<p>Now we will see how the economy is changing internships in engineering.</p>
<p>One son is at a OOS public with a great internship program. This program was one reason he chose this school.</p>
<p>The program offers two 6 month internships over the junior and senior year. In the past each internship has paid an average of 18K for the six months. He is a sophomore and will be applying in about a month. So far the school says there is no change to the program and they expect to place most of those who apply in his field. My son is a electrical/computer engineering major. He already works part time for a major tech company on campus for a part time job and this qualifies as an internship but he really wants the 6 month experience. I hope it holds.</p>
<p>I suspect business internships may be down but I hope engineering is holding a little better.</p>
<p>For DS, an engineering grad student, there’s been no problem. Certainly engineering jobs are dropping off some, how could they not, but it seems demand for strong students is holding up far better than most.</p>
<p>D’s boyfriend is at Missouri Tech (Rolla) apparently they have one of the biggest internship/career fairs in the midwest…it was a few weeks ago.He is 25 and has returned to school for a second bachelors in civil engineering. He has worked closely with the career center there since beginning on campus this semester,after taking prereqs at CC’c and transferring there. They told him attendance at the fair by employers was down 22%. He did have a number of interviews for internships as a result of the fair and registering on the centers database and has secured a spot for the summer and fall (coop semster) .The pay is $16 an hr for a 40 hr week plus overtime. The experience will be invaluable to him as its a municipality that will be hiring him,doing water projects…his prime interest. He also has what they call an “externship” for the spring break week shadowing someone in a private St Louis engineering firm,also gotten from the career center.
I was pretty impressed at how well the system is working for him so quickly.
I have a feeling other internship opportunities may be lessened,or less paid spots but engineering will do well or recover quicker.</p>