Engineering interview tomorrow with NO EXPERIENCE!!!!?!?

How do I go about explaining the hiring manager that I haven't had engineering experience in the past 2 years? I graduated 2 years ago in Petroleum Engineering and this is an environmental engineering position. My friend who works there referred me to this position. Attached is my resume.

a reply to: 5letters

Post office in Egypt as first full time job.

*cough* CIA *cough*

Seems to me you're like a lot of people who graduated and had to find any old job to keep going. That's understandable. But you have language skills that are highly desirable and I would think that is a very big plus you need to emphasize.

a reply to: 5letters

Change sandwich artist to prep cook, and make up a job using the skills you learned in engineering school. Find a friend you trust, give him a script to read regarding your engineering job and experience and put his number as the contact number.

A little social engineering never hurt a job interview. But as a CIA agent, I’m sure you knew that.

a reply to: 5letters

Explain it in Farsi and act like he's an idiot if he doesn't understand engineering in another language.

a reply to: underwerks


Have to agree with sandwich artist.

Hard to take that seriously.

a reply to: 5letters

When you say referred I am assuming it means you might be at interview stage here.

Keep it simple.
Explain why you studied engineering (rather than focusing on any negatives) and why you want to do this moving forward. I mean... it should not be too hard to talk with some enthusiasm when you spent years of your life gaining relevant qualifications.



PS: Anyone with half a brain in the Recruitment/HR market knows that Subway call employees sandwich artist's (as ridiculous as it looks) so I would keep it as that because if you meet with someone who knows the market, they will ask why you are lying about the job title. It might even give you a chance to make the person laugh at interview stage which builds rapport

Good Luck

a reply to: 5letters

I work in the employment industry.
I am paid to find people to fill positions.

If I read your resume it might hit the circular filing cabinet before I got to the languages portion.

You have an extremely valuable job skill that I would recommend you utilize.
An engineer with the ability to speak multiple languages in a rare find.
Unfortunately you might end up spending lots of time in the middle east.
You might also consider being a translator in the legal system. Lots of jobs there.

originally posted by: 5letters
How do I go about explaining the hiring manager that I haven't had engineering experience in the past 2 years? I graduated 2 years ago in Petroleum Engineering and this is an environmental engineering position. My friend who works there referred me to this position. Attached is my resume.

I would say, ask hunter, but this isn't the pit....

Your friend who made this referral should be able to help you know what would be important for the interview. Is he an engineer? Do they have an internship or similar program for this job? Your friend should should also be able to clue you in on the interview. Get a good night's sleep, eat well (not too much) and dress sharp, be polite (not too familiar). Learn the company story-be positive. Don't act like you know all the answers-be honest. Believe in yourself. Best wishes!

originally posted by: theatreboy

originally posted by: 5letters
How do I go about explaining the hiring manager that I haven't had engineering experience in the past 2 years? I graduated 2 years ago in Petroleum Engineering and this is an environmental engineering position. My friend who works there referred me to this position. Attached is my resume.

I would say, ask hunter, but this isn't the pit....

LMFAOROG

Good luck...

a reply to: 5letters

1) Make sure you have your story straight as to why you didn't find an engineering job.

2) I assume this is an entry level position, you need to stress your ability to work hard and learn fast. You may also want to demonstrate how you've managed to stay current on any engineering topics - reading books and journals, etc.

For any entry level position, experience isn't really necessary. Employers just want to know you can learn quickly.

Your language skills are unique. Play that strength up. If I were you, I'd research job opportunities in middle east. If you speak both english and farsi, I'd imagine that would be useful and in demand skill, particularly combined with engineering degree.

a reply to: 5letters

How do I go about explaining the hiring manager that I haven't had engineering experience in the past 2 years? I graduated 2 years ago in Petroleum Engineering and this is an environmental engineering position. My friend who works there referred me to this position.

The same way everybody else did brah! Fake it till you make it.

Though looking at your resume, I got to say. So that's what one of them things looks like. I have, been doing it wrong this whole time.

I never even knew there were Petroleum engineers, or that you had to go to school for that, wouldn't a 2 week course be sufficient? But then again probably not, and seems to be all kinds of thing out there.

Anyways. A better question would be. Why is this on ATS?

No one wants to see your fast food experience. You should be putting your relevant work experience or none at all. Also, what kind of school would let you graduate without an internship somewhere in your industry? That’s just nuts.

a reply to: 5letters

There's a big piece missing here. That is the WHY you chose to work at a bistro upon graduation instead of going straight into an engineering position.

From what I understand, engineers are still in demand (generally). So you had some reason to stay around Baton Rouge. You need to be prepared to discuss that reason in any interview.

If this interview doesn't work, try USAJOBS. The government loves to hire engineers of all kinds. Good luck.

Cheers

a reply to: 5letters

lighten up francis

hear is a hint - they read your CV and still gave you an interview

if prior experience in feild was a VITAL pre-requisite for the job - we would not even have this thread

just go in - and good luck

With Farsi, Arabic and English languages in the War on Terrorism, you could make some serious money working for some intel agencies.

a reply to: 5letters

I might be a bit late for advice, but find a way to relate your experience to engineering to exemplify your love of engineering. With no experience, they want to know you have the knowledge, but also that you want the job because you love what you (will be) doing.

Your mind is in the right space, you want to do excellemt work for them, you're eager and willing to learn from them, but you also have a strong base of knowledge and understanding of the relevant skills.

A few years out of college with my business degree, I was working product support for B2B information technology (data company) and decided I wanted to move into sales. I didn't "have no sales experience", I was a bartender and restaurant/bar manager in college.

I laughed at myself a bit in the way of "this may sound silly, but..." I always thought of my job as a sales job, and that's what made it fun. I wasn't just serving drinks, I was educating my customers about drinks, finding out what they were interested, introducing them to new possibilities and not just why its "good", but why they might really like it.

I can imagine that being a sandwich artist presents similar relatable opportunities. Show them how your engineering mind works, even in what seems like a silly way (making sandwiches.) Did you come up with and implement a more efficient way to assemble the sandwiches? Identifying wasteful problems in the process?

In some cases, use something that you "would have done" if allowed, as if it really happened. Its kind-of a lie, but it still exemplifies your thinking. So if you can imagine a scenario ("I discovered if we rearranged the ingredients this way, it not only saved time, but the samdwiches stayed in place better rather than the tops sliding off.")

Even if it didn't really happen, but could have, use it.

So nobody told you about "Entry level positions"...... maybe you should go back to school and learn something useful