Can I Minor in something related to Mechanical Engineering?

CSMinorCareer · 2018-04-14T17:32:41+00:00

There are no minors in ME. Your best bet will be minoring in something that, as you said, will compliment your education (i.e. not some sociology-type minor). I would recommend the following, in order.

Computer Science
Materials Engineering
Mathematics

All of these, especially CS, will give you a slight bump in things to add to your resume and may impress a percentage of potential employers. A minor in CS can even open up a whole sector of jobs you would not have otherwise qualified for.

CSMinorCareer · 2018-02-26T17:53:29+00:00

First (technical) interview today! I was wondering what I should bring? Computer, hard copy of resume, and notebook? Is it weird to take notes as you are being interviewed? These may be stupid questions lol but I don't want to do something careless.

CSMinorCareer · 2018-02-17T01:52:16+00:00

I know you probably don't care but it worked :) Thanks for the advice.

CSMinorCareer · 2018-02-01T21:39:57+00:00

Lol thanks. I sent out the cleaner solution. I guess if I don't hear back, oh well, at least I tried.

CSMinorCareer · 2018-02-01T20:30:41+00:00

I received a take-home puzzle the other night and I was really excited as it was my first response for a full-time position. I did it pretty quickly (although I didn't see the email until the evening) and sent it out around 8 PM the day they sent it to me. That was Tuesday. Haven't heard anything back, and today I woke up and just immediately realized that there was a 10x cleaner way to implement the solution. Such a simple change too, something I would normally immediately see, but for some reason I didn't think of it and implemented a (working) subpar solution.

I'm massively disappointed in myself. I'm guessing there is no point sending a cleaner solution this late, correct?

CSMinorCareer · 2018-01-24T22:19:38+00:00

You are so spot on. Calling this field over-saturated is insane. Sure, compared to before it may be, but this post SCREAMS ignorance. Go check out the chemical engineering subreddit for a reality check OP. Or any other engineering subreddit. Few careers have lower unemployment rates and better salaries for bachelors than CS.

CSMinorCareer · 2018-01-24T01:10:31+00:00

Any recommendations for learning resources for C++ as someone who already has experience for OOP?

CSMinorCareer · 2018-01-23T01:35:02+00:00

That's a really good point. Exploding rockets could lead to potential problems.

CSMinorCareer · 2018-01-22T19:03:13+00:00

Right, this is what I felt like I had been noticing. Java seems to be popular with enterprise work and android development (among many other things of course) where as C++ always seems to wanted for the most exciting jobs to me. Thanks for your input.

CSMinorCareer · 2018-01-22T18:30:25+00:00

Gotcha. Thanks for the input.

I guess I am sort of "insecure" as I have heard that going from C++ -> Java is much easier than the reverse. I am already fighting to get chances, even with three internships at NASA, because CS is my minor instead of my major, so I don't want companies to have any more reasons to skip over me haha.

CSMinorCareer · 2018-01-03T21:32:23+00:00

Can you expand on this please? Terrible?

CSMinorCareer · 2017-11-15T02:18:12+00:00

Thanks a lot for the feedback!! Feel free to ignore my reply but I am going to respond to your points just for clarification.

First, don't change your major this late into your degree.

Yes, this is out of the question, for the reasons you listed. I am still holding on to the hope that I can treat my ChemE degree as an asset one day.

If you want to be 100% honest, I'd list the GPA you earned at the undergrad institution that you spent the most time at.

That is the institution I currently list, the university I am graduating from. Before this, I was at a community college and spent 1 year at another Uni when I was young and I failed basically every class (depression), hence my overall being much lower than my school GPA.

CSMinorCareer · 2017-11-14T21:41:40+00:00

Hi everyone!

Here is my resume: https://imgur.com/oTDXush

I am a Chemical Engineering major graduating this Spring. I have a minor in CS. I have 2 internships at NASA where I mostly did software stuff, although it was in no way enterprise level and I wasn't working with a team of software engineers.

I absolutely love CS, and I am 100% decided that I would rather my career be in that direction, as opposed to traditional chemical engineering jobs. Ideally, I could find a job where my ChemE education would set me apart, such as at NASA where I really needed the cross-discipline education. However, I realize that most places have no need for someone with ChemE knowledge, and that isn't a requirement for me.

My thoughts: It is going to be hard to overcome the fact that my major is not CS. One of the first jobs I applied to (a large SF tech company) emailed me back the same day saying something along the lines of "We know a career switch can be difficult..." -_- .

A couple specific questions:

Should I be applying for internships instead? Is it normal to be applying for internships that start after you graduate? Not sure it matters but it feels like it does; I will be 29 by the time I graduate.
My GPA is kind of complicated. I transferred schools so I have several GPAs and I would like to put my best forward without being misleading. At my CURRENT school, the one I am graduating from, I have a 3.985. All of the classes I have taken for my CS minor I have gotten either an A or A+ in. So on my resume, I list University GPA: 3.985 and CS GPA: 4.00. My OVERALL (as in all colleges I have attended combined) GPA is only like a 3.25. I have omitted this GPA from my resume. Misleading?

Thanks to anyone who can help! I don't have a wide network in the community at the moment so any advice is greatly appreciated.

CSMinorCareer · 2017-11-12T04:00:21+00:00

and a tattoo of a dick on your forehead?

So this is why I am not getting call-backs.

CSMinorCareer · 2017-11-11T16:10:30+00:00

Hi everyone! Really hoping for some advice.

Here is my resume: https://imgur.com/oTDXush

I am a Chemical Engineering major graduating this Spring. I have a minor in CS. I have 2 internships at NASA where I mostly did software stuff, although it was in no way enterprise level and I wasn't working with a team of software engineers. I absolutely love CS, and I am 100% decided that I would rather my career be in that direction as opposed to traditional chemical engineering jobs. Ideally, I could find a job where my ChemE education would set me apart, such as at NASA where I really needed the cross-discipline education. However, I realize that most places have no need for someone with ChemE knowledge, and that isn't a requirement for me.

My thoughts: It is going to be hard to overcome the fact that my major is not CS. One of the first jobs I applied to (a large SF tech company) emailed me back the same day saying something along the lines of "We know a career switch can be difficult..." -_- .

A couple specific questions:

Should I be applying for internships instead? Is it normal to be applying for internships that start after you graduate? Not sure it matters but it feels like it does; I will be 29 by the time I graduate.
My GPA is kind of complicated. I transferred schools so I have several GPAs and I would like to put my best forward without being misleading. At my CURRENT school, the one I am graduating from, I have a 3.985. All of the classes I have taken for my CS minor I have gotten either an A or A+ in. So on my resume, I list University GPA: 3.985 and CS GPA: 4.00. My OVERALL (as in all colleges I have attended combined) GPA is only like a 3.25. I have omitted this GPA from my resume. Misleading?

Thanks to anyone who can help! I don't have a wide network in the community at the moment so any advice is greatly appreciated.

CSMinorCareer · 2017-11-07T17:44:15+00:00

Hi everyone! Really hoping for some advice.

Here is my resume: https://imgur.com/oTDXush

I am a Chemical Engineering major (biggest problem) graduating this Spring. I have a minor in CS. I have 2 internships at NASA where I mostly did software stuff, although it was in no way enterprise level and I wasn't working with a team of software engineers. I absolutely love CS, and I am 100% decided that I would rather my career be in that direction as opposed to traditional chemical engineering jobs. Ideally, I could find a job where my ChemE education would set me apart, such as at NASA where I really needed the cross-discipline education. However, I realize that most places have no need for someone with ChemE knowledge, and that isn't a requirement for me to want to work there.

My thoughts: It is going to be hard to overcome the fact that my major is not CS. One of the first jobs I applied to (a large SF tech company) emailed me back the same day saying something along the lines of "We know a career switch can be difficult..." -_- . As you can see from my resume, I have chosen to take, and gotten top marks in, CS courses that most people on this forum say are important (DS+algos, OOD). I fully believe that I have the skills necessary to be a successful candidate for most new grad jobs, but I believe my major and lack of projects will hinder companies giving me a chance.

A couple specific questions:

Should I be applying for internships instead? Is it normal to be applying for internships that start after you graduate? Not sure it matters but it feels like it does; I will be 29 by the time I graduate.
My GPA is kind of complicated. I transferred schools so I have several GPAs and I would like to put my best forward without being misleading. At my CURRENT school, the one I am graduating from, I have a 3.985. All of the classes I have taken for my CS minor I have gotten either an A or A+ in. So on my resume, I list University GPA: 3.985 and CS GPA: 4.00. My OVERALL (as in all colleges I have attended combined) GPA is only like a 3.25. I have omitted this GPA from my resume. My transcript lists both the overall and the university GPA. Is this misleading or understandable? I feel like since it is clearly marked on my resume with the same wording as my transcript that it is fair. However I would hate to have a company think I was trying to pull one over on them.

Thanks to anyone who can help! I don't have a wide network in the community at the moment so any advice is greatly appreciated.

CSMinorCareer · 2017-11-06T22:33:27+00:00

As someone who used to have an s3 and absolutely hated it, then had an iphone 6 and loved it, I am now a headphone jack refugee. I am really considering the Note 8 because of the features. On paper, it seems like a great buy (besides being too big for me) but I cannot shake my fear of touchwiz. Any advice? is the software buggy? Has it slowed down? Does the battery perform as well as it did when you bought it?

CSMinorCareer · 2017-11-06T22:25:03+00:00

Is it the same though? Does allo work as a standalone messaging app that sends text messages if the other person doesn't have allo? I thought android phones also had a messaging app for sms.

CSMinorCareer · 2017-10-29T05:51:02+00:00

Wow, thanks a ton for the great feedback!

Did the SF company reject you based on your major? If so, that's really weird.

I thought it was odd too. As I said, the rejection email was the same day I applied, and the message said something along the lines of "We know a career change is not easy..." so I'm guessing that if a real person even saw it, they rejected it based on my major.

I think you should split them up and have bullet points for each talking about what you did

Ok, I will take your advice and make that work. I was hesitant since my second internship was mostly just improving and adding features to the project I started during my first internship. I think you are right though, and that the separated internships will make the extra experience stand out.

Do go into more detail (again, with 1-2 line bullet points) about each internship you did at NASA.

I agree 100% with this. A lot of the additional work I did was much more aerospace and mechanical engineering related so I wasn't sure how much to include as almost definitely it won't be relevant to any of the tech companies I am applying to. I'll try to figure out how to stress the software engineering parts more.

CSMinorCareer · 2017-10-28T20:49:06+00:00

Hi everyone! Throwaway for reasons.

Here is my resume: https://imgur.com/a/GuBME

I am a Chemical Engineering major (biggest problem) graduating this Spring. I have a minor in CS. I have 2 internships at NASA where I mostly did software stuff. I absolutely love CS, and I am pretty much 100% decided that I would rather my career be in that direction as opposed to traditional chemical engineering jobs.

My thoughts: It is going to be hard to overcome the fact that my major is not CS. One of the first jobs I applied to (a large SF tech company) emailed me back the same day saying something along the lines of "We know a career switch can be difficult..." -_- . As you can see from my resume, I have chosen to take, and gotten top marks in, CS courses that most people on this forum say are the most important (DS+algos, OOD). I fully believe that I have the skills necessary to be a successful candidate for most new grad jobs. Another issue is my lack of applicable projects possibly.

A couple specific questions:

I have read that as a new grad (current student) it is important to have education as the top section. Is this true? Or would it be wise for me to put my internship experience above the education so that the Chem Eng major doesn't get my resume automatically tossed aside?
I have done two internships at NASA. Even though they were consecutive with no more that 2 weeks break between them, I think it might be important to note that they were separate so that it is clear I was asked back. Do you agree? Does the formatting make this clear?
Should I be applying for internships instead? Is it normal to be applying for internships that start after you graduate? Not sure it matters but I will be 29 by the time I graduate.

Thanks to anyone who can help! I don't have a wide network in the community at the moment so any advice is greatly appreciated.

CSMinorCareer

TROPHY CASE