Finding a job in a traditional engineering field can be especially tough for women. Nationally, half of women with engineering degrees do not end up working in the engineering workforce. The engineering workforce is still about 10 percent female according to Christine Valle, director of the Women in Engineering program for the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

Regardless of discipline, when engineer students apply for jobs they rely on well-connected alumni networks to get their foot in the door: Not recruiters or the company representatives they meet at job fairs.