The job market is looking bright for new college graduates in CE, ChE and EnvE, thanks in part to an aging workforce. "A lot of baby boomers will be retiring in the next five years," says Mark Witzke, manager of college recruiting at Chevron Corp (San Ramon, CA). The company is hiring their replacements now from among the flock of recent college graduates. The new recruits get both formal and on-the-job training, so when the baby boomers do begin retiring, skilled employees are already in place.
About 50 percent of Chevron's new college recruits have engineering degrees. About a third of those are ChEs, and a slightly smaller percentage are CEs. Chevron hires new ChE grads as process engineers in chemical plants and for design and facilities jobs. Facilities and design engineers do small project work, which gives them experience and self-confidence to move into more complex projects. Other types of engineers are currently being trained for environmental engineering jobs, but Witzke thinks that will change in the next few years as more students specialize in environmental engineering.
It's tough for new grads to break into many ChE fields, but the oil and petroleum business is growing. That opens more doors. In fact, the petroleum and coal product manufacturing industries have made more job offers than other industries to ChE graduates in the past year, with an average starting salary of $56,335, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE, Bethlehem, PA).
The prospect for CE graduates is also improving. Ann Helmers, director of career planning and placement for the college of engineering at the University of Miami (Miami, FL), has seen the job market for CE majors rebound tremendously in the past year. Their starting salaries average $46,023. She credits growth in the South, as well as rebuilding after the recent hurricanes; demand is highest for people to work on government structural and transportation projects.
What employers look for
Because the engineering fields are competitive, Helmers advises her students to keep their grades up, do an internship or co-op for the job experience and networking contacts, and get involved, especially with professional technical societies.
Ann Marie Gaus, director of workforce diversity at 3M (St. Paul, MN), says that her company looks for potential employees with strong academic records who have shown leadership skills and are involved in community or other volunteer work. Community involvement is an important component of 3M's philosophy, and Gaus says that a college graduate who volunteers and does well in school is likely to be able to balance career, civic and personal duties.
Internships are an excellent way to learn about this balance and gain valuable job experience at the same time. At least one internship on the resume may also improve a new graduate hire's starting salary. According to NACE, 46.2 percent of the companies that participated in its 2006 experiential education survey offer higher salaries to new college graduates who have done internships.
Chevron and 3M are among the many companies who turn to professional societies like NSBE and SWE to fill both internships and permanent positions. Witzke says Chevron reps attend many job fairs and national conferences of groups that represent women and minorities. A diverse workforce is important, he says, because the Chevron customer base is diverse and the company wants to match the people buying its products.
Andrea Soffin works in operations at Hess
Andrea Soffin decided to be a chemical engineer before her fifth birthday. "My grandfather owned a plastics company and I wanted to take it over one day," she says. The business was sold when she was fourteen, but Soffin held onto her career goal. She had a good aptitude for science and math, and she especially liked chemistry.
Soffin attended Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), graduating in May 2006 with a BSChE. During her pre-graduation job search Soffin asked a friend who worked at Hess Oil (New York, NY) to drop off her resume with the HR department. She was invited for an interview in April, and landed a job with Hess's marketing and refining division in Port Reading, NJ. "It's a tough career to get into straight out of college," says Soffin. She attributes her successful job search to her good education and college internship.
She started at Hess in June 2006 as a technical engineer in the operations department, the first brand new grad that Hess has hired into operations. One of her biggest challenges has been handling the amount of hands-on work in her job, but she is now getting into the swing of her day. "I ask a lot of questions," she says. "You can't be shy.".
Soffin had a choice between operations and tech services, but picked operations because she would get to work with more people and help in the implementation of new processes. Her job entails a mix of projects and daily duties. One project that Soffin is currently working on involves the startup of a new unit to comply with sulfur regulations. She reviews procedures and is assisting in bringing the new unit on line. Her other responsibilities include reviewing, updating and issuing instructions for one of the three operating regions of the refinery.
"I'm so happy with the job I chose," she says. "It's everything I could have hoped for and more. The company is wonderful to work for and this job is well-suited to my personality. I was always very mechanical and hands-on growing up, and my job allows me to do that every day."
Johanna Mitsopoulos combines engineering with sales
Johanna Mitsopoulos was exposed to a career in engineering early in life. As a child she attended an engineering camp at a nearby university for three consecutive summers. There were both a male and female teacher for each group, so from her very first experiences in engineering, she saw that men and women in the field are equals. Mitsopoulos enjoyed the camp so much that when it was time for her to pick a career path, engineering was her first choice. Deciding on a discipline was much more difficult.
"I couldn't decide between mechanical and chemical engineering," says Mitsopolous. "I chose chemical engineering because the degree is more open-ended. I could go a lot of different ways with it." She took her own turn as an instructor at the camp while she was in college.
Mitsopoulos got a four-year degree in chemical and biochemical engineering science in April 2005 from the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario). However, it took her nearly nine months before she landed her first engineering job. "Most companies want very specific skills and experience when looking at job applicants," she says. "For example, one company wanted five years of adhesives experience, which, of course, I didn't have."
In February 2006 Johnson Controls, Inc (Milwaukee, WI) recruited her, and she is now training for a sales engineering position. Each month she travels from her home office in Toronto to Milwaukee for two weeks of training. Most of the other engineers in her class are MEs or EEs. "Fundamentally we are learning the same thing," she says, talking about how she fits in with her fellow trainees, "but we use different applications."
Mitsopoulos is glad to put her college years behind her. She prefers the more mature atmosphere of the professional world. "I've had enough of homework problems," she says. "I was working ten to fifteen hours a week on top of going to school."
She's also glad she made the decision to be a ChE. "It makes me feel that I stand out in a crowd."
Deborah Isabelle: senior product engineer at 3M
After Deborah Isabelle finished her BSChE at the University of California-Davis and her MSChE at the University of California-Santa Barbara, she decided to take some time off and reenergize rather than jump into a career. She worked in a museum and as a costumed character at a party store, and spent more time with her parents.
"I also did things that kept my mind active and sharp," she says. "And I interacted with people, which helped prepare me for my job today. I work on a lot of teams, and I have to deal with people from a number of different fields."
Another benefit of taking time off after college was the chance to contemplate what she wanted from her career. "While in school I had internships that gave me the opportunities to work in manufacturing plants and R&D environments," she says. "R&D allowed me to participate in the full cycle of product development, from concept to commercialization, and I found it more interesting than manufacturing."
In college Isabelle was active in organizations like NSBE and stayed connected to these groups after graduation. At a NSBE conference she visited 3M's booth, applied for a job, and began working for the company in 1998, one year after finishing grad school.
Isabelle is a senior product engineer in 3M's automotive after-market division. The division focuses on products used for home car care, or by body shops and car dealerships. Part of her job is to help the company launch new products. She works specifically with the lab to scale up products into the factory. She also conducts field testing, which enables her to work with marketing and sales staff as well as customers. And she helps the company ensure the quality and consistency of its products.
"I am learning a lot and I get exposure to a lot of areas," says Isabelle, who does both hands-on and theoretical work. "There are all sorts of possibilities and plenty of flexibility at 3M."
One of the things Isabelle appreciates about 3M is the company's focus on work/life balance. 3M encourages community service, so Isabelle mentors kids who are interested in science and math. She still attends NSBE conferences, but now she is there as a recruiter.
Hess' Clayton Castle: internship to full-time job
Growing up, Clayton Castle planned to go to college and study broadcast journalism. But in high school, he took an introductory engineering class. One of the projects was to build a balsa wood bridge and see how much weight it could withstand. He loved it.
When it came time for college Castle decided to major in civil engineering instead, a decision his mother strongly encouraged. "My mother was very supportive and told me that engineering would be a better career path," Castle says. "I was the first person in my family to finish college."
He enrolled at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, NJ), and graduated in 2004. The summer before his graduation he was selected for an engineering internship with Hess Oil Corp (Woodbridge, NJ), which led to a job offer in the company's marketing and refining division. The transition from college to full-time work was a smooth one for Castle, thanks in part to the internship. In fact, he finds working easier than school. "When you're in school you function as an individual," he explains. "On the job you work in a group. Other people are there to answer questions and help you adjust."
Castle is now an engineer, based in Hess' Woodbridge facility. He spent his first three months in a management trainee position at a bulk storage facility, then transferred to Woodbridge. He is currently working on government-mandated ultra-low sulfur diesel pipeline projects. The low-sulfur diesel's sulfur content would be compromised if it is run through regular diesel pipelines, he explains, so that means new pipelines must be constructed. Castle is involved in every phase of the projects, which are under way in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and several other locations. He reviews the designs, orders the materials, estimates budgets and does site inspections.
In addition to the pipeline work, Castle is involved with storage tank inspection and repair. "My boss has a series of tanks that require an out-of-service inspection," he says. "Once they are inspected I develop a repair plan to return the tanks to safe operating condition."
Even though civil engineering wasn't his initial dream job, Castle has no regrets about his career choice. "I love what I do, and I love working here," he says.
3M's Christy Simmons works with medical suppliers
Engineering was always at the top of Christy Simmons' career wish list. As she learned about different engineering disciplines, she concluded that chemical engineering offered the most options.
Simmons saw a lot of 3M when she was a student at Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL). The company had a huge presence on campus, and when she learned about its products and range of opportunities, she knew she wanted a job there. An extra benefit was its location in St. Paul, MN. The Twin Cities area has a lot to offer with its many museums, theaters and great summer weather, Simmons explains. "I did a summer internship at Pillsbury in Minnesota, and I loved it," she says.
Simmons got her job offer at 3M at Thanksgiving and began there in January 2000. "I was amazed by the amount of snow," says the Mississippi native. "It made me nervous, but I realized in order to pursue your career goals, you must sacrifice something. For me it was warm weather."
Once she'd adjusted to the Minnesota winters, Simmons found the transition from college student to full-time employee easy. "As a chemical engineering major you have to have a lot of discipline. You can't be lax," she says. "I brought this way of thinking to my job."
Simmons started in 3M's rotational program for entry-level engineers. Every six months she changed jobs and locations. When the program ended she became an outsourcing engineer in 3M's medical division, working with suppliers that make medical products for hospitals and nursing homes. Her job is to find ways to optimize the supplier's value to 3M by building strong relationships and problem solving. She spends some of her time recruiting for 3M at NSBE conferences.
Simmons is pleased with her career choice. As a ChE at 3M she can explore many different directions without having to leave the company. "My experiences at Tuskegee University, 3M and NSBE have given me many opportunities early in my career," she reflects. "I have learned a lot about myself and consider myself very lucky."
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