Careers and Life

Reflection

Read these articles on deciding what you value when shaping your career, goals, and life.

• Steps to discover your core personal values, from Indeed
• Identifying your work values
• Finding happiness on the job

Preparation

As you shape your values, you will have questions about your career preparation.

• Discuss questions about your major or program and if it’s the right choice for you
  • Undergraduate students can speak with their faculty mentor, Whiting School Academic Advisor, or with the Life Design Lab.
  • Graduate students can speak with the their academic advisor or the department’s academic staff.
• Decide whether or not to go to graduate school, from Niche.com
• Check out How to Become a Mechanical Engineer.

Resources

These resources can help you with the “mechanics” of career planning.

• The Johns Hopkins Life Design Lab offers career planning and research help, networking and why it’s important, resume critiques, interviewing, career fairs, and employer information sessions.
• Join “Handshake” to see job and internship postings, information session announcements, and events at the JHU Life Design Lab.
• LinkedIn – create an account and connect with contacts everywhere – fellow students, alumni, mechanical engineers, other engineering professionals. Check out these articles for good information.
  • LinkedIn for Job Seekers: How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
  • How to Use LinkedIn
  • The Beginner’s Guided to LinkedIn Marketing and Networking
  • Use LinkedIn Like a Pro: Hot Tips for Students and Recent Grads
  • How to Use LinkedIn Effectively

• Join the JHU Department of Mechanical Engineering LinkedIn group!
• View these ASME Future Mechanical Engineering Career Development talks.
• Visit the Bureau of Labor and Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook to learn more about careers.
  • Mechanical Engineers
  • Aerospace Engineers

• Alumni are a rich source of career opportunities!
  • Our Master’s Alumni and PhD Alumni pages list all of our graduate alumni from the Class of 1986 to present, and has links to contact most of them.
  • OneHop to meet alumni.
  • Connect with the Johns Hopkins Engineering Alumni Association.

• Contact the academic staff, who have a list of over 1000 bachelor’s and over 500 master’s and PhD alumni and where they started their careers, as well as hundreds of employers where our alumni work. He can connect you.
• Read this article on “How to Network in College.”

Jobs and Internships

• Join JHU Mechanical Engineering’s LinkedIn group – find job and networking opportunities here.
• Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland – connect to potential employers in the region.
• Watch your e-mail for internship and job opportunities sent from the MechE department!
• The US Bureau of Labor Statistics Jobseeker page has a rich information source of careers, jobs, and career outlooks.
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers Career Center
• AKATech: This site offers academic positions in mechanical engineering and many other fields.
• Career Cornerstone Center: The site offers comprehensive lists of employers by scientific discipline, which can be a good starting point in a job search. In addition, there are career profiles of engineers currently in the field.
• Engineering Central: Lists engineering jobs, with a special page just for entry-level postings and job banks for each category of engineering.
• EngineeringJobs.com: The site offers job databases, resume postings and professional societies.
• Engineeroxy.com: Academic careers in engineering and technology

For International Students, finding a company who will sponsor them is a challenge, but they are out there.  Check out H1B Grader for information on thousands of companies who will sponsor international employees for an H1B visa. This site can be filtered for job titles such as “mechanical engineer” and other job titles.

READ THIS – Warning of Questionable Hiring Practices for International Software Jobs – be careful before signing a contract!

Interviewing and Other Resources

• How to find job opportunities and prepare for interviews.
  • Indeed.com has multiple listings for mechanical engineers
  • Interview questions to consider, from Indeed
  • What hiring managers are seeking, from LinkedIn
• Here are some interview questions to consider.
• Upon graduation, join the “ME Jobhunters” e-mail list, where job opportunities are regularly sent.  Contact the academic staff at me-academic@jhu.edu to request to be added to the list.

View and download these handy guides for BS Mechanical Engineering, BS Engineering Mechanics, and graduate-level students for actions to take. Refer to them often!

MechE Undergraduate Career Guide

ASME Career Guide for Mechanical Engineers

Visit these pages to learn more where our alumni are realizing successful careers!

• BS First Destinations, how our undergraduate alumni fare in the months following graduation.
• Master’s Alumni
• PhD Alumni

You are also welcome to contact Mike Bernard, Academic Program Manager at me-academic@jhu.edu. He can share information on the careers and current employers of the vast majority of our alumni.

• The Johns Hopkins Life Design Lab – 410-516-8056
  • Life Design Educators  –  formerly known as Career Coaches
    • Mark Savage – Master’s
    • Lemoine Joseph – Undergraduate
• PHutures for PhD students – Roshni Rao
• Mechanical Engineering
  • Your academic advisor
  • Your department faculty mentor
  • Prof. Steven Marra, Director of Undergraduate Studies
  • Prof. Rajat Mittal, Director of Master’s Studies
  • Prof. Tamer Zaki, Director of Ph.D. Studies
  • Mr. Rich Bauernschub, Lecturer and Senior Design Instructor
  • Mr. Mike Bernard, Academic Program Manager
  • Mr. John Soos, Sr. Academic Program Coordinator
  • Prof. Gretar Tryggvason, Department Head