The counterintuitive side of engineering

Oddball390
Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:56:17 +0000

Wish UCLA posted some statistics as well.

So ~20% of UCB civil engineering grads are employed, and ~40% go to grad school. What happens to the other 40%?

I don’t have statistics and don’t know anyone in UCB, but I do have some stories:

Friend 1 went to UCLA, majored in civil engineering, and graduated last year. He has a 3.3 GPA and has could not find any engineering work despite sending out nearly a hundred resumes and applications. He only got two interviews, and he is now applying to grad school because he hopes the construction market will make a comeback by 2013.

Friend 2 went to USC and majored in chemical engineering. I don’t know his GPA, but he did send out resumes to a dozen or so engineering companies without getting a response. Shortly after graduation, he applied to non-engineering companies and soon received a few job offers. He is now working in the financial industry.

Friend 3 went to Cal Poly Pomona, majored in civil engineering, and got a 3.1 GPA. She only turned in resumes to a few places (including the career center) because she intended to take a few months off to relax after graduation before entering the workforce. A month after graduation, her vacation ended when she received a call that turned out to be a phone interview. A week after that, she was hired.

Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone in the Cal State system (Cal State LA, Cal State Long Beach, etc) who majored in engineering.