands-on". Entry-level engineers need to be able to stick their head inside the machine and figure out what is wrong. A lack of the ability and willingness to do this is a major warning sign. I understand that you do not want to spend your life soldering. I do not intend to do so either.

I don't disdain any vocational-level skills; in fact, quite the contrary. My time working as an entrepreneur and teaching myself soldering, electronic troubleshooting and repair, among many other skills was the most enjoyable job I've ever had. And it was also the most educational. I actually prefer hands-on work or research, as opposed to design. The thought of working in a job where computer-based design, or design in general, is over 80% of what I do makes me cringe. And I do mean that.

I did take AutoCAD and SolidWorks classes in College and I do expect to employ these skills in design projects at the University, and I expect that I will enjoy it and learn from it. However, I'd prefer to work in something more hands-on or research-oriented in a career setting.

Thanks again for your informative reply.

 

[ENGR_or_MED]

The good thing about a mechanical engineering degree is that it teaches a hell of a lot of transferable skills, from high numeracy ability, to some programming, to teamwork. Hence, it's a highly employable degree, and engineering graduates can be found in a huge range of sectors. For example, in my country (Britain), accountancy takes a large number of engineering graduates (you are just as likely to get into one of the big four with an engineering degree as with an accounting degree).

This website is just one avenue that I'm exploring regarding these negative numbers. The feedback I've gotten from this website and from other channels seem to be the same: I'm underestimating the number of jobs that will be available to MEs. I'm still collecting feedback, however. I don't want to make a mistake and be burdened with $30,000+ of student loan debt if the market is saturated with ME/AE grads thereby making it extremely hard for me to find employment.

I'm waiting for a reply back from my career mentor, who is an employed engineer, and she said the same thing that you mentioned: mechanical engineering is a very employable degree due to its versatility. It seems like I just can't go wrong pursuing ME, and I love everything about ME, I'm just one of those overly cautious people that gets caught in a gloom and doom mindset every now and then. I've been looking at job data in all sectors and that's downright depressing. There are 13.8 million unemployed people looking for work right now and not even half that many jobs available.

You mentioned accounting; that field isn't doing too good right now in the USA. I read that there are approximately 80,000 unemployed accountants right now, so the market is saturated in accounting. I had a roommate a year ago who majored in accounting and he couldn't find a job in accounting so he went into something in the legal field instead but it was far from glamorous; his job was so stressful that sometimes he couldn't sleep at night and he had high blood pressure a lot of the time.

I know that a portion of engineering graduates later go into law or banking; banking is somewhat interesting to me but I'd rather be involved in propulsion research, materials research, or something related to that.

The thing that keeps getting at me is, I just don't know if any of this is going to work out. There is a huge lack of certainty and I really do not like uncertainty. It would be nice to have at least some degree of certainty about my future.

 

[MissSilvy]

I couldn't break into the field in any capacity and was denied every internship I applied to despite my high grades, academic awards and honors. The truth is, employers don't really care about all that. They were looking for vocational-level skills instead such as experience in computer programming, soldering, 5+ years in CAD, and/or electronic troubleshooting.

Now, imagine telling someone who is graduating with their Associate of Science degree at the age of 20 that they must have work experience or specialized training and knowledge in computer programming languages (not required to graduate), soldering (not even on the planner sheet, course list, etc), 5+ years of CAD (this is hilarious, would have had to have started using CAD at 15), or electronic troubleshooting and repair (there were no classes like this offered). The vast majority of the "internships" available were for students experienced in CAD. I concluded that Mechanical Engineering was a job where you sat in front of a computer all day long and used CAD.

I don't mean to be a prick, but are you really bemoaning the fact that employers want you to have some skills that are not related to solving textbooks problems? I am a physics major, PHYSICS, and I know more 'engineering' than the engineers on campus. I can solder, braze, machine (lathe, mill, saw, whatever), use AutoCAD and EagleCAD, weld, and build circuit boards. Not one of these things was taught to me in my classes or even required. Hell, I didn't even take a class for any of it, I just knocked on doors and asked if they needed a shop monkey to help with stuff and in return I learned a lot. If an engineering student looks down on vocational skills and sometimes building your own crap instead of handing it off to a 'mere' machinist or electronics technician, then they are inevitably in for a rude surprise. These days it is not enough to be a nerd and get all As. Even if you fulfill your degree requirements to the letter, you still probably won't get a decent job. You need experience, additional skills, internships, everything but it is expected that you go out and take care of that yourself instead of waiting for school to feed everything to you :/

 

[ENGR_or_MED]

I don't mean to be a prick, but are you really bemoaning the fact that employers want you to have some skills that are not related to solving textbooks problems? I am a physics major, PHYSICS, and I know more 'engineering' than the engineers on campus. I can solder, braze, machine (lathe, mill, saw, whatever), use AutoCAD and EagleCAD, weld, and build circuit boards. Not one of these things was taught to me in my classes or even required. Hell, I didn't even take a class for any of it, I just knocked on doors and asked if they needed a shop monkey to help with stuff and in return I learned a lot. If an engineering student looks down on vocational skills and sometimes building your own crap instead of handing it off to a 'mere' machinist or electronics technician, then they are inevitably in for a rude surprise. These days it is not enough to be a nerd and get all As. Even if you fulfill your degree requirements to the letter, you still probably won't get a decent job. You need experience, additional skills, internships, everything but it is expected that you go out and take care of that yourself instead of waiting for school to feed everything to you :/

You're the second person that got the impression that I think vocational skills are beneath me; I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong to cause anyone to think that. Quite the contrary: I taught myself many vocational and business skills because no one else would give me a chance or a second of their time and teach me these things.

The problem was that, while I was studying Engineering back in 2003-2005, I had no idea that I should be looking to gain vocational-level skills at all. No one told me and it just simply had not even occurred to me.

It's quite fortunate for you that you were able to acquire all those skills from others outside of college. You probably knew how to market yourself far better than I did at the age of 19 or 20, because no one would take a chance on me at that age. And I never expected them to; I thought that school was supposed to teach me everything that employers wanted. But the rude awakening occurred back in 2005 when I discovered that I was going to have to learn those skills on my own, outside of school. I was angry about this and I felt cheated, lied to, and mistreated. It was a simple matter of not knowing what the expectations were and not having been told. You aren't born knowing--you learn.

The most fun and satisfaction I've ever had in any job so far has been soldering, reworking PCBs, troubleshooting, diagnosing, and replacing components. I saw a nitch in a certain market and went after it and I made money. But I had to learn all that on my own because school didn't teach it to me and no one else was willing to take a chance on me and teach me these things. I just didn't know how to persuade them to do so. Back then I wasn't as mature socially as I am now.

However, I now know how to market myself and have a far better idea of my worth and what I'm capable of and I'm sure I could sell myself to any potential employer.

 

[ENGR_or_MED]

I was wrong. For all of you who replied to my original post and told me that the 1,400 per year figure was wrong--well you are correct. The reality is that 17,000 ME grads will be competing for 7,500 jobs per year.

I found this data by contacting someone who works at the BLS and who deals with the engineering job outlook data directly. He led me to http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_106.htm", which explains in greater detail.

So, basically, the reality is this:

1,400 new ME jobs being created
6,100 ME jobs becoming available due to engineers retiring
-----
7,500 new ME jobs per year

Thanks again to everyone who responded. I've made my decision: mechanical engineering it is.

 

[Shaun_W]

The problem with that is that it is only taking into account jobs that are advertised. A lot of jobs in industry are not openly advertised.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

Even if 17,000 people were competing for 14,400 jobs, I still like those numbers provided I am not in the lowest 15% of graduates.