non-eng job after college

[Nucky]

This is my 2 cents but is there anything you can do in the "trades" for a short period of time that relates to Chemical Engineering. I am an EE (power) and am not familiar with all the opportunities available in the chemical industry however, maybe you could work "on the line" for Dow Chemical or something to that effect. Do manual labor. It will give you exposure to the industry and give you a good idea of where you want to go as a Chemical Engineer. For example, as a Power EE, I always thought it would have been good experience to work for a Utility Company or for a Contractor in the field as an electrician/lineman's apprentice. It will make you a better engineer.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Just MHO, but I'd have a hard time hiring anyone who couldn't come up with a better excuse for the time after graduation than, "I just needed to have some time off."

YMMV.

 

[Bean PE]

All else being equal, I'd rather hire someone who took a year off to be a ski bum than someone fresh out of school. But then again, most people making hiring decisions are baby boomers who think that you're wasting your life if you aren't spending it working yourself to death.

 

[tomp]

Also note - if you have student loans, those are going to come due. You get 6 months after graduation and then you gotta start paying that money back.

 

[picusld]

Just MHO, but I'd have a hard time hiring anyone who couldn't come up with a better excuse for the time after graduation than, "I just needed to have some time off."
YMMV.

I WOULD NOT hire anyone who couldn't come up with a better excuse for the time after graduation than, "I just needed to have some time off."

I would recommend applying for federal gov jobs. It takes them about a year to make decisions anyway...

 

[ironman]

Also note - if you have student loans, those are going to come due. You get 6 months after graduation and then you gotta start paying that money back.

Student loans are going to become the next american debt crisis, some loans are federally gaurenteed but alot of preexisting loans are not and most people are defaulting on them because they paid more for the degree than it was worth and what they can earn.

I was looking into doing an online masters in EE because my local university has a BS but not an MS program in EE yet, places like purdue, etc wanted 1000$ a credit, not 1000$ a class but 1000$ a credit, I was way excited about the program until I saw the sticker, I emailed them and told them that their tuition was cost prohibitive by many orders of magnitude, they just said thats what it costs. We will see how long these educational institutions can maintain these outragious rates since majority of people cant get jobs right out of school and people are not make the wages to justify thoes tuition rates.

We will see what happens, but I do know one thing, I am not paying 3 grand a class for a masters, about 1k a class is my limit. If I cant do it for that I dont need it that bad, besides EE's are not making more than ChE's anyways, they offer a few 600 level EE classes at my uni now so I will take thoes and see what happens in the years to come.

As another poster stated it will be nice to see the baby boomer mentality slowly get weeded out, unfortunatly they have not retired or died yet and their leadership is taking its toll on gen xers.

 

[benbo]

As another poster stated it will be nice to see the baby boomer mentality slowly get weeded out, unfortunatly they have not retired or died yet and their leadership is taking its toll on gen xers.

I'm sure the poster who made that comment takes great pride in the fact that you are in agreement with him.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

All else being equal, I'd rather hire someone who took a year off to be a ski bum than someone fresh out of school. But then again, most people making hiring decisions are baby boomers who think that you're wasting your life if you aren't spending it working yourself to death.

That attitude is from the greatest generation; the ones that lived through the depression and WWII.

 

[Bean PE]

All else being equal, I'd rather hire someone who took a year off to be a ski bum than someone fresh out of school. But then again, most people making hiring decisions are baby boomers who think that you're wasting your life if you aren't spending it working yourself to death.

That attitude is from the greatest generation; the ones that lived through the depression and WWII.

It isn't. Boomers are the ones to think nothing of a 60 hour work week and would rather have a two-hour 5pm meeting than see their families.

Note that I wouldn't want to hire someone who took a year off to sit on the couch eating cheetos and playing Call of Duty, but someone doing something worthwhile with their time because they realize they'll never get that chance again is, IMO, a better person to hire.

edit:

Baby boomers (born between 1946-1964) are drawn to:• long hours at the office, including evenings and weekends

• building their career over the long term and loyalty to their employer

• viewing themselves and their career as one and the same

• commitment to quality and doing a good job

• “hanging tough” through difficult work situations and policies

• finding solutions to problems

• being in charge and respecting authority

 

[Capt Worley PE]

All else being equal, I'd rather hire someone who took a year off to be a ski bum than someone fresh out of school. But then again, most people making hiring decisions are baby boomers who think that you're wasting your life if you aren't spending it working yourself to death.

That attitude is from the greatest generation; the ones that lived through the depression and WWII.

It isn't. Boomers are the ones to think nothing of a 60 hour work week and would rather have a two-hour 5pm meeting than see their families.

Most of the greatest generation had retired by the late eighties. I had the pleasure of working with a few of them. Those guys would do wahtever it takes.

Now I have known boomers that did what you desrcibe, but it was more of an image/power trip thing for them.

Note that I wouldn't want to hire someone who took a year off to sit on the couch eating cheetos and playing Call of Duty, but someone doing something worthwhile with their time because they realize they'll never get that chance again is, IMO, a better person to hire.

If someone gave me the answer, "because I'd never get a chance to do it again' it shows me they can't think beyond the immediate. I assure you my parents take trips far more lavish after they retired than they could have had they taken them the year after school. A lot more of them, too.

 

[Bean PE]

If someone gave me the answer, "because I'd never get a chance to do it again' it shows me they can't think beyond the immediate. I assure you my parents take trips far more lavish after they retired than they could have had they taken them the year after school. A lot more of them, too.

A 65 year-old is not physically capable of a 120 ski-day winter full of storm chasing and mountaineering. Old people can blow big wads of cash on luxurious vacations, young people can actually do something in their time off.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

If someone gave me the answer, "because I'd never get a chance to do it again' it shows me they can't think beyond the immediate. I assure you my parents take trips far more lavish after they retired than they could have had they taken them the year after school. A lot more of them, too.

A 65 year-old is not physically capable of a 120 ski-day winter full of storm chasing and mountaineering. Old people can blow big wads of cash on luxurious vacations, young people can actually do something in their time off.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

FWIW, 'took a year off to ski' would definitely NOT get a good response from me.

 

[Bean PE]

If someone gave me the answer, "because I'd never get a chance to do it again' it shows me they can't think beyond the immediate. I assure you my parents take trips far more lavish after they retired than they could have had they taken them the year after school. A lot more of them, too.

A 65 year-old is not physically capable of a 120 ski-day winter full of storm chasing and mountaineering. Old people can blow big wads of cash on luxurious vacations, young people can actually do something in their time off.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

FWIW, 'took a year off to ski' would definitely NOT get a good response from me.

Of course it wouldn't, you're a typical boomer. "I worked myself to death so I could blow wads of cash on a luxurious vacation once I was too old to do anything else" would get a huge along with a bit of pity from me.

Boomers do not understand the younger generation, plain and simple. Why they are responsible for hiring them is beyond me.

 

[FLBuff PE]

Man the trebuchets!

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

Baby boomers (born between 1946-1964) are drawn to:• long hours at the office, including evenings and weekends

• building their career over the long term and loyalty to their employer

• viewing themselves and their career as one and the same

• commitment to quality and doing a good job

• “hanging tough” through difficult work situations and policies

• finding solutions to problems

• being in charge and respecting authority

You say it like it's a bad thing...

 

[CbusPaul]

I'm not sure it's the younger generation that feels that taking a 120-day ski vacation is a worthwhile use of their time. I'd say the majority of people in the younger generation who go to college, who aren't of the entitled ilk, would rather make use of their degree and go to work, especially the engineers.

You speak of the entitled mindframe. Not the gen x/ gen y mindframe.

 

[Bean PE]

I'm not sure it's the younger generation that feels that taking a 120-day ski vacation is a worthwhile use of their time. I'd say the majority of people in the younger generation who go to college, who aren't of the entitled ilk, would rather make use of their degree and go to work, especially the engineers.
You speak of the entitled mindframe. Not the gen x/ gen y mindframe.

Taking a winter off to play in the mountains was just one possible example. How is someone taking a low-paying, low-responsibility job and living cheap to do whatever it is they want to do before they're locked into a career one of an "entitled mindframe" (mindset?)? One friend of mine took a year off and traveled Europe after graduating, and now has a pretty great job. I went straight to work; I wish I hadn't, as there's something I'd love to do that is essentially impossible without a huge stockpile of vacation time.

You sound like yet another boomer who doesn't understand younger generations.

 

[Bean PE]

Baby boomers (born between 1946-1964) are drawn to:• long hours at the office, including evenings and weekends

• building their career over the long term and loyalty to their employer

• viewing themselves and their career as one and the same

• commitment to quality and doing a good job

• “hanging tough” through difficult work situations and policies

• finding solutions to problems

• being in charge and respecting authority

You say it like it's a bad thing...

The last four of those aren't bad things, generally. Long hours, loyalty to an organization that has none to you, and inability to distinguish work from life are anything but good.

 

[ironman]

All else being equal, I'd rather hire someone who took a year off to be a ski bum than someone fresh out of school. But then again, most people making hiring decisions are baby boomers who think that you're wasting your life if you aren't spending it working yourself to death.

That attitude is from the greatest generation; the ones that lived through the depression and WWII.

Baby boomers were the kids of thoes who lived through WW2 and the great depression, the generation that lived through the great depression and WW2 is probably the greatest generation to ever live in the USA , I personally worked with the PE that stamped all my time off and he was born in 21 (the parent of the boomer), that was a very rare opprotunity indeed. They are rare though because most of them are dead now. He was in the WW2 army air corps as WW2 was comming to a close.

Unfortunatly for me my goals involve both large amounts of time off and large sums of money so it would have done me no good to take time off after school, I am hoping I can build up the time off (or leave without pay) and the money to do what I want before im to old, if not hopefully God will let me do it in heaven without all the strings that come attached here on earth.

 

[Fudgey]

Baby boomers (born between 1946-1964) are drawn to:• long hours at the office, including evenings and weekends

• building their career over the long term and loyalty to their employer

• viewing themselves and their career as one and the same

• commitment to quality and doing a good job

• “hanging tough” through difficult work situations and policies

• finding solutions to problems

• being in charge and respecting authority

You say it like it's a bad thing...

The last four of those aren't bad things, generally. Long hours, loyalty to an organization that has none to you, and inability to distinguish work from life are anything but good.

You want a great job that pays well and has benefits, prestige, etc....yet you don't want to work for it.

Might I suggest a job on the night crew at a McDonald's in France?

Baby boomers were the kids of thoes who lived through WW2 and the great depression, the generation that lived through the great depression and WW2 is probably the greatest generation to ever live in the USA , I personally worked with the PE that stamped all my time off and he was born in 21 (the parent of the boomer), that was a very rare opprotunity indeed. They are rare though because most of them are dead now. He was in the WW2 army air corps as WW2 was comming to a close.

Which branch did you go AWOL from? It's been a while so I forget.