5 Classes Every Engineering Student Should Take In College

The courses chosen in this list are picked based on my years of experience as a hiring manager. These are the skills I am looking for in Product Development Engineers, and I am always surprised when I do not see them listed in the Relevant Coursework section of most resumés I read.

This article is dedicated to the students who are concerned about how their skills will transfer to their future careers. You are more capable than you think you are and you have a lot to offer. While you are at your university, take advantage of everything you can to build up your resumé.

Build Up Your Non-Engineering Skills

There is a truth that many young engineers are not aware of. This might seem obvious to some of you, but for those of you who have not worked for a company yet, here is the secret:

Hiring managers are interested in MORE than just technical experience. They want to see project management, technical writing, and other forms of experience outside of your engineering abilities.

To be a good employee, you must understand as many parts of the business as possible. With this knowledge you will become much better at discovering what products, services, or actions will bring value to the company.

This list is not definitive, but in my experience, these are the classes I most want to see on resumés from young professionals.

1. Technical Writing

If you plan on working for a manufacturer, how important do you think writing assembly instructions, technical specifications, quality and inspection reports, and other documentation are? I’ll tell you since I hire for these roles, the ability to write technically is critically important. That is why this class is first on the list.

A test performed is only as good as the test report that comes with it. The decision on whether or not to accept or reject an incoming shipment of product is only accepted if the documentation is complete. These paper trails can save or cost companies millions of dollars.

This is another reason why avoiding typos in your resumé and cover letter is so important. “If this person is too lazy to review their resumé before they send it to me, can I really trust them inspecting material and performing tests?” This is an all-too common thought from hiring managers.

This class is usually required at most universities. If that is the case for you, make sure you do your best to learn everything you can in this class. Most engineering positions require a lot more technical writing than you might think.

2. Manufacturing Economics (Economics for Engineers)

Bills of Material, opportunity costs, COGs, revenue, overhead costs, profit, etc. These are all words that you should at least be familiar with heading into a job. These are things that decision-makers use to decide whether or not to send the company in a certain direction. They are topics of discussion that concern the way in which the company makes money.

“I am just an engineer. Why do I need to learn this stuff?”

If this is your attitude on the subject, you will never get a promotion to a management position. Engineering managers understand these terms. They understand WHY a business makes a decision to invest in the research and development of a product or idea. They understand the costs associated with this process and the potential benefits to be had.

A business has one goal at the end of the day, and that is to make money. You won’t hear these businesses talk about this on their commercials or read about it in their mission statements. But this is their goal, as it keeps their investors and employees happy.

If you understand these concepts, you will be a much more valuable asset to the team. You will better understand how to engineer solutions that are more cost-effective and realistic for the market you are in. It will also open the door for management opportunities.

3. Statistics

Out of the 1,000 hex nuts ordered, what number of them can have a non-critical defect to meet your company’s standards for acceptance? Does your company have a standard for acceptance? How do you determine what that is?

Small companies may not have the luxury of hiring a full time Quality Engineer or Statistician. If you have a good understanding of these principals, you can help save your company money and headaches by figuring out what can be accepted and rejected.

As another example, these skills will also help you determine what the maximum load capacity is for a part you just tested based on the data and sample size. You can apply these statistical evaluations to many other things as well. These skills are invaluable and necessary to help you make the best decisions for your company.

4. Material Selection in Product Design

If I asked you to design a bracket to hold a 5 lb. outdoor light to a wall, what material would you make it out of? Whatever is the cheapest? What about corrosion? What about manufacturability? What about shipping weight? What about import tariffs? What about aesthetics? What about load capacity from wind and snow loads?

The answer to most of these questions comes from experience and countless hours of research. Many young professionals do not understand the balance between cost and design when coming up with concepts for solutions to problems.

Any coursework taken at college related to material selection for product design is a huge advantage to have on the resumé. You can get a lot of this experience in academic clubs as well that have budgets or weight limitations for projects. Being able to speak about these ideas will greatly help you during your interviews and work meetings.

5. Project Management

There are many departments that offer a variety of courses on project management. If you are in the computer engineering, product design, or manufacturing space, I would recommend taking courses that fall under the Agile umbrella, such as courses on the Scrum framework.

Construction management and related majors will use other frameworks and methodologies for project management that are also valuable.

You will need to do some research to see what makes the most sense for you, but I would highly encourage you to take a course on project management to learn about what your future manager has to do to track the progress of a challenging project. This will help make you a more understanding employee and give valuable insight to your manager where appropriate.

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