Are ME jobs hard to get in Southern California?

[TheDurianFruit]

Main Question or Discussion Point

Im currently in my 3rd and final year at a community college and my major is ME. My uncle who is an ME told me that is it very hard to find a job as an ME and is better if i switch to civil engineering. Is this true? His toned seemed condescending the whole conversation and saying that students in high school are already coming up with projects and that im behind for not having any projects yet and putting me on the spot, asking questions like if i am able to write a C++ program that describes the 3-dimensional movement of a robot arm or something like that. So I asked him wouldn't a program that's similar to CADD be more appropriate and he said no, you can do it with C++

 

[OldEngr63]

You can do that particular task in any number of computer languages, C++ being simply one of the many. This all proves exactly nothing.

Your uncle does not sound like a particularly trustworthy source for job information. I don't know the market in So. Cal., but I suggest that you do your own research into this matter. I'm inclined to think that a community college degree may be a bigger problem than anything else. Most employers are going to be looking for a 4-year ABET accredited degree. You might want to transfer to another school to get that, but without changing majors.

 

[MidgetDwarf]

Im currently in my 3rd and final year at a community college and my major is ME. My uncle who is an ME told me that is it very hard to find a job as an ME and is better if i switch to civil engineering. Is this true? His toned seemed condescending the whole conversation and saying that students in high school are already coming up with projects and that im behind for not having any projects yet and putting me on the spot, asking questions like if i am able to write a C++ program that describes the 3-dimensional movement of a robot arm or something like that. So I asked him wouldn't a program that's similar to CADD be more appropriate and he said no, you can do it with C++

Ignore you're uncle. I am sorry to say this but he sounds like a dumass. Do what ever makes you feel happy. Everyone comes to the point in life when you have to decide if you want to be financially stable or do something you love. The good thing is you are interested in engineering, which pays a good a salary. Not only that, you have embarked on an educational journey to learn something that is actually useful to society. Choosing an engineering field or a major for that matter, is a very difficult choice. EE and Ce are both engineering. It is not like you want to do art history or ee.

Regarding the statement that you are behind. Don't let it bother you. As a man you have to come to a realization that you shouldn't worry about what others are doing, but instead on things you can do to improve you're position. I dropped out of school during 3 months of 9th grade year. Got my Ged when I was 20 and started community college at 21. I started with arithmetic and now I can enroll in calculus 3. My father was also illeterate. In other words society states I am crazy for enrolling back in school and wanting to be a mathematician. Think about it.

 

[donpacino]

Im currently in my 3rd and final year at a community college and my major is ME. My uncle who is an ME told me that is it very hard to find a job as an ME and is better if i switch to civil engineering. Is this true? His toned seemed condescending the whole conversation and saying that students in high school are already coming up with projects and that im behind for not having any projects yet and putting me on the spot, asking questions like if i am able to write a C++ program that describes the 3-dimensional movement of a robot arm or something like that. So I asked him wouldn't a program that's similar to CADD be more appropriate and he said no, you can do it with C++

To address the C++ comment, there are indeed many different ways to model the movement of a robot arm. Modeling the system in C++ will require a good understanding of programming, as well as very good understanding of the factors that go into the movement of the robotic arm. It is much more theoretical and math based than modeling the system using a visual drafting tool. So does being able to model the movement of a robotic arm in C++ demonstrate that a candidate has the potential to be a decent engineer, yes. However the opposite is not true. not being able to do that does not indicate you will not be a good engineer.

Also, like others have said, you need to make sure your program is abet accredited.

 

[TheDurianFruit]

Thank you everyone for replying, i really appreciate it. I don't really see my uncle as a trustworthy source, and I do A TON of research regarding the engineering fields. I just got a slight scare because one of the main reasons why i chose ME as my major is because it is the broadest of all engineering branches, so i figured that with an ME degree, I have a great variety of fields to get into and also finding a job shouldn't be so cut-throat as ME are used everywhere