Marketability of Material Science and Engineering Degree

[chill_factor]

What is the ratio of graduates to job positions for graduates?

 

[fss]

I don't know the ratio of graduates to job positions, but it's likely a meaningless number. Going back to your thread title, you can market yourself into almost anything. Depending on the position you may be more or less likely to find success, but if you are a qualified candidate for a position and sell yourself well nothing is going to stand in your way.

 

[chill_factor]

Thank you for the advice. How would you go about marketing yourself, and what specific skills would make one more marketable?

 

[dav2008]

What do you mean? Straight out of college you aren't really expected to have any "skills" for a specific job. For a job out of college, they are typically looking at your grades and any potential experiences you've had - not necessarily to show that you're technically skilled, but that you've had work experience, can work in teams, can complete a project, learn on the job, etc. Even in interviews, the majority of your questions will be HR type questions (talk about a problem/solution, talk about working in teams, etc), and maybe you'll have a few basic questions to make sure you understand materials science (e.g. plot the stress/strain curve for a polymer and explain the different segments)

There are departments within numerous companies that deal specifically with the development, testing, and characterization of materials. Generally you'll get an idea of the kind of jobs that are available by speaking with the company and looking at their posted positions and the required degrees.