Job Search Experience: Meghan Fisher (Senior, Mechanical Engineering)

I thought that choosing a college was the hardest decision of my life until it came to choosing my first full time job! As sad as it is, unfortunately every college experience must come to end and every student must choose their next path.  Some students choose to remain in the world of academia or go to some sort of graduate school, but I personally wanted to take my mechanical engineering degree and enter industry. Although I knew I wanted to go into industry, the process of interviewing and choosing a job/company was an extremely difficult decision.

My professional experience began with two engineering internships, one with Georgia Pacific-Dixie and the other with ConocoPhillips. These two opportunities were completely different.  As a Mechanical Design intern, my experience with Dixie was heavily engineering based and involved intensive machine design. On the opposite end of the spectrum, with ConocoPhillips my role was business based and revolved around finding ways to optimize the lubricants department supply chain. 

I received my first full time job offer in August with ConocoPhillips in Houston, Texas which paid an outrageous sum of money. My summer at ConocoPhillips was filled with wonderful people who I could easily have seen myself working with.  However, I was extremely hesitant with the particular lack of job diversity and the ability to change locations. Since I was not completely sure of what I wanted to do, and did not want to concede to only living in Houston (which is where I would have ended up short and long term), I decided to turn down the offer.

I was very successful at the Penn State Career fair which resulted in 9 interviews, 4 turned down onsites, and 3 full time offers. In the end I chose Dow Chemical.  I chose the specific company because it had many of the things that I wanted.  I think that I want to go into management someday, but have always been told that starting technical will help gain respect of the people that are being managed.  I want to have the opportunity to change technical jobs often and experience different things if I want to within the company. Having flexibility within location was also a large factor.  Although I like Texas, which is where I have accepted my full time offer with Dow, I have the option to move to locations throughout the US if I so desire. Additionally, the people and the goals of the company aligned well with my personal beliefs. 

All in all, choosing a career was a very difficult decision.  However, it is easiest if it is broken down by deciding which things are most important to you.  Once one determines what they want to get out of the post college life, it makes the decision much simpler. 

Job Search Experience: Rachel Lower - Biological Engineering

Although I’m still in denial that in four short months I will be leaving the Happy Valley I’ve come to know and love in the past 4 years, I realize that the day will come when I must move on to the real world. I started preparing for this day last fall, when I began my full time job search. For me, the exciting and sometimes stressful process all started at Penn State’s Fall career fair. I talked to numerous recruiters at various companies discussing their opportunities as well as my experience and interests.

I had several first round interviews, either from talking to a recruiter at the career fair or applying online. These interviews ranged from 30 to 45 minutes consisted of mostly general questions about my experiences and interests, similar to an interview for an internship. After these interviews, I only had success with Kimberly Clark and Epic. It was disappointing getting turned down, but I kept my head up because I had other opportunities and it was still early in the search process. I was asked to travel to KC’s site in Neenah, WI (about 30 minutes south of Green Bay), all expenses covered, and a month later to Epic in Madison, WI.

I felt so independent and grown up as I flew by myself for the first time, on the way to interview for a full time job. My first impressions were that the Midwest is much different from Philly suburbs and it would be a big change for me living in small-town Wisconsin.

At KC, I had a full day of interviewing, consisting of 5 hour long interviews with different Research & Engineering employees, each having a unique experience with KC. The interview questions all used the STAR technique, so my answers had to discuss my personal experience working in teams, encountering problems, creative thinking and other questions such as name a time you satisfied a customer’s needs. I loved the atmosphere at KC and all the people I met.

I had a slightly different experience at Epic. Their interview process consisted of a phone interview and a math and logic test before they flew me first class to Madison. I was already impressed before I arrived on site! I heard that their campus was impressive, but I didn’t know what to expect. I was lead on a walking tour of several buildings of their 800 acre campus, and couldn’t believe this was actually a place where people worked. The same architects as Microsoft and Disney World designed the buildings - it definitely felt like I could be in Disney World. We even went down a slide as part of our tour! The interview process was less stressful than at Kimberly Clark, I spoke with a Technical Services employee (the position I was applying for) and had 1 interview dealing with prioritizing daily tasks. I wasn’t sure I wanted to work with computer programming, but I have always enjoyed computers and the position involved customer service. I know I want a job working closely with customers, so I could see myself at Epic also.

I was lucky to receive 2 offers, but it is a stressful and almost life-changing decision. I had two totally different job descriptions with similar compensation and location. When looking at the two companies, KC is a big corporation and Epic is a smaller but quickly growing company. However, I knew from the beginning of my job search that I really want a job working in Healthcare. Because that was the most important to me, I turned down my offer with KC. When thinking about deciding where to work, I think things like location and compensation are important, but it is most important to me that I will like what I’m doing and feel that I’m making a difference each day simply by going to work.

Welcome Back!

Hello there! We hope you all had a relaxing and joyful holiday season. As we Engineering Ambassadors get geared up for the coming semester, keep your eye out for our upcoming posts! Best wishes for a great 2012!