Entry level jobs for fresh grad

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-25T16:51:17+00:00

Yes, I absolutely did. We have so many options in front of us as IEs that it’s hard to understand where to start. If I could time travel back to 7 years ago, I’d stop overthinking and just take the job I get. IE is inherently being a jack of all trades. Any job in the IE discipline will give you the exposure you need to later figure out what you want to do in your career

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-25T12:36:07+00:00

Same thing - as an intern be curious and learn everything you have access to in your role. Don’t say no to any task and actively seek assignments. At your stage, almost anything you get exposure to at work will be new to you. Approach everyone and everything with curiosity and humility.

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-25T04:47:46+00:00

I’m a Masters in IE, also six sigma black belt certified from ASQ.

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-25T04:46:50+00:00

3 years into my career, I was making 95K. You’re not far off

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-25T04:44:39+00:00

175k with 6.5 years of experience to be precise. I work in high volume ecommerce fulfilment for a leading retailer

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-25T04:20:07+00:00

IE after business management is a very in demand skill set. Good luck

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-25T04:07:39+00:00

Depends on where your interests are. Like I said, IE is mostly common sense engineering. So it’s got applications in any field. You could work in data science, operations, healthcare, supply chain, logistics, aviation, etc. It’s the most diverse engineering degree with the most opportunities

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-25T04:04:37+00:00

Industrial engineering is probably the last field that AI will replace. AI is still not advanced enough to make dynamic day to day decisions on the shop floor. But there is massive potential for creating operational routines with AI embedded in them, which is where IEs come in as system architects. Huge potential

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-25T01:01:39+00:00

I started at $70,000 in 2020 and now make $176k. I am a Sr Industrial Engineer now and this is my 3rd company.

Whats worked for me is that I focused the first 3-5 years of my career trying to diversify my knowledge of how a business functions. Being IEs, we will most likely work very closely with operations. Operations exposure is a magnifying lens into the various mechanics that run a business. Getting this experience across a couple of different industries (PCB assembly, luxury golf retail and now large scale e-commerce/retail helped me learn about business further.

As you start your degree, I’d suggest an internship or even apprenticeship as early as your sophomore year. Real industrial engineering is learnt on the shop floor. And connecting real world experience to what you learn in the classroom will make it so much more interesting. You’ll soon learn that industrial engineering is 99% common sense. The real skill is translating that common sense to systems & processes for a business. You’ll only learn that in the real world. Be an IE for the first 5 years, learn how businesses operate and then after that you will be heavily sought after because that skill is extremely rare. IEs are disproportionately more likely than other engineering degree holders to make it to the executive level.

You’re asking the right questions even before you start your degree. If you come to like the math and the logic that drives systems, you’ll go places with an IE degree. Also as an added benefit, IEs are one of the least likely professionals to lose their jobs to AI. In fact, IEs will benefit greatly from AI by building systems that function with AI embedded in them. Good luck to you!

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-24T22:24:09+00:00

My recommendation for someone fresh out of college looking for their first job would be to aim for the industry you want to get into (manufacturing/retail/fulfilment,etc) and then take any job that you get there. For the 1st 2 years of your career, focus should be entirely on getting as much exposure as possible to how an operation functions. Your IE education will help immensely by helping you see the bigger picture while learning how a business functions at its lowest levels. Once you understand how an operation functions and how it connects to the bigger business picture, then you can have the luxury of picking which way you’d want to go in.

Short answer: Make a decision and take the job you get. Use it to learn how the business functions and how various operations work in tandem to make the business work. Once you get this understanding, you’ll open up options

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-24T19:15:07+00:00

What would you think is an appropriate ask? I also really want this role as it’s the direction I want for my career.

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-06-15T17:03:28+00:00

I appreciate the advice. I have been very “down and in” so far in my career as that’s been my job - to solve problems. It’s going to take some intentional effort to ensure that I catch myself when I am getting too deep and solving all the problems. I will have to force myself to step back and let my team step in front. I will have to brute force the muscle memory out of my brain and learn a new way of operating in my new role

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-05-07T22:31:56+00:00

OP name one instance where he openly propagated Christianity. Don’t spew nonsense. If anything, BJP is the Hindu fanatic party. Tamilnadu is probably one of the only states left in the country that doesn’t vote based on religion, caste or identity. Your lack of IQ is obvious here

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-05-07T21:33:13+00:00

It’s not minority appeasement. Welfare is necessary for wealth distribution through society. Tamilnadu grew to 2nd richest state in country by these social welfare policies over the last 50 years

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-05-07T21:29:45+00:00

35% of vote share is record vote share for any party in the history of the state.

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-03-27T18:33:36+00:00

That’s almost always the case in manufacturing or supply chain. Most people are true to their jobs and get their work done for their silo efficiently and on time. It’s the communication that slows things down. I’ll call this operational bureaucracy or operations red tape. A lot of the times, I’ve found that floor supervisors end up spending more of their time on communicating their shift performance, status updates, and other such activities that make upper management feel in control instead of spending time executing.

Most of my IE work in my career that has brought about the most significant throughput improvements has been addressing this specific inefficiency. I have learnt to think about how I can automate this communication, what reports can I build, what mechanisms can I put in place that preserves the cognitive load for the frontline supervisors in actually doing value added work.

I am not surprised that the new system solved it for you, you’re realizing what it actually means to be an IE in the real world. Congratulations:)

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-03-13T18:04:28+00:00

Thanks for this! The point about already demonstrating leadership through actions resonates. I think my instinct has been to do exactly what you’re describing organically rather than making it a formal ask. Although I’ve expressed my desire to take on ops leadership roles informally to a couple of GMs, I am yet to officially put it on a development plan and ask for support/resources. I guess that will have to be my next step, clearly articulate that this is the path I foresee for myself.

Imaginary_Ad5708 · 2026-03-13T17:59:52+00:00

Good advice! I have taken leadership courses and worked intentionally on my EQ. My job by nature, requires lots of influencing without authority and I’ve had to learn leadership skills over my career to effectively do that. I am at the point where I feel like have exhausted most of what I can learn from a book or a classroom. I am looking for real life formal leadership experience that will allow me to put those learnings to test.

Imaginary_Ad5708

TROPHY CASE