I graduated from UCLA in 2024 with an electrical engineering degree, but I never found a job. In college, I couldn't land any internships. I got rejected from every single engineering club like FSAE, rocket project, DBF, and so on. I got mediocre grades despite studying hard and googling all over the internet for studying advice. It's frustrating that no one can help me figure out what I did wrong. Everyone assumes I should easily be able to land a high paying job because I did go to a prestigious university, so I don't know what went wrong.

 

Welcome to AAC!

I got mediocre grades despite studying hard and googling all over the internet for studying advice. It's frustrating that no one can help me figure out what I did wrong. Everyone assumes I should easily be able to land a high paying job because I did go to a prestigious university, so I don't know what went wrong.

Getting mediocre grades almost guarantees rejection. Companies typically get many applicants for each opening and the first filtering is usually based on GPA.

I assume you're degree is BSEE. If that's the case, getting a master's degree and getting good grades might help; assuming your undergraduate GPA was high enough to get accepted.

 

I graduated from UCLA in 2024 with an electrical engineering degree, but I never found a job. In college, I couldn't land any internships. I got rejected from every single engineering club like FSAE, rocket project, DBF, and so on. I got mediocre grades despite studying hard and googling all over the internet for studying advice. It's frustrating that no one can help me figure out what I did wrong. Everyone assumes I should easily be able to land a high paying job because I did go to a prestigious university, so I don't know what went wrong.

The last sentence is indicative of a common misperception that students, and people that advise students (particularly in high school) maintain. Just because you have an engineering degree does not mean that companies are going to bend over backwards to throw money at you. They actually want to higher good engineers that have not only good technical skills, but also the host of fuzzier skills involved in working as part of a team.

The first question I'd ask you to consider is if you have a passion for electrical engineering. If not, that may be a key contributor into why you haven't done well if your focus has been on passing classes just to make progress toward a piece of paper with your name on it. If you don't love what you are doing, it makes if very hard to become really good at it -- and while there's nothing that says that you absolutely must love engineering to be an engineer, the simple fact is that you will always be competing against people that do.

But, even if you do have a passion for something doesn't mean that you will automatically have an aptitude for it if you just try hard enough. I'm pressure sure that no matter how much I might have had a passion for fine art that I would never have been any good at it.

 

Welcome to AAC!

Getting mediocre grades almost guarantees rejection. Companies typically get many applicants for each opening and the first filtering is usually based on GPA.

I assume you're degree is BSEE. If that's the case, getting a master's degree and getting good grades might help; assuming your undergraduate GPA was high enough to get accepted.

So how do you not get a mediocre GPA?

 

So how do you not get a mediocre GPA?

If the mediocre ungrad GPA is an accurate indicator of your comprehension of the material, then you will have a very hard time getting a good GPA in graduate school because you are starting out in a pretty deep hole in terms of your academic preparation to do graduate level work.

 

If the mediocre ungrad GPA is an accurate indicator of your comprehension of the material, then you will have a very hard time getting a good GPA in graduate school because you are starting out in a pretty deep hole in terms of your academic preparation to do graduate level work.

So how do you not get a mediocre GPA? I went to every lecture, did all the homework, did practice problems, went to office hours if I didn't understand something, and tried my best to understand instead of memorize. It still wasn't enough.

 

then you were simply not cut to be an EE. and you are not alone. many turn to other things like becoming sales reps, support etc.

 

then you were not cut to be an EE. and you are not alone. many turn to other things like becoming sales reps, support etc.

When you say I am not cut out, what do you mean? I don't have the IQ needed or what?

 

So how do you not get a mediocre GPA? I went to every lecture, did all the homework, did practice problems, went to office hours if I didn't understand something, and tried my best to understand instead of memorize. It still wasn't enough.

Then, like me and sculpting, perhaps you don't have the aptitude to be an engineer, or at least an electrical engineer. There's no shame in that -- the list of things that a given person has no aptitude for is far, far longer than the list of things for which they do.

Find and pursue something that you love AND have an aptitude for.

 

The last sentence is indicative of a common misperception that students, and people that advice students (particularly in high school) maintain. Just because you have an engineering degree does not mean that companies are going to bend over backwards to throw money at you. They actually want to higher good engineers that have not only good technical skills, but also the host of fuzzier skills involved in working as part of a team.

The first question I'd ask you to consider is if you have a passion for electrical engineering. If not, that may be a key contributor into why you haven't done well if your focus has been on passing classes just to make progress toward a piece of paper with your name on it. If you don't love what you are doing, it makes if very hard to become really good at it -- and while there's nothing that says that you absolutely must love engineering to be an engineer, the simple fact is that you will always be competing against people that do.

But, even if you do have a passion for something doesn't mean that you will automatically have an aptitude for it if you just try hard enough. I'm pressure sure that no matter how much I might have had a passion for fine art that I would never have been any good at it.

I like to think I am passionate about it. I went to engineering because I thought it was more interesting compared to any other field. I spent so much time filling out applications for engineering clubs only to get denied.

 

Then, like me and sculpting, perhaps you don't have the aptitude to be an engineer, or at least an electrical engineer. There's no shame in that -- the list of things that a given person has no aptitude for is far, far longer than the list of things for which they do.

Find and pursue something that you love AND have an aptitude for.

In my youth, people always thought I was super nerdy, so that was how I was pushed into STEM. I couldn't succeed in sports or the liberal arts either.

 

if you are still serious about it, and try to find no place to fit, why not try to be self employed, work as contractor.

 

I'm still frustrating by how things like engineering clubs are so damn selective. It felt like I was never given a chance to succeed.

 

I'm still frustrating by how things like engineering clubs are so damn selective. It felt like I was never given a chance to succeed.

My experience, at every college I've ever had anything to do with, is that student clubs like these (associated with a major) were anything but selective. They would let anyone join as long as they were a student, regardless of whether you were majoring in that area or not. So if your experience is that every club you tried to join refused to have you as a member, maybe you need to ask yourself if it's something about you -- your attitude or behavior, for example -- that they were rejecting. If so, then that let's you identify something you can work on and improve.

 

So how do you not get a mediocre GPA?

You have to do well in the course material.

My boss at HP Labs had an MSEE with an undergraduate degree in physics. He was one of the best circuit designers I ever worked with.

 

It all starts with attitude.
Do you enjoy doing math problems?
Do you excel at understanding physics topics?

 

In my youth, people always thought I was super nerdy, so that was how I was pushed into STEM.

Well that doesn't necessarily mean you would make a good engineer.

So what is an aptitude to be an engineer?
Some examples from an early age for me:

• As a kid did you wonder how things worked and it bugged you if you didn't know?
• Did you take things apart to understand there workings?
• Did you do simple chemical or electrical experiments as a kid just because it was fascinating and fun?
• Did you like to read technical articles and books about how things worked?

Do any of those describe your childhood?

 

You have to do well in the course material.

My boss at HP Labs had an MSEE with an undergraduate degree in physics. He was one of the best circuit designers I ever worked with.

How did you study to get good grades? What were your study techniques?

 

Well that doesn't necessarily mean you would make a good engineer.

So what is an aptitude to be an engineer?
Some examples from an early age for me:

• As a kid did you wonder how things worked and it bugged you if you didn't know?
• Did you take things apart to understand there workings?
• Did you do simple chemical or electrical experiments as a kid just because it was fascinating and fun?
• Did you like to read technical articles and books about how things worked?

Do any of those describe your childhood?

Yes to all four

 

Do you enjoy doing math problems?

I didn't and don't, so don't think that's an absolute criteria for being an engineer.
I managed to learn and do the math required to get an engineering degree, but never found it enjoyable.
To me, writing and solving math equations is grunt work.
I've hardly done a Laplace transform or computed a complex transfer function my whole career.
It became a lot easier for me when scientific calculators and computers/simulators could help with that.

In spite of that I became a reasonably proficient design engineer because that is what I enjoyed.
The math I do is only that necessary to do the design.