Employment of mechanical engineers is projected to grow 11 percent from 2023 to 2033, much faster than the average for all occupations.
About 19,800 openings for mechanical engineers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Many of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
There has been a huge increase in the number of CS / software engineering majors. But I don’t think there has been a huge increase in the number of mech E and other traditional engineering majors?
Thanks for the positive note! I hesitated to post about how many places he’s applied, because I don’t want people thinking “he applied to that many places and didn’t get a job? He must be a moron.” But then I thought, WTH, it’s hard. Not every kid is applying to five places and getting four offers. People should know they aren’t alone.
A few of his non-selections are not on him - he applied to a bunch of gov’t summer internships in the fall that don’t make decisions until March/April so he hadn’t heard if he’d moved forward then of course there was the hiring freeze. So those are all gone. And I’d guess that a good handful of the 30 or so that he applied to in December were probably already filled - they had been on his spreadsheet for 3-4 weeks and he just didn’t get the applications in until he was home on Winter break. But he’s been moving much faster since then, so hopefully more options will come his way. At one of his interviews last week, after they were done with the typical questions, the interviewer asked what he had done for his Eagle Scout project and my son thought they had bonded over being Eagle Scouts so who knows, maybe that will have been a leg up for him.
Hang in there. I absolutely LOATHE when my kids/GFs are job hunting. It’s very depressing. I have to remove myself from the process, because I don’t want my attitude rubbing off on them. From time to time I’d say… I really AM interested, I just hate talking about it because if anyone rejects you, it just makes me SOOOOO mad I want to get out my pitchfork and stab someone. (a bit dramatic, but still…)
Younger S/GF moved last month. Younger S stayed with the same company, but GF had to find a new job. I know she applied to a bunch of places. She got one interview, and fortunately they loved her. (How can they not, I say!) She’s in the health sciences field.
Woo hoo!!! Clearly I just needed to put it out into the universe. Son got a job offer this evening.
So he applied for something like five different jobs with this one company. He interviewed for two of them at once, and he thought he did really well so was SO upset to get two notices that he wasn’t selected.
But psych! The notices were related to two of the OTHER jobs at this company, they weren’t for the ones he interviewed for. He’s actually not sure which of the jobs he interviewed for they are offering to him, he wasn’t there to answer the phone, so he’ll have to call back.
Congrats on his getting an internship that sounds more aligned with his interests! One’s experience tends to set their path for their qualifications when they job hunt. It is easier when looking for a first (and future) real job to have experience in the field you are pursuing, especially these days when competition is so tough. And he is also more likely to excel in an area aligned with his interests. If he only gets one offer yes take it. But if he has more than one, the one that sets him on the path for his future goals is the one to take.
One of my s’s turned down an opportunity at Lockheed b/c it was not what he wanted and he didn’t want that to be the path his career took. And he was more interested in other engineering areas. It was absolutely the right choice.
My son applied to jobs in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas (in addition to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and North Carolina).
He is morally opposed to working to build weapons of warfare, so he was not comfortable working for defense contractors. But he looked at builders, power companies, agribusiness, small machine companies, auto companies, and a wide variety of other types of business.
I’m just mentioning all of this so that other people who are struggling know that they aren’t alone. Sometime you can do everything right, cast a super wide net, and it’s still hard.
I’ll just add that defense companies have many more programs than those focused on weapons of warfare, but I understand the moral dilemma that the industry presents. The defense industry is highly innovative and has led to things we take for granted today, like the microwave oven, GPS, the internet, and so on.
Yes, good clarification. I know I was being flip but, frankly, I was struggling with how to respond to a poster who was questioning my kid’s choices when i didn’t think that was necessarily relative to the issue at hand. (My husband is a vet and this same kid’s two best friends are at the Naval Academy and VT in the Corps of Cadets hoping for a career as a SEAL, so it’s not like he hates the military or members of the military, he just feels strongly that he’d rather work to support other things.)
You weren’t flip nor was my question - or at least its intent.
Many kids unnecessarily narrow themselves - for example one parent I know on here - their student is only seeking quant finance roles and nothing else. Well at some point something is better than nothing. They may end up with nothing.
Yours has a moral objection. That’s totally understandable.
My kid at first focused on auto and defense and eventually opened up in hopes of getting something. He needed to.
Your son’s reason was extremely valid. So it makes sense that he’d avoid the industry.
But often, in my opinion, it’s damaging to limit because while having a preference for an industry is great, in the end experience begets experience and as I noted it’s simply a summer. If you want to work on cars but end up in pharmaceuticals or baked goods, you’ll be fine - was what I was getting to.
Your son is different given his concerns and that’s fine.
You weren’t flip nor was the intent of my question.
I’m glad he landed. Many more will too over the next two months.
Like you, my DH was military, and also like you/your son, my older engineer son wanted nothing to do with the defense industry for the same reasons your son stated, and as you had already explained above. I have to disagree that it isn’t “just one summer”. The experiences in an internship can set the trajectory for one’s career, and if that isn’t the direction he wants to go in, it may be harder to redirect. Not impossible, but harder. Good for him for sticking to his principals and his personal beliefs. And congrats on the good outcome.
“…if you look at Cornell’s career outcome report where they show the how you got the job - while I don’t know how many companies people apply to - they’re finding jobs online. For CS specifically the last two years, 59 on the Internet (think indeed, company websites) and 53 linkedin. Far down the list are Career Fair (11), on campus hiring (4) and alumni (3)…”
Almost makes you wonder if the hiring companies filter for words like “Cornell,” “Brown,” “Dartmouth,” etc etc…
Perhaps - but I think kids are getting jobs from most anywhere and it’s just a trend that will continue to further happen…not just pointed to a specific school. That’s just a school that promotes how they found jobs. Most don’t show that.
Cornell shows a 74% response rate so it’s high - and more are using company websites with social media being the 2nd highest - think indeed, linkedin listings.
Alumni, career fairs, and on campus happen - but are much much lower in the pecking order.
LinkedIn is frequently used for searching out and connecting with alumni network. Those networks are particularly strong at several of the elite schools you mention.
The career outcomes pages only tend to offer limited insight given the subjectivity of the terms used. In careers like IB and management consulting alumni network remains a key element of eventual success but might not always be the initial point of contact. For highly competitive careers it often is a combination of various points of initial contact and job awareness.