Recent Engineering graduate looking @ houston (school, universities, moving)

[Supermac34]

A buddy of mine just got a good job at Baker-Hughes.

Also, these are just a fraction of the companies in Houston, but I like to go through the Chronicle's list of top 100 companies in Houston and just go to there individual websites and search for jobs. They often post jobs on their own websites that never make it to monster or careerbuilder.

Here you go: Chron.com | Chronicle 100 (http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/07/100/charts/chron100.html - broken link)

Just google the company name and find their homepage. About 90% of them have their own job board. Just work your way down the list and see if they have job openings.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by Supermac34

Also, these are just a fraction of the companies in Houston, but I like to go through the Chronicle's list of top 100 companies in Houston and just go to there individual websites and search for jobs. They often post jobs on their own websites that never make it to monster or careerbuilder.

Yeah, this is a fraction of the publicly traded companies. You have to do your research if you want to work for a good, privately-owned company.

[achtungpv]

I work for a large engineering firm and all firms are facing a severe shortage of engineers...even entry level EITs. Our HR dept ran some stats and they found that the engineering field is growing at a rate of about 18% a year and the work force is growing at 0.3%. Do the math. It's a sellers market.

For a chemical engineering grad in TX with a solid GPA (3.2+), you'll command $50K-75K+...with the high end being in Houston and Dallas. You should be able to get a bit of relocation help...maybe $1-3K. New grads aren't expected to have much to move so they don't really command a lot of relocation expenses. I'd go to the Welcome to CENews.com - For the Business of Civil Engineering and look at the best firms to work for, find some that interest you based on their projects, employee satisfaction, etc. and submit your resume even if they don't show a position currently open. Our hiring managers are told that if a good resume crosses their desk, for them to create a position for the candidate because the market for engineers is not getting any better and you need to grab them while you can.

[tstone]

$50-75k? I'd like to know of the company that hires fresh college chem E's for 50k, and 75k. Because those #s sound too low and too high.

$57-59k for chem E seems to be the avg rate from everything I've seen "on the inside." Slightly lower for all other engineers. However after 3 years with raises, a promotion, and maybe a move to a construction site, $75k is a reality. After 10 years, $100k. Factoring inflation, once the young uns are in their 50s in management the salaries will be easily over $200k.

(I'm only talking about base salary, not >40 hrs/wk (OT) or bonuses.)

[achtungpv]

Originally Posted by tstone

$50-75k? I'd like to know of the company that hires fresh college chem E's for 50k, and 75k. Because those #s sound too low and too high.

$57-59k for chem E seems to be the avg rate from everything I've seen "on the inside." Slightly lower for all other engineers. However after 3 years with raises, a promotion, and maybe a move to a construction site, $75k is a reality. After 10 years, $100k. Factoring inflation, once the young uns are in their 50s in management the salaries will be easily over $200k.

(I'm only talking about base salary, not >40 hrs/wk (OT) or bonuses.)

My last firm lost an Chem eng grad who had another offer for $75K in Houston for an energy company (they always pay more than consulting firms) and we were a medium size regional firm paying $50-60K for new grads depending on GPA, co-op experience, etc.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by achtungpv

My last firm lost an Chem eng grad who had another offer for $75K in Houston for an energy company (they always pay more than consulting firms) and we were a medium size regional firm paying $50-60K for new grads depending on GPA, co-op experience, etc.

Ouch! I wonder how much international travel may be required? A lot of these oil & gas jobs are out in some pretty bad parts of the world. I also notice that in the industry there are a lot of folks who say a lot of things regarding pay. But hey -- as long as they highball their "he-said, she-said" claims, it keeps the companies on their toes, right?

[swamp]

Originally Posted by achtungpv

I work for a large engineering firm and all firms are facing a severe shortage of engineers...even entry level EITs. Our HR dept ran some stats and they found that the engineering field is growing at a rate of about 18% a year and the work force is growing at 0.3%. Do the math. It's a sellers market.

Good engineering jobs outside dotcoms were scarce 5-10 years ago.

When did current engineers with 2-5 years experience start school?

Do the math, indeed.

[tstone]

Originally Posted by swamp

Good engineering jobs outside dotcoms were scarce 5-10 years ago.

When did current engineers with 2-5 years experience start school?

Do the math, indeed.

TELL ME ABOUT IT. Universities seem to make students to believe they are entitled to a $55k job straight out of school. Yeah right!!! I graduated college in 2000. I had my first "real" job in August 2000 and was laid off in December. Luckily I didn't go nuts with cars & clothes like my friends and saved my cash. Then for the next 4 1/2 years I floundered around in grad school and full time work - mostly unrelated to my degree - simply so I wouldn't become one of those boomerang kids like my friends became. Some of these jobs had a lot of BS go with them. Then, it still took a connection to land my current engineering job because I had diluted my resume to an extent.

The best thing to do is land a job NOW in engineering with a company that is more diversified than just oil and gas. Once you have busted your rear and proven yourself... when the oil business crashes (and it will), you can work on other engineering projects outside of oil & gas, even if it means moving away from Houston. With any "investment", if you don't diversify, you're simply asking for it!

[Wysiwyg]

Originally Posted by tstone

TELL ME ABOUT IT. Universities seem to make students to believe they are entitled to a $55k job straight out of school. Yeah right!!! I graduated college in 2000. I had my first "real" job in August 2000 and was laid off in December. Luckily I didn't go nuts with cars & clothes like my friends and saved my cash. Then for the next 4 1/2 years I floundered around in grad school and full time work - mostly unrelated to my degree - simply so I wouldn't become one of those boomerang kids like my friends became. Some of these jobs had a lot of BS go with them. Then, it still took a connection to land my current engineering job because I had diluted my resume to an extent.

The best thing to do is land a job NOW in engineering with a company that is more diversified than just oil and gas. Once you have busted your rear and proven yourself... when the oil business crashes (and it will), you can work on other engineering projects outside of oil & gas, even if it means moving away from Houston. With any "investment", if you don't diversify, you're simply asking for it!

Even Chem Eng'g has Chem Eng'g related IT department. I see IT as the thing that puts the white collar back to engineering jobs. Thats job security. I quit engineering way before I got the degree and saw that being hardworker on the IT side of the biz is the key to job security. That and your extra engineering knowledge (inventory, processing, futures, supply, overall operations and standards) gives you a huge huge advantage over many many IT professional (mostly foreign) - that would take you high up in the corporate ladder in an accelerated pace. or atleast job security This of course applies to entry level positions too

[tstone]

Fortunately I'm also in the axis to project management as a "time & money analyst" (layman's terms). I use a lot of computer programming skills, too, and sometimes I have to perform little IT fixes myself if I want to get things done quickly.

When I say "engineering" I don't necessarily mean be a designer or technologist unless that's what you want to be. There's excellent overtime pay to be had if you're a piping ''super-designer,'' or go down the track to be a design supervisor. People skills always help.