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Does /biz/ do career advice?
So I graduated with an Engineering degree, but the actual Engineering-process wasn't done until Senior year by which point it was too late to change plans. I quickly realized I think I hate Engineering, in that as a team-effort it's an absolute shitshow. I just do really well at school, and even passed my FE exam.
Mentor / industry professional confirmed all my worst experiences are true in the professional world as well. You will always need another couple weeks, but this is negotiated down from needing months. Office politics are not just a funny meme, they are a perpetual war. Your boss WILL have an MBA with no actual work experience for what he's trying to dictate in the same manner that a middle-aged housewife/mother will try to lecture a doctor on nutrition via tabloids knowledge. Your coworkers who can't contribute will resort to micromanaging others to give the illusion of team value and just bog down actual work. Your actual project manager who should be the only one trying to micromanage others will either be bad at managing people or bad at the actual work he's trying to manage. There's going to be a diversity hire who would have been fired if they weren't a diversity hire. Spending more time stuck in meetings listening to information not remotely relevant to you than actually getting work done isn't just a funny joke, it's a reality. A dipshit manager will send down an order that everybody below knows is bad, and when it is a disaster it's your ass on the line even if you kept a CYA papertrail for exactly this reason.
Etc.
The only thing Senior year taught me, apart from how to be an Engineer, is that getting paid to scrub toilets is more rewarding.
The punchline being: so I joined the military instead. Hue hue. Paid to scrub toilets.
But I don't plan on joining the military any time soon.
What can I do with an Engineering degree that isn't a bad Office Space parody?
Career fairs have been pretty bleak in this outlook.
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>>1621685
It gets worse.
The job market is also a shitshow, as it's become for a lot of sectors. The prior-experience inflation has gotten ridiculous. There are no internships or entry-level jobs that don't require several years-prior experience within impossible tolerances, which as most people working know or found out is just something that you apply to anyway because HR is just looking for purple-squirrels who will work for peanuts or actually just playing for an H1B.
The real problem of this is that I was told it will take upwards of a year or more to actually get into the industry. Only ~1/3 or ~1/4 of my classmates managed to get industry-relevant internships or entry level jobs within two years of spamming applications since Junior year. A lot of them got cold-called back around A FUCKING YEAR AFTER they applied. Apparently most places will intern people for months before deciding they aren't a good "fit"... for half a dozen people working down a list until they settle, or just perpetually cycle interns because that's cheaper in documented costs and bean counters don't have to deal with the hidden problems.
Outsourcing hiring is becoming the standard too, apparently. It's likely I'll have garnished wages by a recruiting firm for half a decade before I'm actually directly working for anybody.
Dunno. All getting a "real degree" made me realize is that I should have gone to a trade school.
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>>1621685
>Does /biz/ do career advice?
No. Go somewhere that is reputable and credible in some way, not some anonymous internet image board. How stupid do people like you have to be?
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>>1622205
>How stupid do people like you have to be?
>Implying I ask a single source
>Implying I haven't already gotten advice elsewhere
Chan is great for conflicting and unconventional opinions. That's all.
>Go somewhere that is reputable
So /biz/ isn't one of the boards which are actually useful/functional. Good to know.
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>>1622228
Nobody cares.
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>>1621685
I graduated in engineering.
Everything you said is pretty much true. A related career path could be something like web development or a software developer, data scientist or data analyst.
The problem here, in a highly competitive climate, is that people retool and flood any industry that is booming. While a data scientist is hot now... it will eventually turn to shit. Then what? How can we survive and thrive?
There are 3 things you need to survive:
1. A skill set that can't be easily found, replaced, or developed.
2. CONNECTIONS and being likable.
3. Playing work politics and winning.
You just got to suck it up OP. Go get a list of companies from some free database and coldcall them all. Apply to the ones that seem enthusiastic that a new grad is phoning them up.
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>>1622319
>I graduated in engineering.
Huzzah
>Playing work politics and winning.
It's not that I can't play, it's that this is mentally and emotionally draining.
> CONNECTIONS and being likable.
The one guy in University who I wanted to beat to a pulp still thought we were friends when we graduated, so I think I got the latter half down. The only connections I've got though though are all within a single company, and they've all told me to stay away from said company.
> A skill set that can't be easily found, replaced, or developed
I am told there is no such thing or at least there won't be very soon, unless I am in an entirely different career path.
>You just got to suck it up OP.
Pretty much what I've been doing, but the second I get an alternative I'm getting the fuck out.
>software
I've discussed this with others already. Very flooded field.
>data analyst
This is something I haven't heard suggested yet. Thanks, I'll look into that.
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Every job and profession is like that and much worse than you think.you and your soul will be ground to dust by the bullshit until you wish you were dead
The only escape is Neetdom or self employment, where you can earn twice as much because you are not burdened by less than useless niggers and cunts
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>>1622380
>soul will be ground to dust
>wish you were dead
I wasn't joking about being paid to scrub toilets. It was actually fulfilling, at least compared to being Dilbert. Stocking shelves, etc. All manual labor jobs I've had were more fulfilling.
The problem is most things an Engineering degree is applied to result in the stereotypical Office-Space workplace.
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>>1622378
Building a unique skillset can be done: learn from others but dont teach others. yes it is harder since everyone can just google everything these days. Just keep some things you learned at work secret so only you know how to operate x machine for instance.
As for connections:
There was a guy I worked with in 2 semester lab course. Our group worked flawlessly and we got the highest grade of 95%. He didn't help me get my foot in.
Also, made out with a girl in engineering. She didn't help me get my foot in either.
It is kind of sad considering I would stick up for them. Depend on no one.
Good luck op. You can take some courses on udacity on becoming a data analyst. Apparently they garunteed you a job but their definition of job is quite poor.
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>>1622378
BTW. It is only emotionally draining because you have no idea what's going on. Read the 48 laws of power.
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>>1622652
Greene's so-called laws are based on isolated examples not general findings or really much research at all. You'll find they contradict each other, if you can slog through the slow preachy writing.
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>>1621685
Aerospace engineer here
All of thesr things are true to a degree, but are a really minor issue in my job
The worst part is the deadlines, but hey, overtime is time and a half. All of my bosses started out as engineers, and some of them are really accomplished in the field. Office politics is a non-issue. HR and low-level engineering teams get all the diversity hires. If we think our bosses decision is bad, we talk (or yell) it out and resolve the issue.
>>1621724
>can't get a job
Get a Master's. Every has a bachelor's, so it's become devalued. If you want to be competitive in engineering today, you've got to be learning your entire career.
>>1622448
This is the big one. As an individual engineer, you don't "produce" anything. Shoot, I've spent the last six months certifying a big hunk of titanium (designed by someone else) for a specific requirement, which is being manufactured in another country. I'll probably never even see one in real life. It can be very unfulfilling.
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>>1622648
>Building a unique skillset ... so only you know how to operate x machine for instance.
That's job security. Not the same thing as a unique skillset.
>didn't help me get my foot in
I kind of expected this from the get-go, but granted I'm an asshole and there's only maybe three fellow students I would vouch for.
>>1622687
>Get a Master's.
FUCK. I was hoping somebody wouldn't say this. I had several professors who did this... and could only get a job as a professor. They strongly advised I be absolutely certain before I go for a Master's because it's absolute hell and even more debt. And again I complain about the credentials-inflation from hiring competition being complete bullshit. I have to get more credentials than my Father to make less money than he did with worse benefits and non-existant job security. It makes manual labor jobs a fuckload more attractive.
>The worst part is the deadlines
OK, let me be very specific. The worst part for me, were the deadlines because of other people. Interweaving of Brooke's Law and subdivision of tasks, where no Gantt chart survives. Somebody else's fuckup is going to eat your time and there's nothing you can do about it. Worse yet is becoming known as "gets shit done" and then some coworkers make their job making you do their job. College does not teach people how to be good team-members. It simply throws them into sink-or-swim and they develop whatever works, and when SHTF most survived by beating their head against the wall harder instead of developing good behaviors/strategy. I worked with ~3/4 of my graduating class at some point, and I'm amazed airplanes fly at all.
My dream job is using my Engineering degree, but not being bogged down by team-heavy work.
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>>1622754
>my dream job is using my Engineering degree, but not being bogged down by team-heavy work
Literally every engineer's wet dream, let me know if you find a job like that so I can apply!
But really, you're probably better off looking for something outside of engineering. It really isn't that attractive of a field anymore, even if you really enjoy the work. Good luck
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>>1621685
>getting paid to scrub toilets is more rewarding.
janitorial contractor checking in.
I'm working on my sixth million gross, I work less than 40 hours a year, employ a gang of happy toilet scrubbers, take several weeks of paid vacation with my family in the tropics each year, and have never regretted the toilet scrubbery.
Yes, I have a STEM degree from a top-ranked university. No, I don't use it.
p.s. I DID join the military. They taught me the most valuable lessons of my life: How to wax a floor and make a toilet shine like a new dime.
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>>1622815
>Literally every engineer's wet dream, let me know if you find a job like that so I can apply!
FUCK.
Alright, thanks man.
To be honest... I really really want to design and build custom furniture, buy a house but live in a shed while renting out the rooms in the house, use my engineering degree to run a small solar/thermal powerplant and make peak-hours money in a State that pays you for contributing to the grid, and run a combined-investment with trusted relatives for RV or mobile home rental lots.
>>1622816
>Yes, I have a STEM degree from a top-ranked university. No, I don't use it.
>Military taught me how to wax a floor and make a toilet shine like a new dime.
FUCK.
.... OK, thanks. This is what I thought.
Though I already confirmed with every ex-military I ever met. The bulk of it was spent waiting, cleaning, menial chores, and more waiting.
Second confirmation: do filthy shit nobody else wants to do as a contractor. Heard this one enough I'm really considering some things.
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