"A great time to be an engineer:" Companies court UWM students as school boasts 100% placement rate
MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- For a lot of college graduates, finding a job can be a challenge -- but UW-Milwaukee officials say their placement rate for engineering students is 100%. On Thursday, February 26th, representatives from 80 companies, including some of southeastern Wisconsin's largest employers were on hand to recruit students from UWM's College of Engineering and Applied Science.
Entering the job market after college can be intimidating.
"I know plenty of people that are younger that have, they're coming out with liberal arts degrees. They're having a lot of trouble finding jobs. People are bartending and waiting tables and taking jobs doing everything else," Brian Hanson, a junior mechanical engineering student at UWM said.
For UWM engineering students, there's a pretty good chance they'll be spared from a similar fate.
"With the last two graduating classes that we've had, within three months of graduation they've all been placed," Juli Pickering, Director of Career Services for UWM's College of Engineering and Applied Science said.
On Thursday, representatives from some of Wisconsin's most well-known companies courted students during UWM's Spring Industry Expo.
"It's a great time to be an engineer or a computer scientist. We have a very high percentage rate of our students participating in internships and co-ops," Pickering said.
"I started school my first time around back in 1996. When I graduated high school I wanted to be a mechanical engineer and I decided when I was 20 that I didn't want to be a mechanical engineer anymore," Hanson said.
Hanson switched trades and had careers in a couple of different fields before deciding to go back to mechanical engineering.
"It's pretty exciting to think of the prospects and knowing what the future kind of holds and how in demand engineers are," Hanson said.
The average starting salary for engineers is nearly $60,000.
CLICK HERE to learn more about career opportunities, co-ops and internships in engineering available through UW-Milwaukee.