Engineers who are unable to find work

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the challenges faced by engineering graduates, specifically civil and electrical engineers, in securing employment two years after graduation. Participants explore various potential causes for this situation, including market conditions, personal attributes, and geographic factors.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant notes the unusual difficulty for engineering graduates to find jobs, suggesting that the issue may not be related to personal incompetence.
  • Another participant proposes that an oversupply of graduates could be a contributing factor to the employment challenges.
  • Geographic location is mentioned as a potential factor, with a suggestion that graduates may need to broaden their job search areas.
  • Concerns are raised about the importance of interview skills and personal achievements in improving hiring prospects.
  • Multiple reasons for employment difficulties are listed, including self-limiting job preferences, lack of internship experience, lower GPAs, and various personal attributes that could affect hiring.
  • Statistical trends indicate that while engineering graduates generally have better employment prospects, this does not guarantee job placement.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the causes of employment difficulties, with no consensus reached on a single explanation. Various factors are proposed, indicating a complex and multifaceted issue.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include a lack of specific information about the graduates' qualifications, geographic locations, and personal circumstances, which may influence their job search outcomes.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to recent engineering graduates, educators in engineering fields, and professionals involved in hiring within the engineering sector.

Metta
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I have 3 friends 2 are civil engineers, and one is Electrical engineer. They've graduated 2 years ago and they are unable to land a job. I don't know their personal stories or GPAs but I know they've graduated and I think it is a bit strange that people in such fields as engineering where most people do not venture into, would have so much difficulties finding a job. What could be the cause of this? Let's ignore the possibility of incompetence on their side.
 
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only reason i can think of is that there are simply too many graduates
 
Metta said:
I have 3 friends 2 are civil engineers, and one is Electrical engineer. They've graduated 2 years ago and they are unable to land a job. I don't know their personal stories or GPAs but I know they've graduated and I think it is a bit strange that people in such fields as engineering where most people do not venture into, would have so much difficulties finding a job.


What could be the cause of this? Let's ignore the possibility of incompetence on their side.

Where are they located geographically? They may need to broaden their acceptable living geographies a bit. And we can't ignore their levels of accomplishment -- they need to be able to test well in interviews and show some achievements in order to help their hiring prospects.

When the economy was in the tank, engineering job hiring here locally was limited to very accomplished folks for the most part. With the upturn in the economy lately, most competent engineers that I know are able to find work fairly soon. (I'm in Silicon Valley and mostly talking about EEs and MEs).
 
Could be any number of reasons. Could be self-limiting behavior (only interested in certain types of jobs, or jobs in certain cities, certain industries, etc.), could be lack of internship experience as an undergrad, could be lower GPA, could be bad job interview skills, bad social skills, body odor, bad breath, drug test failure, etc.

Statistically speaking, your employment prospects *are* better as an engineer but that isn't a guarantee of employment. Nothing is a guarantee of employment.
 

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