How useful is your engineering education?

[HappyEngineer]

I almost graduate from my school with a B.S. in mechanical engineering. I have took some engineering classes which either the professor doesn't care much about teaching or the materials are completely useless and boring. When I searched for intern jobs, the companies require skills in stress software that we never got to learn and won't be in the future. I guess I have to learn them on my own if I want to find a job. Does this happen to everybody?  

[tip3r]

Based on the school you go to you may learn to use some software, typically ME students know Solidworks and some MATLAB when they graduate. If you want to be better, you have to learn it yourself. This is how it will always be. Depending on the job/industry there are so many skills required that it is impossible to learn them all in school. Most would be useless anyway. The best you can do is focus on building a solid foundation in college. Once you know the fundamentals by heart the skills come easily.

[free_radical]

Your question is a bit too broad to be answered, as I'm sure it depends on many factors - your school's reputation, geographical location, and personal connections your professors have will affect the ease with which you get a job.  For what it's worth, I was able to find work after earning a Masters degree.  I came from a pretty well-known university, and I think that did help.  

 

Job searching is hard, especially when you're fresh out of school.  It took me 3 months to find my last job.  I've heard of people taking 6 months.  It's just a nature of the job search, don't be too upset over what your degree taught and didn't teach.