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Where I live, there are tons of engineering jobs that don't even require anything above a high school degree. You just need to know people or work there long enough. The problem with this is these unqualified people are taking up a lot of the jobs that should go to the more qualified folks. Basically, connections, knowing how to BS on resume and interview, and knowing how to speak will help you land a job. I'm not saying every company or person in my city is like this, but a lot of big tech companies are.
Really, computer science isn't an "engineering" degree in the sense that Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Nuclear, Petroleum and Aerospace engineering degrees are.
They do try and teach you what goes on in the private side.
The problem is most of the professors have never worked in the private industry or if they have it was only for a few years as an entry level employee many moons ago. So, their knowledge of it comes from textbooks.
They don't know about all the corners that are cut and all the rules that are broken to save a dime. Also, in the real world things don't work out as equations and experiments would dictate.
My son graduated with a CS degree from a comparable university and immediately started earning over $100K/yr. But he also had several internships and they loved him including his work ethic and personality. Good jobs are available if you have skills and are willing to work....you may not be able to pick the location of your job though.
Really, computer science isn't an "engineering" degree in the sense that Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Nuclear, Petroleum and Aerospace engineering degrees are.
Boy could that spark a flame war.
In a hardware sense I could argue that is right because frankly if you have the space you can have as big of a pc as you want. I know of computing centers the size of square blocks.
But....from the software perspective I think this is very wrong. There is such a wide range of programming languages and functions that it is possible to make code work faster or differently. Can you tell a program of where it was made? Probably not but it is not always as standardized as you might think it is. A nuclear plant might not be as much given we have not opened a new one in a generation, infact we are closing them (Yankee in VT). Chemical depends because it is a batched process that takes time. Mechanical has cad which lowers the time involved and that is used in aerospace as well.
If engineering is basically making something better well frankly anything can be made better once the original idea has been presented. Any auto mechanic could probably give a few ideas of how a car could be made better at least from a maintenance side.
Nope... blame yourself. There's no reason why the author couldn't have had a great start to his career. The fact that he admits no other hands on experiences other than studying and reading books and taking tests is the main problem. He could have taken advantage of many things while at PSU... the university has so much to offer than just the basics. Not only that... but an internship would have gone a long way.
It shouldn't be that difficult to find employment with a STEM concentrated education. It may be wiser to concentrate on IT instead of engineering though. More engineering jobs have been outsourced overseas than IT jobs. The IT jobs have come to the US after the miserable failures overseas. There are people I know that switch from engineering jobs to IT jobs to increase their earnings. You should consider learning about databases and security. Both fields within IT are very hot and the compensation is very high. You can earn close to or over $200K in database security after several years experience. I know of DBAs that turned down jobs paying $140K because it wasn't enough money.
You need to make sure that you are damaging your future with inappropriate social media postings. Try Googling your name and find out if anything bad comes up. If something bad comes up, stop Googling your name, otherwise it will drive those bad postings even higher. Companies will do research on prospective employees and will reject people with bad social postings, even if they are well qualified candidates.
You may have to work for a lower amount at the beginning of your career in an area or job that you don't like. You have to think of the early jobs as a series of stepping stones that will lead you to better jobs in the future. I know people that have graduated from college with IT related degrees that actually know very little to almost nothing about IT! You may need to supplement your education with tutorials on the Internet, which are usually free. You can also gain a lot of knowledge from reading technical books. You should build your own server at home, install operating systems and software on the server. Practice backing up and recovering the server. Install a database on the server and learn more about databases with your home network.
If you lack the programming languages in demand, learn the languages on your own with the assistance of tutorials and books. There are many forums related to IT on the Internet. You can start reading those forums.
There are a large number of baby boomers who work in IT now. The average age for IT workers where I work is in their mid 50s. Many of those people are retiring now and there will be a large number retiring in the next ten years. You should be able to position yourself over time for a six figure IT job. Then you also need to live below your means, saving a lot of money. It is possible to save 25% of your gross income. You will then be able to retire with an income stream about the same as you receive while working.
It won't be easy to educate yourself and work your way into a good job. The older you get, the harder it will become to advance your career and earnings. I made the career switch at age 40 from a low pay, lousy hours, rotten working conditions, customer service job to an IT career that pays well with good benefits and working conditions.
If you need more advise, keep asking questions. There are plenty of people willing to give you advise. You can learn from their experience to avoid repeating mistakes in life.
only way you find a decent job is in the goverment , take Civil service exams, a job will be there forever! can't depend on private section
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Also, in the real world things don't work out as equations and experiments would dictate.
