By Stephanie Schupska
University of
Georgia

A college degree doesn’t guarantee a job. It may take months
for graduating students to find employment, unless they’re
willing to take a harder course load, invest time in
internships and talk themselves up at career fairs.

This is true even of fields such as engineering. Companies look
for graduates who can slide easily into the work force.

The University of Georgia Faculty of Engineering recently
hosted companies represented mostly by UGA engineering alumni.
Several had tips on how students can stand out from other job
applicants.

“Obviously, they’re technically capable,” Jim Tiller said of
UGA engineering students. “We’re looking for people who can fit
in well in a professional environment, who dress nice for work,
who have professional etiquette, who are creative people.”

Several of the companies at the Nov. 8 career fair offer
internships. Tiller was an intern for CertainTeed Insulation
before they hired him as an electrical-mechanical project
engineer after graduation from UGA in 2004. He pointed out why
internships are so important.

“You get a good idea if engineering is right for you. You find
out what aspects of engineering you want to pursue,” he said.

“Obviously, you earn money while you’re in school,” he
said. “The pay is much better than delivering pizza. And you
gain experience. If you don’t get any experience, you haven’t
learned a lot of the little things you need to develop into a
professional.”

Internships enable companies to screen future employees. “It
gives us the opportunity to check people out,” said Bobbi
Carter, who works under the ecology branch of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency in Athens. She graduated from
UGA several years ago with a degree in forestry.

The EPA has a specific federal career intern program
specifically for students within nine months of graduation. “It
gives students loads of experience,” Carter said. “We have a
lot of hiring successes because of the program.”

“Our company, when they hire, looks for engineers,” said
Brandon Marlow, a manufacturing engineer for Rockwell
Automation. “It doesn’t matter what career — everybody knows
how
to do everybody else’s job.”

Companies are hiring more engineers because the U.S. industry
has seen an economic upturn, said Marlow, who graduated from
UGA in 2000.

“There’s an increased demand for engineers, period,” said Cary
Nagler of B.P. Barber & Associates Inc.

But getting hired isn’t a cake-walk.

“The business environment is so different” than it was a few
years ago, said Casey Adams, an engineer with Eaton who
graduated from UGA in 2002. “You have to have stuff outside of
that degree, a higher level of degree, maybe an MBA, to take
yourself to the next level. It’s so competitive out there.”

Companies are looking increasingly at the UGA engineering
program, said Tim Foutz, a professor and undergraduate
engineering program coordinator in the UGA College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

“Our degrees (in biological and agricultural engineering) are
designed to provide a basic engineering education, to instill
engineering as a way of thinking,” Foutz said. “That’s why we
have so many students employed, because they have such a broad
perspective.”

A few years ago, he said, a Macon company discovered UGA’s
engineering program. “Now they hire nothing but our students,
because they’ve got enough of a background, a fundamental
education,” he said. “Our guys can maneuver from project to
project.”

At UGA, engineering students get balanced experience across
several engineering fields. That gives them a versatility
that’s increasingly rare in engineering.

“According to national data, engineering and technical jobs are
increasing at five times the rate of any other work force,”
Foutz said. “A lot of current engineers are reaching retirement
age. Plus, the United States imports 12-15 percent of its
engineers, and Georgia is at the lead of that trend. The demand
for engineers is there.”

(Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)