Fresh bachelor

Post things that you did to find work or positions as well as responses.

As well as what an energy engineer does.

Design something and sell it....In the meantime I would keep a look out for any big projects starting, and try to jump on the bandwagon when the hiring starts...

I have no extra money. The only thing I have to pay now is my rent and food. I am in a desperate need for a job. Can you provide me with any link which announces current projects so that I can try to enter them? Thanks

You don't have a search engine? Phrase your request to SE in the form of a search and get on with it. I gave you two sires to visit, both of which MAY have information on employment. Have you visited either one? Done any work looking?

If you have a degree from a university, you should know how and where to seek this information.

You have just begun to sound like energypassion97. A helpless child who wants others to think for him.

Don't take offense, just remember that no one here has any obligation to help you.

Get to that search engine.

How to Search the Internet - Hannon Library

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/graduate_job_search.htm

Do you have any work experience or hobbies that would help elevate you above all the other graduates that are going for the same jobs?

What do your parents think? Are they in a position to help while you perhaps take on a low paying internship or similar to gain some practical work experience that will give you a greater chance of a good job in the future?

There is no shame in moving back home temporarily while you re-evaluate your options!

The chap who invented the phrase <...jump on the bandwagon...> is getting so fed up with the number of people now using it...

Where, when and how have you been looking for work?

Does the university offer placement help?

You may also have to broaden your search and not be too selective about your first job.

Any experience beats not having a job.

Google will help. Look for associations such as the two of many I found with a simple search.

Association of Energy Engineers: Home

The Association of Energy Engineers - AEE Programs!

Work on your resume and cover letter. Make sure you use correct grammar.

start at the start

Congratulations on getting Part I of your education completed!

Welcome to Part II of your education - Learning to Sell Yourself.

This is where we separate the men from the boys...

In this course you will learn what employers are looking for, how to get noticed, and how to get your resume on the top of the pile.

Seriously, this will not be an easy course and you should expect to put in long hours and lots of homework.

Two things will help you succeed; grooming yourself for success and nepotism.

The first part will be a combination of self study (i.e., books, courses, etc.) and leveraging every opportunity for job placement that the community has to offer. You will need to understand a little psychology and salesmanship. Maybe more than just a little. You will also need to demonstrate ambition, a willingness to win, and team spirit.

The second part is networking. People get hired mostly because of connections. Who you know and getting referrals will be the ticket.

Lastly, I am happy to see you at least capitalized your name, but you need to seriously start working on your communication skills from this day forward for the rest of your life. Even little mistakes or any hint of laziness will be a stroke against you. You never know who happens to be observing you.

To be a success means working harder than the middle of the pack.

You should try to get as many interviews as you can. These will be a venue for experience at interviewing. When you get turned down, and you will get many, politely ask the interviewer what you did wrong or where you were not strong.

You will find that this is an opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Knowing where an employer sees you as being weak can provide you an opportunity to demonstrate that you may not be as weak as you first came across.

It is also an opportunity to get critical feedback on your interviewing skills.

I think you will be surprised that employers are not going to be as critical about your university credentials as your willingness and manageability for the job.

Employers do not expect you to walk in the door ready to solve problems and make the company profitable. They are looking for individuals that are genuinely ambitious and trainable for the position. The last thing an employer wants to lose sleep over is hiring someone that is a nightmare to manage.

A previous employer I had summed it up as this: Respect, Integrity, Teamwork, Learning to lead, and Spirit of Winning.

If you can anchor those attributes into your core person and learn how to sell yourself you will not be unemployed for long, but it will take work on your part to make it happen.

Good points all.

But, as someone who has been hiring (mostly engineers) for over 25 years, if I see poor grammar or misspelled words on a cover letter or resume', it almost surely means a trip to the round file for that applicant.

Exactly.

Soooooooo txt language is out of the question?

;)

What is also a really bad idea is if you are a fresh graduate with NO work experience and during your job interview at a technical testing laboratory you smugly tell the company management (no less) who are conducting the interview (not HR) that they are running their business wrong and that you could do a much better job and if you hire him he will fix the business for you. He did not get the job. True story sadly.

Ouch! The problem is:

I can't even make it to the interview. Perhaps the HR is picking the experienced people only..

Possibly. Bare in mind that they had 50 other people going for the same position as me when I applied for a position at that test laboratory. 50, and that's not uncommon. Imagine trying to compete with 50 other graduates with similar qualifications as you, you got to be able to differentiate yourself from the rest of the herd.

For me (yes I got the job), previous work experience and a very enthusiastic attitude helped. That and the fact I was a good fit for the rest of the team.

I made sure no grammar errors were present in my resume:)

Employment will not come to you like a homework assignment. You must actively pursue employment. You should have started this process your junior year trying to get an intern position during your senior year.

You also should demonstrate some pride in yourself and your schooling when you seek employment. Posting anonymously to an engineering forum for employment help shows a lack of pride, uncertainty and ambivalence in yourself. Engineers are expected to have definitive answers. The most expensive thing in any project is rework. An ambivalent engineer can quickly suck every pound of profit from a project.

College was the easy part, now comes the hard part. I had the same issues after I graduated. Even my pennies were gone, had to borrow a few dollars from a friend just to put gas in my car.

But now there are sites, at least in the states such as indeed.com. But you may have to get a job period,because it sounds like you don't even have fumes left.

Remember, things doesn't always just happen, it can take weeks, after you find a solid lead.

I can see why you can't get a job, Edinburg is spelled Edinburgh. Pretty big error if you attended this university. It has the following degrees with "energy" and "engineering" in the title:

• Electrical Engineering with Renewable Energy
• Engineering for Sustainable Energy
• Mechanical Engineering with Renewable Energy

Both a BEng and MEng degrees are offered.

So which of these did you receive a degree in?

I'm not one to put total faith in GPA's, but what was your GPA for the engineering course work (including math and physics)? I would expect you have at least 3 points for any technical courses (assuming this grading system is used in the UK, 0 to 4 grading system of FDCBA). If not, your ability to get a job then needs to show you had a language impact during your first few years. It's clear English is not your first language.

Just because you have an engineering degree, does not indicate you have the ability to be a thinking engineer. And unfortunately its no longer a litmus test that can be trusted, as the engineering schools have been flooded by wannabees. Smart enough to regurgitate the course material, but no comprehension (pattern recognition skill, mechanical aptitude) of how to use this knowledge.

As others have asked, who have you interviewed with? Have you made it past their HR screening process? Have ever been given a plant trip? If you can't make it past HR, then your missing something in your resume'.

Ouch!

Lyn, I retired last year. The "talent" was 1 in 20 that was worth mentoring. And the management which used to be all internal with years of domain experience morphed into non technical outsiders. Designing flight safe avionics is not the same as automotive or consumer appliances. But that is indeed what DOGBERT consultation convinced was needed to bring the company up to "todays" methods of bringing in new management and talent.

I would ask these new hires fresh from school why they got an engineering degree. They did not know what else to do, and their counselor told them they were smart. They didn't grow up tearing things apart, or asking minions of questions of how stuff works. They didn't want to learn how to design what we made, just move up to management.

I'm disappointed that Universities are not doing any effort at filtering the "wheat from the chaff". It is a money pump, and more "degreed" engineering students is all they want to manufacture.

Unfortunately, some of the smart ones would admit they did it for the money, while passion may make the top three.

didn't minor in English

http://www.courses.napier.ac.uk/EnergyandEnvironmentalEngineering_U52151.htm

That's the course that I attended. Sorry for my English, again. I didn't even make it to HR, I think they might chose those who have some experience in the field over the "fresh" bachelor's. I never got interviewed even when I filled my application, with a good resume.( I had the university counselor help me with that)

So I really need to get employed actually. However, we all know that HRs prefer experience over none, but what about fresh bachelor's like me, we all need to start someone don't we..

Thanks for all your help.

I think you are wrong.

Before starting my own business I worked for a number of international companies and I was also tagged to be part of the hiring team. I have a lot of experience sitting behind the table that you are trying to get a seat at.

Companies hire people on many different levels, but it depends on the needs of the department. However, there is always an influx of new unskilled graduates that are to be mentored by the senior engineers. It's a balance of new and old.

Experienced engineers are good, but new hires that are unexperienced bring new thinking and ambition to the table and companies value those hires and spend time and money training them. This is how companies avoid stale work cultures, which lead to a decline in their position in the market.

Your success (or lack of) will entirely depend on how aggressive you are in finding a position as well as how skilled you become at selling yourself.

In all my years I never tested prospective hires on their knowledge base of facts. I would test their problem solving abilities, their reaction to stress and pressure, creativity, and their "fit" into the company culture. No one wants someone that is not a good team player and I would be far, far more comfortable with a good team player that is aggressively willing to learn what they don't know compared to a know-it-all that is unmanageable.

Fresh and experienced each serve their parts in corporations. Now go find yours.

So looking at your course prospectus:

Year 1

Computers in Engineering, Engineering Laboratory, Foundation Mathematics, Engineering Principles (Mechanical), Engineering Principles (Electrical), Option 1.

Year 2

Management for Engineers, Engineering Design & CAD, Intermediate Mathematics, Materials & Manufacture, Mechanics & Thermofluids, Option 2.

Year 3

Renewable Energy & Sustainability, Materials & Manufacture 2, Management for Engineers 2, Energy Systems Design, Engineering Applications, Industrial Placement/University Placement (Honours) or Individual Project (Degree).

Year 4

Honours Project, Building Services Engineering A, Advanced Energy Systems 1, Building Services Engineering B, Advanced Energy Systems 2.

I don't know how your course work would be generic enough in comparing to a standard mechanical engineering degree. This would be the best path to getting a job. Temporarily ignore your "energy" degree.

But if you are not making it through HR, then there's something they are wanting that your resume' is not indicating.

What was your Year4 honors project? Does this show up as a grade on your transcript? How good does your grade transcript look?

I don't see "Mastering the Art of the Internet Search When Seeking Employment" anywhere in the curriculum of the OP.

You just retired. Good for you. I tried it once, but playing golf and drinking beer didn't make the wife happy. I'm an a dinosaur too. So's she. We both still work at about 1/2 of what we made before the last economic meltdown.

As far as applicants go, after reading a resume' and a quick tour around the facility, or a conversation alone, was usually enough to either round file the applicant or consider them further for me.

I started out cleaning solder sponges and replacing flux cups at night on a Motorola production line in 1966. Surface mount and flex harnesses had not been thought of yet.

Somehow, I managed to BS my way up the ladder from there. It was no glamor job, but I just kept quiet and did what they asked me to do.

Now, they all want to start at the top and work their way down.

I don't see "Mastering the Art of the Internet Search When Seeking Employment" anywhere in the curriculum of the OP.

That's because this is still not taught sadly.

:(

Now, they all want to start at the top and work their way down.

BS to get in and then fall down the ladder when the BS just isn't enough to hide the fact that you don't know what you are doing.

;)

"That's because this is still not taught sadly."

But any 7 year old can find the web sites that they WANT to find. Toys, bikes, scooters, porn sites. Let's face it, the poor dears just don't want to put forth any effort for finding work.

They must have done some research during their university experience, right?

Lyn: My mental health required that I retire, 8 years before I should have. First 15 years was fantastic, next 14 years morphed into hell.

I had built an edifice garage, and filled it with metal and wood working equipment, and had no desire to move anywhere, or commute to work from this one horse town (only one company that employed engineers with what I wanted to do). So I stuck it out until the pension points were earned (the pension of this "me too" company was frozen in 2004).

My depression got pretty bad, and you can't drink enough to self medicate that away.

Retired, I don't recall ever being this happy (since I was a kid). I don't have to work with non technical managers (the true failure of the past 14 years, starting with the CEO).

I spend all my time starting/finishing the home projects (the hobby is fixing broken stuff). I'm as busy as I want to be.

I had built an edifice garage, and filled it with metal and wood working equipment, and had no desire to move anywhere,

Wow, you just describe my retirement plans..

It's 2 stories, 900sq-ft on ground and 1200 second floor (cantilever overhang). Metal working ground floor and 3 stall garage. Pretty much a complete model shop of equipment. Second floor has wood working equipment (everything but wood lathe). I pity the fools that have to clean this out, e.g. the 1000lb table saw was hauled up in 3 parts. My plan is this is an estate problem (wish I could show up for my auction). I started working on the house in 2007 to architecturally balance it to the garage behind. I was single when I purchased the property with a ranch style shack (~600sq-ft), and then built the garage. I was married 17 years ago, and she has put up with incomplete tasks.

The mistake I made was thinking a 8ftx32ft area was big enough for metalworking. With a horz. and vert. mill, 2 lathes, bandsaw workbench, drill press, surface plate, it's way too small. It does force keeping welding, grinding operations away from the precision surfaces, so it's worked out well. That would be the one thing I would change (more area). And the use of more iron beams, as the second floor has 4 columns that are in the way (but that would have required a crane). The rafters are all stick built, as I built this myself, and trusses would have added cost plus a crane and crew. Amazing what you can do yourself when you can lift each piece. The ceilings are all 12ft, which for wood working allows you to rotate a 4x8 sheet without interference.

I do have to fix a heat loss problem, as 2x8 rafters conduct too much heat. This is a cathedral type ceiling. So R25 insulation at best. But with sheetrock on the bottom side, and plywood and asphalt shingles top side, just too much heat loss/gain. It needs a thermal break, and more dead air fiberglass. Walls are all 2x6. So similar problem of no thermal break.

Your layout sounds similar to what we had on the farm.
The Building was used as a granary, but when we started putting our grain in bins, we used the upper deck as a woodworking shop. (We kept out heavier equipment in another building on floor level, (4 sided planer), 30" and a 24" wide planer.

Be did have a shingle mill up their which worked great, Shavings dropped down a chute, and the shingle dropped down another chute, where we finished it, graded and bundled it.

That shop size gets small quick, especially when your project has any size to it.

My brother is building a Storage building, 60 x 180. with a 40 x 60 for a shop in it. 18 foot side walls. Its on a farm, and he needs the space to work on the equipment.

So we can get the combine in and still have room for a portable crane. (Barely)

Fortunately, we have a sawmill, and cut all the lumber (Except for the trusses, which we purchased at a lumber yard contractor, which also supplied us with the steel and hardware.)

Shop should be 90% done this fall yet, so we can work on the equipment. The building hopefully will be done after next spring work and baling season.

Outside the US, I don't see what university would be better than Edinburgh at energy engineering.. Before deciding on Edinburgh, I found those:

UCLAN Uk

Greenwich Uk

Southampton

UCD Dublin

UEA Uk

University of Dundee Uk

Which one would you have picked..? And I don't think I would fit in a mechanical engineering program as it is clearly not my passion. I wouldn't like it and would drop university I presume.. This is the reason I chose to go for energy engineering alone.

Thanks for your help.

Going to a well known school does not guarantee you a job.

I believe you went to a good school, but any accredited school gives you everything you need. My point was that a general Mechanical engineering degree would give you a general purpose starting point. You have many specialized courses, I don't know if these are seen as a limitation. You need to start somewhere, and it's not in a specialized industry as your only seeing openings for "experienced" engineers.

There is another thread by 'energypassion97' of a kid looking for a school to go to that specializes in a 'energy engineering' degree. It does not matter if you take up Chemical, Electrical, or Mechanical degree titles, as these all provide the schooling for calculating energy and any heat engine calculation. But you also receive a strong static/dynamic/strength of material basics, and for ME, fluid dynamics, mechanics of mechanisms, and many other ME electives.

What other ME course work appear in your schooling?

So I believe that your degree is seen as a limitation to a general ME job applicant from an HR view.

And you did not answer the question about what you did for your "Year4 honors project". And what were your grades, are these a limitation?

Anonymous Hero, TVP45, LYN: have given some really good advice on the job search process.

You need to rewrite your resume' to appear as a general ME applicant for entry level opening. Be willing to take any job offered. And remove any bias of applying for any energy related job. If that's meant to be, that can happen in the future. But as you've received no interviews, you must assume your resume' is FUBAR.

Good luck to you..

If someone doesn't want to focus on mechanical engineering but just takes it for the sake of enlarging job prospects, do you still think it would be a good idea to take mech eng with energy engineering(There are programs like this).?Otherwise, what would you suggest?maybe business mba after engineering? Thanks

What field are where all the jobs at? Who is hiring?

Maybe you should do a little research and see who's hiring the most people.

You can always change jobs after you pinpoint the field of your greatest interest.

You attended an engineering school, with no desire to be an engineer, but for the "sake of enlarging job prospects". And now you can't get a job in that field. Clearly HR is doing it's job to filter your resume' as a lay person that foolishly took up training in a field of study, they had no calling in.

A1: Yes, if you have a brain that by random luck was good at science and pattern recognition (about 3-5% of the population), then the energy degree specialized studies, with mechanical engineering would be a good thing, if this was your personal interest. But if you have no aptitude for engineering (physics), then you'll produce no useful work output as judged by peers that can.

A2: Sure you can put a MBA on top of that, hope you can drink lots of alcohol, as that becomes marketing, and there's a 'two drink minimum' for entry (Dilbert joke). My experience is that engineers that morphed toward marketing, were no good at engineering, but they could talk the jargon with the end customers. They were good at demonstrating the product, not designing the product. Some could make suggestions to product improvement, but could not implement them.

You need to figure out a field of study that interests you, and hope you can gain employment in that. Why do you think you have not gotten any offers of an interview for a job with your degree? Clearly there is something in your resume' your not seeing as a "red flag" to HR. As you've not answered previous questions about your grades, I'll assume it's extremely poor academic performance.

Well, to answer your questions(if this makes a difference), I had a 2.0 GPA(about 70%), and my final project was a stationary bike that could charge 4 devices at the same time because of the rotation of the pedals which would then rotate the handle attached to the mechanically powered phone usb charger.

And to be honest I am not really a fan of detailed physics.. I get tired from studying such detailed concepts and I would wonder what would happen to me in a mechanical engineering class!

I can't find something that I love other than renewable energy engineering.. I searched the A-Z jobs and occupation list, and nothing appealed to me:/

I need help as the days are passing and I am here sitting, paying my rent and food from limited money in my bank account (833 GBP left..) I am thinking to go get some work like McDonald's but that would be HELL. I'd rather be homeless.

Get a job, any job.

If you had a family and a kid what would you do, look for a job you love?

When the cart is going over the cliff it is long overdue for action.

Get a job first and then sort out what is passionate to you; meanwhile, you can build up a little emergency fund to sustain you in the event of sudden unemployment.

OK so do you wish to work in renewable energy but hate the details. Sounds like you should consider marketing instead of design or installation. Getting the details wrong is an annoyance for a salesman but damaging for an installer or catastrophic for a designer.

Frankly it still sounds to me like you've yet to find a passion in your life. Renewable energy is just an amusement for you. Like my fondness for chess. I know that my skills in chess will never allow me to make a living playing chess or even writing code for or about chess. I still go to my neighborhood chess club about every other week and have a good evening. Your passion may not even become your vocation. Once you find a passion the tedium of a job becomes just the price for pursuing your passion.

Not that I hate the details in my job, I hate the details in a typical mechanical engineering degree..What we learn in this degree enters too much in the details,it's not my thing..

Wait a minute, you have a job. I thought you were unemployed. Oh, I get it, this is one of those details that you don't like.

The way you draw people into a conversation, you really should consider sales.

No, what he really meant was........

I think it's safe to say that the engineers here in this forum (applied physicists), and other scientists, whether degreed or not, can't satiate their curiosity for wanting to understand the physics of EVERYTHING.

If you don't have this passion to want to understand the detail, you are in the wrong career. You will never be good at it, and never be happy.

Anonymous Hero in #44 is giving you the advice you need to stay alive.

Having a degree does indicate you are trainable. Find a job where that is valued.

See if you can find a factory/field support job. You won't need to do any physics.

You have not walked away from this forum, and have taken some honest critique. You are communicating, and that is a big part of product support in the field. If you enjoy travel, you may see this.

You also could take on a technician roll in installation of green energy products. This may include getting your hands dirty, and travel. You won't be expected to do physics calculations.T

Please don't take this as overly-critical, but as honest advice. I think you chose the wrong field, and you should look at what you want to do, based on what you like doing (look at your hobbies, who your friends are, what your role models did for a living). An engineering education is great preparation for medicine, law, or business.

But, engineering is all about details. We don't discover important new concepts and laws of nature as a rule; what we do is take those principles discovered by others and turn them into useful (and maybe profitable) products and systems. If we're any good, we dot every i and cross every t since human lives might depend of having the right kind and number of washers on a motor mount.

Many of us would do this stuff even if nobody paid us a dime. We'd clean toilets at night so we could do FEA during the day. We create, we improve, we apply. Some of us who are old enough did a lot of scrubbing in the drafting room or fetching and carrying in the machine shop in order to get our first job. As several people have noted, it's a passion; if some of us got sentenced to the electric chair, we'd figure out how to add a phase corrector to save the state some money on that.

So, do what you love. This is your only life. It will end. When it does, you want to be able to look back and remember things you did that made the world better. That'll last; the money you earn will be pissed away by your free-spending grandkids. If you made a false start, change course now; nobody will hold that against you. Today I met a former banker and a former psychologist who realized they really liked dogs, so they're running a very innovative dog care enterprise. They make a difference taking care of dogs.

become a bridge tender, and read books that your interested in then to pass the time. Because it sounds like engineering is not your thing.

I used to read articles about the energy industry and that energy engineers were demanded. Now that I am an energy engineer, I don't know if it is me or that really there aren't so much jobs available.. Really sad for passing 4 years for my formation only for it to come to a screeching point..

You sounds like it was a waste,

Which tells me, your heart wasn't never in it.

An engineering degree is better than a humanity's liberal arts degree (which is the problems we have here in the states.) Where its 4 years, $100,000.00 tuition costs, and very low prospect to land a $28,000.00/year job in a satiated market as a social worker.

The problem is not a job market, the problem is, you have to ask yourself, where your passion lies, because it doesn't sound like its in engineering.

Not really a waste but what I was expecting was to get a job easily or after some months of graduating, since the "energy engineers are so demanded"... At least let me land a job or something after this formation. To prove my point, here a some links related to the "energy boom" I found prior to applying to the program:

Read my last sentence from the post you responded to.

I don't get it, I love energy engineering..

Then push through it.

I'll share with you what I experienced.

When I graduated, I started making contacts my last year, had some interview that didn't pan out, but I had sent them resumes to them in the first place. Because no one called where I wanted to work.

Because I pushed. One of my instructors in college found out I was still looking drop my name where he worked during the summer as a consultant.

I had an interview and hired there within the week.

Then I started to get other contact calls that were interested in me.

One day about two months after I started working at this company, they called me in, and asked if I was hired through this placement agency.

I told them I sent them my resume, but they never called me. Turns out they were trying to collect a finders fee.

I called them and asked them what was going on, and their response was, they had misplaced my resume, and they are working hard to place me.

So, its rather hard to understand your passion when it sounds like you have a defeatist attitude.

Even when searching for energy engineers job in the links you provided, not even a single job accepts graduate. They all need experienced engineers, but how can I be experienced without first having a job

I started out working part time at a stationary shop and assembling printed circuit boards and worked my way up from there. Now today I have commissioned and worked on equipment on many of New Zealand's wind farms (well not today, today).

;)

It is not uncommon to have to apply for dozens jobs in the hope of getting one. The first one is always the hardest.

You may want consider looking at other electrical jobs you may have never even thought of to start building up that work experience portfolio for the CV. Boat builder electrical assembly, very small company part time assembly work, technical sales, etc.

Figure out exactly what you want to do. Find someone who already does that. Call him/her up, explain your predicament, and offer to buy them lunch at a nice pub if they will give you some advice in return. Send them a thank-you note afterwards. Take the advice. When you're working, remember to help some other youngster.

Repeat the above 100 times before getting discouraged. Remember you (should have) gone into engineering because you really have a passion for making things that improve the lives of your fellow man. If you have that passion, don't leave anything on the field.

Get a job doing something interesting while you wait to get the engineering job. How about something on a fishing boat? Or maybe weaving Argyle socks? There must be interesting jobs up in the Highlands. But, don't have a blank time on your resume.