Being an Associate Engineer will be the worst mistake of your life!
Pros
Some of your coworkers can be nice, but no one will respect you. The management will give you free food occasionally in lieu of a raise.
Cons
Pay is average and not worth it for the forced overtime, 50+ hrs per week is normal. Raises are nothing. They might tell you you'll be doing engineering during the interview but in reality you'll be babysitting the union people who do the actual work. The only reason Cliffs hires new college grads is to save money on labor. They know that most leave within a year or two but they don't care. A lot of the "senior engineering" people at Cliffs are just associates who because they've been at Cliffs for too long doing anything but engineering, they can't apply anywhere else and are now totally stuck career-wise. Also you get basically no vacation time. When I started I was given five days for the year.