<p>My situation: graduated in Aero Engineering in June from UW with 3.4 GPA. Was not able to get internships during my time there, and have only had 3 interviews since I began applying for intern / entry level jobs at the start of Senior year. </p>
<p>One issue may have been my resume; About 4-5 people (career center, professors, engineering professionals) thought the resume I had been using looked fine, and one person said I should rewrite it to a more chronological format, which I did, and have been using this less functional and more chrono. template for the last 2-3 months.</p>
<p>Another issue may be that I'm a terrible networker; I tend to meet people in the industry, get their business card, email them a few questions, get a response, say thank you, and then don't do much else (I get unsure how to continue the conversation without it becoming unauthentic).</p>
<p>In the meanwhile, I'm going to take online courses in CFD in Feb. because I want to learn the field, and I also recently have been volunteering as an online proofreader on the side. Other than that, I've basically been applying to every open position I feel qualified for.</p>
<p>Any suggestions on how to get more interviews for intern or entry level positions as an engineer? (If it helps, I've been applying for positions all over the country.) Thanks for any help you can provide.</p>
<p>First off, I don’t think a chronological format is better. You should put the most relevant position first.</p>
<p>As with networking, simply tell them that you’re looking for work and if there are any opportunities you could apply for, that you’ll be grateful to apply. Shows a strong interest and possibly could push you towards other opportunities.</p>
<p>Other than applying for other industries that need aerospace engineers and applying to smaller companies that have higher needs, I can’t tell you much more</p>
<p>Hope I’m not breaking any rules about resurrecting old threads: I went back to this forum to ask a question, and realized everything I was going to write was exactly what I had written 1 year ago. </p>
<p>So, it’s a year late, but thanks for your reply j89. </p>
<p>Update since last year: I took some online classes at Wichita State University to learn CFD through the AIAA (Intro and Adv lessons: basically PDE basics, Navier-Stokes modeling, grid generation, Euler Equations, etc.) and right now I’ve been building a couple projects including designing a solar panel experiment to observe how voltage readings change based on the sun’s orientation (may go out tomorrow to get data for Winter Solstice and then compare that data with some I took during the Summer), worked on a couple complex CAD assemblies in Solidworks before it finally expired, started teaching myself Web development and Android App development, and right now am looking into building a wind tunnel and am currently developing a CFD code to visualize the flow field within (constructed a BOM: it would cost about $600-650 assuming none of the hardware broke. Might just CAD it up in a different program if costs become an issue since I’m rather broke right now. A friend of mine recommended Autodesk Fusion 360.). I’ve also been reading up on sabermetrics and getting better at baseball analysis and statistics.</p>
<p>I’ve been keeping myself busy in the interim. However, I’ve still had little success getting interviews, and the interviews that I have gotten rejected from are mostly due to lacking experience or not being qualified enough for positions.</p>
<p>How does one become a qualified engineer without job experience? I really want to design and build stuff to hopefully become more marketable (as well as alleviate boredom and also because I like designing things), but I’m finding that with hardware, money is a major issue, which I can’t get without a job, which I’ve been unsuccessful at getting in the past 18 months (officially: I was constantly rejected from internships in college, so technically the job search has been going on for much much longer). Anyone know what I can be doing differently so that I can hopefully find work? Thanks.</p>
<p>Location? are you willing to move? Seattle has boeing.
The way people in engineering typically become employed is by the internships in junior and senior years. Plus, the online apps look for buzz words in EE and ME.
Contact your university career center and let them know what’s going on.<br>
My dh and dd are EE’s with SW backgrounds; Aero Engineering is too specialized and not a lot of companies can rationalize hiring an Aero Eng when an EE or an ME can do the job.</p>
Wow, it’s really strange reading this thread after so long and reading about my mindset on what I was working on and learning.
Yeah, I went through a ton of Buckysroom tutorials on Android App development and put an app out on Google Play. I also finished the CFD code for the wind tunnel model even (though I haven’t built the physical model yet sadly). Furthermore, I finished the design of the controller for the 2 DoF rotator and inputted the code from MATLAB into an Arduino controller with some prototype hardware to test it out. I also have a job as a material handler that I’ve been doing for the past year. It’s not engineering at all, but it helps pay the bills and fund engineering projects that I’ve been working on and planning. I even helped design a one-of-a-kind can crusher at work which has ended up being really useful.
To keep with the thread, my next goals are to design a Gameboy emulator. After seeing some articles about them and using them online, I feel like I want to build one from scratch. And I’d like to keep my promise and get that tunnel built and get some drag data for my model cars. That would be really neat. Furthermore, I’m going to try to get a motorcycle license and see if I can get guitar lessons too. It’s been depressing living every day trying to get that engineering internship / job and just seeing rejection after rejection after rejection. But, I need to start doing things that aren’t engineering related and it will hopefully keep me happier.
Anyway, same question as before: still looking for that elusive internship or entry level engineering job. Does anyone have new advice, or is there anything I can try differently that will improve my chances?
You need a security clearance for any DoD career or be eligible for one.
Additionally, you are keeping yourself busy at not getting a job by building and generating things when you need to be out everyday finding a network of professionals.
You can’t just hope that the resumes, after 18 months will get you a second look and an entry level job. My husband and DD’s companies would not look favorably at a resume that lacked a consistent 9-5 job. Even if it’s just working in a machine shop for below rate pay. It has to be something consistent on a daily basis.
Aerospace is a very narrow field within limited geographical business areas. You’re stuck if you aren’t networking.
Hiring for a permanent position is like skipping dating and going right into marriage. For me, I need to be sure.
I’ve never seen this or tried it, but if I got a letter to this effect, I might seriously consider it if HR would let me.
If you apply for summer internship with a frank cover letter that, in addition to highlighting your strengths, says that you recognize that your lack of internships potentially makes you less attractive for a permanent position and therefore you are seeking a temporary position so that your employer can “try you before they buy you”, you might get some response. It shows an unusual self-awareness. It might help if you have an acceptance to a graduate program to go to in the Fall so that HR can properly consider you temporary.
Another reason that this might work is that in the defense industry, the fiscal year ends Sept 30th. Your employer can get your labor with a promise that they don’t have to support you beyond the end of the fiscal year. This is very attractive for projects that will end this fiscal year. It’s one of the primary reasons I seek summer interns.
Of course once you get a position, work like a dog, get noticed, and make such an impact that they want to buy, or at least provide you with a positive reference. I have definitely hired former summer interns that I wouldn’t have considered as permanent candidates because their academic background wasn’t quite up to my expectations. Try before you buy is a potential winning strategy for both parties. It also works both ways.
You know, I suggest the craigslist. I look in there for my son all the time. What I like about it is that the people who advertise are not big companies, they are just regular folks who want workers to help. No fluff we are the best company ads, you have to be amazing to apply.
So this is the link to the craigslist in Seattle in the architecture/engineering section
I’m not going to gloss over it: the three years of not being employed in engineering have become a big obstacle to your getting employed as an engineer.
De-emphasize aerospace. Even leave the word out of your resume. It's one of the weak engineering fields for employment.
Have neither your address nor a phone number indicative of your area of residence on your resume or cover letter - just your email address. If you're uncomfortable with that, tell each prospective employer you want to relocate to their area for some personal reason. Assume you will have to move. If you can, put your resume here so we can see and appraise it.
All your available time look for jobs and try to contact people you've known in your field. That means suspending for a while your home engineering projects.
As far as timing is concerned, maybe working at this hard the last two weeks of May you will get ahead of the fresh batch of graduating engineers. Expect it to be much harder in the coming summer months when they're all out looking and competing with you.
Apply for jobs outside of just "aerospace engineer." Apply for ANY general engineering job and for lower than bachelor's degree level (i.e. engineering technician) jobs. If you have any coursework in their field emphasize that strongly in your cover letter.
Post your resume everywhere you possibly can, including Indeed.com, LinkedIn.com, engineerjobs.com, and in Craigslist's Resume section.
I think you should explain your not being employed in engineering for 3 years by your fascination with your engineering projects. Don't portray to prospective employers that it's the result of being rejected a lot.
Seriously consider "starting over" by a new degree or advanced degree in an engineering field that has better job prospects. The best engineering fields now (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and engineersguideusa.com, the % growth expected by BLS 2012-2022 I've put in parentheses) for job openings in the next 5 - 7 years are civil (20), environmental (15), petroleum (26), computer software and biomedical (27). It will take a lot to fix your situation, but "starting over" probably will.
Post #10, my friend was unemployed for 2 years. He religiously applied to USAjobs and found one as in FAA, I think his level was very high. I wouldn’t be discouraged. But do apply for jobs.