It is impossible to predict if the economic climate for the country and opportunities for engineers will be as good as or better than they has been in the past 2 decades, or if the situation will be worse. While I would like to be optimistic, I also like to have a “plan B” if this is not the case.
My plan -- as in a plan for you -- is not to try to outrun the “cheetahs”, but to just outrun the other gazelles. That is YOU can’t really do anything about the overall economic situation, but you can be the best engineer that you can and this will, most likely, allow you to be selected as an employee over almost all graduates from all of the other distinguished institutions that award engineering degrees. It will also allow you to get the best projects (particularly if you “volunteer” wisely) and hence have the best chance for advancement.
So how do you outrun the other gazelles? There are three components.
First is to be as good academically as you can be. This starts in the classroom. The faculty are presenting their favorite subjects from a sophisticated point of view, but one that is accessible for you -- if you are willing to work for it. It is (duh) good to “think” about the class material while it is being presented and outside of class. A possible challenge for yourself is to always have a “question” about the topic of the lecture. (Of course, if you have the question, you probably will want to ask it!) Also, study, do your homework and work hard on lab reports. You will learn more and high scores make it easier for faculty to bend the grade curve up. Be sure to keep copies of the finished files of lab reports and any presentations in case anyone wants to see them. The e-portfolio project that we have recently instituted should help with this.
The second component is think about what you want to do and tailor your resume to match this intent. For example, if your interest is process engineering then make sure that your resume contains information about your expertise in various computer languages, any research you have done that could be related and any internships that are relevant. Whatever you want, streamline your resume to highlight the most important supporting information. If you are looking in general for a job, then have different versions of your resume for different job opportunities. In any case, make sure that you conform to current resume trends so that yours is sufficiently “stylish”. I once had a pointed exchange with a recruiter at lunch when he was extolling the virtues, at length, of engineers fromTexas A&M. I pointed out to him that if he wanted Texas A&M engineers, he would not find them at Notre Dame! Once he returned to reality, his point was that he thought that the resumes he had collected from ND did not look good in a pile with engineers from other schools. Hence my aforementioned “stylish” comment -- which you can augment with substance.
The third and the most important thing you can do is to have an “A” game and to bring it when you have a phone or face to face to interview.
How to get an A game?
First is your continual development as a chemical engineer and your ability to be conversant in “engineering”. When I and my colleagues go off on a tangent that involves connecting chemical engineering with household or other common phenomena, we are both “talking like engineers” and trying to encourage you to see the connections. If a recruiter is hiring an engineer, she/he expects you to act and talk like an engineer. Next is to learn as much as you can about the company and the specific jobs that they would like to fill. You will be expected to ask questions and you will want to tailor your answers to match the job. (I can recall failing on both of these accounts on a couple of interviews and plant trips when I was looking for a job in 1984.)
The final part is to be responsive (answer what is asked), effective (get to the point), quick (the thoughtful mathematician driving the tractor is not the right schtick for an interview), exactly truthful (don’t exaggerate, to engineers, two and four really are different numbers), and respectful (listen, let the other person talk and show interest). Oral communication (and to some extent mannerisms) is all that that the people interviewing you have for as a basis for judgement -- and judge they will! You need to determine if you have these traits now or (but I would not bet on it) if you can turn them on when needed. If you don’t, practice. Nowadays, you could have someone pull out a cellphone and catch you giving one of your rambling (but pleasantly so) answers to, say, which popular movie star could play the role of an engineer, say Gene Kranz (Ed Harris), if there were to be a remake of Apollo 13 (the greatest engineering movie!). Watch it. Next time you can try and hopefully do better.
I really can’t write anything that would overemphasize how important this last part is.
At some point along your undergraduate program, “getting a job” becomes a task of importance comparable to a class. Help is available in the career center or from your advisor and other faculty members.
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