[_delirium]

I think there's still significant on-the-job training for technical areas other than programming. Aerospace engineering firms want an engineering major to have learned the basics of what engineering is, and have a solid grasp of the relevant mathematics and physics fundamentals, but they don't expect anyone to come in ready to work on a particular airframe or engine or whatever. They expect to train people in their particular software packages, design philosophy, methodologies, huge catalog of existing designs, ongoing studies, etc.

One recruiter from a big engineering company who I talked to as an undergrad said that they preferred applicants who didn't have too much specific experience exactly on target, because then they'd just have to un-learn what they'd learned in order to get integrated into his company's way of doing things, since big engineering firms have often accumulated decades of in-house practices, which vary a lot between companies.

[retroafroman]

This is true in my case as a recent engineering graduate. The company that hired me also hired another recent grad and we haven't really been applying anything learned in school so much as general skills.