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What percentage of students get a job in Electrical Engineering?

I want to know how students usually get into good engineering jobs. To me I see no examples or have not met anyone that has came out from a degree in electrical engineering to get a job, and I don't mean just any simple soldering job, I mean advanced stuff like you see on indeed where they require knowledge of building services, CAD, Zuken 3D.

So far to me all I had observed is that the only people that have good jobs in EE, are those who've completed their degree a while ago, everyone I knew at college were on £7 an hour jobs, which you could get from being unskilled. The same was the case with electricians, I don't really know anyone that had came out of college with the job, if they were they were on apprenticeships for £2.50 an hour.

It would probably be easier to take a look at those in the industry that have good jobs, then copy what they do.

I see on the college's adverts boasting about how %95 of people come out with a job or go onto the next course, I wonder what that statistic would be if it were judging what percentage got a job, or even a good job, my gut feeling is suggesting that most people come out with low paid jobs. Maybe I'll be different, but if i'm going in, I've got to know what type of people get these jobs, I'd say it was next to impossible for someone 22 to get a career ahead of them in engineering, to me it just looks like it's all older people that completed their degree ages ago and could *actually* get experience.
Original post by NullDrone
I want to know how students usually get into good engineering jobs. To me I see no examples or have not met anyone that has came out from a degree in electrical engineering to get a job, and I don't mean just any simple soldering job, I mean advanced stuff like you see on indeed where they require knowledge of building services, CAD, Zuken 3D.

So far to me all I had observed is that the only people that have good jobs in EE, are those who've completed their degree a while ago, everyone I knew at college were on £7 an hour jobs, which you could get from being unskilled. The same was the case with electricians, I don't really know anyone that had came out of college with the job, if they were they were on apprenticeships for £2.50 an hour.

It would probably be easier to take a look at those in the industry that have good jobs, then copy what they do.

I see on the college's adverts boasting about how %95 of people come out with a job or go onto the next course, I wonder what that statistic would be if it were judging what percentage got a job, or even a good job, my gut feeling is suggesting that most people come out with low paid jobs. Maybe I'll be different, but if i'm going in, I've got to know what type of people get these jobs, I'd say it was next to impossible for someone 22 to get a career ahead of them in engineering, to me it just looks like it's all older people that completed their degree ages ago and could *actually* get experience.


Hi There,

I'm currently studying EEE at the University of Sheffield. Engineering is a good sector to be going into, statistically as there are going to be more jobs available than graduates. Average starting salaries can be anywhere from £14,000 up to even £30,000, depends where you get a job. Getting summer placements or doing a year in industry while studying also helps career prospects as some companies may offer a conditional job if you impress for when you've graduated. Doing a MEng helps you fast track to a chartership, which inevitability tends to land you a higher paid job.
As for the 95% statistic thing, that's pretty accurate, dependent on the institution you study at. The beauty about engineering is the wide range of way it can be applied. The percentage of graduates who get a job as an electrical engineer may be low, but they go onto to work in other sectors, such as banking and finance, management... There are so many transferable qualities, it's not like all the graduates go and then work at McDonalds because they can't find a job. Study hard and make the right contacts, it's a great industry to be in.
Hope that helps :smile:

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