New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
(OP)
I graduated in December 2014 with a BSCE. For the last year, I interned at a very large firm with a highly respected team of Geotechnical/Structural engineers. My resume is rock solid. Before graduating I did not expect that extensive travel (75%) would be required of an entry level Geotech for larger firms. To put it nicely “that’s not gonna fly” with my wife, so transitioning to full time with said firm is not an option. In my job search it seems that the only positions I’m getting called back for are Construction Materials Tech, which are extremely low paying. So low that it makes me depressed to even think about it. I can make more at Dairy Queen. The opportunity to advance to a salaried Geotech with theses companies is possible. Some say 6 months, others a year or more. My questions are this: Should I hold out and spend my days trying to find a salaried position or bite the bullet and go to work at a ridiculously low wage in the hopes that I can keep my head down and work my way up the chain? And, is this normal for entry level Civil Engineers to have to accept a job that requires only a high school education and no experience to get their foot in the door? Thanks in advance for any advice.





RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
Maui
www.EngineeringMetallurgy.com
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
Explore a few 'year in scenarios w/ the wife', and what it'll be like to get there:
1)1 year in w/ 75% travel, known wage.
2)3-6 mo as grunt, then local engineering job.
3)12 mo as grunt, no engineering job.
Explore the various tangibles and intangibles of each 1 year position and path.
If it'll help, plan 3-4 trips & vacations throughout year 1 and save as you go w/ option 1. Leave your cell at home during each vacation.
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 13
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
Good luck,
Latexman
Technically, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
I graduated in the recession of the late 80's / early 90's where most of our remaining manufacturing base was systematically destroyed and our utilities were broken up and sold off during Thatcher's anti-union crusade. It was a bad time for a new power engineering grad to be looking for his first job, in a market flooded with experienced people desperate for work and the start of a two-decade-long recruitment freeze among the former utilities. I worked in a bar right through college / university and my first full-time job didn't match what I was making behind the bar. My friends paid my way on a few occasions where I simply had nothing left in my pockets. I doubled my salary when I left that job and was barely on an average wage in the new place. My next move took me to London - a city I could happily never see again - and a payraise which was wiped out three-fold by the cost living there. The experience I gained in those three jobs laid the road into the power industry on my fourth move after graduation, opening doors which were firmly closed to a new grad. Things for me have been a little more settled since then, and I have been far happier too, plus the salary shortfall early on has been made up by more recent years.
I guess the message is that the first few years probably won't be what you want, or be where you want it, and there won't be much you can do except take whatever work is out there in whatever crappy location it is offered. The positions you take and the moves you make early in your career will sow the seed for the future. Graduating into a recession makes the ride a little bumpier but you - and your wife - need to recognise that the first few years will likely be rough on you and your finances. You need to get experience under your belt to be able to compete in the market for the more senior jobs with more interesting work and better money when the market starts to pick up.
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
The first job I took out of college backfired in my face like holding a shotgun with one hand, got a terrible reference, but I just kept at it and moved on. The job you have now isn't your destiny, it is just your present. If you can't travel 75% of the time then don't take the job, just keep looking.
There are two types of dangerous levels of knowledge:
1. People who don't know enough to be worried
2. People who know just enough that they aren't but they don't know enough to understand the full scope of what they don't know.
Everybody else between (those between 1 and 2, and those above) tend to lack hubris. I never trust anybody who thinks they are an expert.
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
Unfortunately, it often takes very little to become "what you call experts" I think what you are actually referring to are those that try to look like experts; as with martial artists, the true master does not need to prove himself to anyone, he simply is.
TTFN

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RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
I certainly see where you're coming from, but I also think there has to be a reasonable assessment of the definition of "grunt work". It makes me a better sparky to see how my designs are assembled by the line techs, to hear how customers view my designs after using them for a year, etc. It does NOT make me a better sparky to make doughnuts early in the morning, stock shelves at the local toy store, etc. (all of which I have done for a paycheck). If you're thinking in terms of the former, we agree... if you include the latter, well, I think you're being an OG/curmudgeon
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
Look at it two ways. If it does not deal with your later-in-life work, even stocking shelves may develop a useful work attitude even if the experience does not. You like it or you may not. That positive work attitude I think is valuable no matter what the future work. Grumbling over low pay doesn't help. That appears to be the main gripe of Roger in addition to the job level being below his perceived qualifications.
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
Field experience is going to be much better for your skill development, and consequently, your career development. I've known more than a couple guys leave young wives at home for months at a time as they prospected the Andes. In the end, they went on to prosperous careers, where they got to stay at home eventually. Never really kept in touch with the guys who took jobs that suited the cozy life... I'm guessing they didn't stay around.
RE: New Grad-Hold Out for Higher Paying Job?
Also, stating that a position requires travel is sort of a "references provided upon request". It's standard. I've never applied to a job that didn't say it in the job description but I've never spent more than 2 nights on any business trip and never more than 2-3 times per year. Most of the work is all local. Look at the project resume of the companies...if the projects are mostly local there is very little chance you will be gone for weeks on the road. Sometimes, managers have a 'wish list' of projects that would expand their business outside the region. But the reality is that this always remains a dream for many.
PE, SE
Eastern United States
"If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then that builder shall be put to death!"
~Code of Hammurabi