OHIOU ME Advisory Board Panel Discussion, Sept. 18, 2009

ME101 and SrD

Opening remarks – All board members, touch on applicable items

Who do you work for and what do you do?

What is a typical day like for you on the job? Is this typical for an engineer?

How much do you work with your hands daily in your job? Is this typical for an engineer?

What’s the best part of your job? What is the most fun job you ever had?

How often do you work with other engineers? How often with non-engineers?

How technical is your work?

How much CAD do you use?

How much of a workload do you really have?

How much of your job relies on group work?

How much traveling is involved in your career?

Is being a mechanical engineer what you expected?

Do you enjoy the job you took on?

Do you still have an interest in what you do after having job experience?

Brief replies to these items by one or two board members

  1. Are you happy with being a mechanical engineer? What is your favorite thing about engineering?
  1. What are some of your strategies for success and what has contributed you to receive promotion?
  1. What did you gain most from college?
  1. How much do you learn after college?
  1. What piece of wisdom would you give a young engineer not to do, in order to succeed?
  1. Did you feel comfortable with the knowledge you gained in college when you started your job?
  1. On day one, how much of your job did you know how to do? How long did it take to feel completely confident in your job?
  1. Are there any other classes in college you wish you would have taken to supplement your career?
  1. What benefits are there to learning about the other types of engineering while majoring in ME?
  1. In getting a job, how important are grades vs. experience (co-op or other experiences)?
  1. Knowing what you know now, would you have changed your major or gone into a different career?
  1. Do you regret any of your designs or projects?
  1. How many hours a week do you spend working outside of work?
  1. Would you rather work at a small company or a large one? Why?
  1. What classes were the most useful for you in your job? How much of the non-ME classes are used? How much of your work relates to course work from school and how much deals with skills learned in the process? (Problem solving)
  1. How quickly do graduates get thrown into a leadership role?
  1. What kinds of responsibilities are given an engineer in the working world?
  1. How much money do engineer's make on average throughout their career? What career path is highest paying?
  1. How does our Ohio U engineering program compare to bigger engineering programs/schools and higher ranked universities, and does it affect the job search?

Time permitting, you can touch on any of these you feel qualified to address – most will be addressed separately in a talk by career services

Furthering Education Advice

Is the FE and PE an important part in job consideration in your field? Do you have any advice for taking a preparing for the FE and PE?

Would you recommend graduate school (MBA, Masters ME, LawSchool) or paying off the monstrous debt?

Interview Advice

Any interview tips? General or specific.

What is the most important part of a resume?

What are some interview tips that would appeal to your company?

What are some mistakes you made during your interviewing process that would benefit us?

Job Search Advice

Did you (advisory panel) know in particular what field or market you wanted to work in when it came time to submit resumes? If not, how did you figure out what you wanted to do or how did you focus your career track?

Is it better to start or join a company?

What are the most important criteria that employers consider when looking at a graduate?

How specialized must your studies be for jobs?

When is best to start applying for jobs?

If you wish to work outside US how do you make it happen?

What are some types of jobs out there don’t stick you behind a desk?

What is a “cut-off” GPA where you would no long be considered for a position?

Are you seeing any upturn in the industry and more demand for jobs? Are salaries impacted by the economic situation?

What percentages of graduates are hired after graduating?

What’s the best way to get a good job?

What is the turnover rate?

What portion of engineers work in the automotive industry?

Co-op Advice

Is it better to work as a co-op for one individual company or work for a variety of companies?

Does not doing a co-op hurt you?

What would be a potential question during a co-op interview? A particular impression?

Current curriculum and resource questions

Why aren’t all of the courses offered every quarter?

Can there be counselors/advisors that are not engineering professors i.e. one advisor who actually is caring and “wants” to help.

What will become of Stocker when the new building is completed?

Why aren’t the computer labs open 24/7 ?

How long does it take to graduate?

Where can you go to continue education in theoretical engineering after getting your bachelors?