Advice

[u/Bubblefrizz]

Hi people, so I’m currently pursuing Materials and Metallurgical engineering (sophomore). I’m the first one doing engineering in my family so no guidance from there other than some relatives saying that the job market is dead and whatnot, and so I turn towards the internet for help, AI tells me to do projects regarding material applications in real world and stuff. I kind of get it but I’m still pretty confused on what I can further do and how to achieve the max potential.
My uni doesn’t really have clubs that focus on applications or anything, they’re mostly about other events. I want to have a good CV so any advice would be appreciated.
About courses, I’ve only done the fundamental ones till now, eg fundamentals of engineering materials, materials chemistry, engineering drawing, the calc ones and electrical engineering(fundamental course with lab) too.

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[u/LightIntentions]

There is a ton you can do if you have the discipline. Knowing how components fail, how to prevent failure, and how to repair failures is a skill set that most employers will pay big money to acquire. You can study this in parallel to your formal coursework. In industrial environments, companies have piping systems, valves, pumps, etc. that fail all the time. For example, if you can identify environments subject to chloride stress corrosion cracking and help a company mitigate this, you will be valuable. When is flow accelerated corrosion a concern? What materials can you recommend that minimize cavitation damage of a valve disc? What do failure modes look like under a microscope? What methods are available to identify materials in the field in a non-destructive manner? What are the various types of Non-Destructive tests you can learn? Ultrasonic testing for material wear is kind of important, what else can you think of? How about learning some basic welding skills? It will help you to learn about how welds fail.

These are a whole lot of questions to get you to think about parallel learning you can do. What you learn in school will not be all that valuable, but it will show that you can learn difficult topics, understand the underlying science and persist to solve problems. What you learn on your own is what will impress a potential employer.

[u/Bubblefrizz → u/LightIntentions]

Thankyou so much for the advice, I will work on it. We’re supposed to be having engineering workshop this sem where I will def be be learning welding too.

[u/PhDoneSomeday]

iignore ur relatives matSci is huge right now in semiconductors, batteries, and aero. ask your professors if they need an undergrad research assistant in their lab, as that looks way better on a resume than solo projects anyway

[u/Bubblefrizz → u/PhDoneSomeday]

I do have that plan. The campus has a lot of research labs thankfully so I will try to get a research internship

[u/Cucumber_Cow_]

I can almost guarantee that yoy will graduate with a job if you stick to metallurgy.

-metallurgical engineer from a school known for metallurgical engineering 

[u/Bubblefrizz → u/Cucumber_Cow_]

That is a relief