Engineering where dreams go to die

I feel for you. The process truly sucks. Your resume will be fine though as it stands when you graduate. It’s quite common for engineers to get a job without any previous internship experience at all. I know a student from my son’s school who got offers from Tesla and Apple without an internship. Hang in there.

I’m and engineer because that’s my degree, I’m in management because that’s what I wanted to do. The degree allows me to manage engineers.

This line of questioning might be better asked at your college career center. They probably have resources for internships, jobs, stats about placement rate and salaries, … for students in your major. They also may be able to give some tips about how to improve your success rate, such as honest feedback about your resume and a list of companies with good historical connections.

That said, internships are by no means mandatory in engineering. I didn’t apply for any internships when I was in college because I didn’t know internships were typical at the time. Instead I applied for a part time job at a local tech company. I worked there while taking classes during my final year. I believe the relevant work experience was more than an adequate substitute for an internship.

I can’t switch out of it. But I would agree with you I would pick me if I could

Have you asked former supervisors for any leads or suggestions of where you might apply? What have they said? What has your career center said?

I have two nephews who recently completed mechanical engineering degrees (University of Arizona and University of Massachusetts). They both applied to many many internships as undergrads and didn’t get any. Both are well employed now. A third older nephew has a degree in mechanical engineering with a specialty in sound and vibration. He had an excellent job right out of school in his specialty in part due to working there as an intern, but HATED where he had to live for this job. It took him almost three years to find a position in his specialty in a location that he prefers. All three of these young men love being engineers and are doing well. Hang in there, it will work out for you.

Some STEM fields are harder to get your foot in the door than others, AE especially. It sucks, but demand is demand. Keep at it. If it’s not working, it may be time to consider graduate school. You have 2 options, you could get a masters in AE and try to force the door open, but that move is very very risky. Option 2 is to get a masters in a more employable field like EE or computer science. That will get you a job, and put you at the head of the line above applicants who only have a bachelors. Sometimes first option majors don’t work out, so you have to diversify.

Let me reiterate and expand on something I said earlier in the thread. I recently spoke with the VP of engineering at a prominent, large aerospace company/defense contractor. They told me they had something like 400 unfilled engineering jobs that they were having a hard time filling and were willing to look at essentially any flavor of engineer to take many of the positions under the theory that they can typically train them on the job.

Now, I have no idea why OP is having such a hard time but demand is not the answer here.

400 jobs for new college graduates or experienced engineers?

That’s a good question.

This was in the context of a discussion between myself, the Dean of Engineering here, and said VP at said company, and when the Dean made a comment about sending them more engineers, the VP made the comment about all those openings. Based on context, it sounded like new graduates were fine for those roles. After all, they, in general, need people who will hopefully stay there a long time rather than another boomer who will retire in 5 years. There are obvious exceptions such as when they have a very specific role that needs filled on a specific program that requires specific skills, but in general, they want young people to fill the ranks long term.

Admittedly, this VP did not say this explicitly and I am basing that on the context of the conversation at the time. I will also add that this VP basically handled the engineering at one large division of this much larger company.

Other factors with the “large aerospace company/defense contractor” may include security clearance requirements (some people may not want to deal with it, or feel that they are unlikely to clear it), political reasons (some people may not want to work on military stuff for political reasons), or future career reasons (some people may not want to work on things that they cannot talk about, which may make it difficult to describe one’s work history at later job interviews).

Of course, lots of aerospace jobs fall into this category, so it is best for students who have these types of concerns consider carefully whether a more general type of engineering like mechanical may be a better fit for them than specializing in aerospace for this reason (and other reasons described in previous posts).

OP, I hate to ask, but are you a US citizen? I know a few internationals who went into that field and were stymied because most aero companies do some significant amount of government work, and prefer not to hire employees who can’t work them.

That aside, are you seeing your peers get internships? I talked to a hiring manager at my company years ago who wasn’t in favor of hiring interns - too much cost for too little return. Maybe the number of internships is just down this year. If so, the GPA and other qualifications would go up.

Regardless, as helpful as internships are, there are lots of actual jobs out there. And despite what you may have heard, in my experience engineers get treated better than most people at the company, and the exceptions (like management) are small in number, very competitive, and usually open to engineers anyway.

Are you seeking an internship for this summer (summer of 2018)? If so, it seems way too early to panic. My son received the offer for his first internship, after his freshman year, during his finals week in May. He completed another internship after his final year of classes and got the offer in the spring after his spring break (I just looked it up and he got the offer on March 17, 2017 for last summer).

My son has had many friends I know graduate with engineering degrees in 2017 and 2018 - in civil, mechanical, and aero, and as far as I know all of them are now employeed in full time positions. It did take his aero friend several months after graduation to find a full time position, but he had not previously completed any internships in his field.

One thing I’ve found both for myself looking for new opportunities and my son seeking internships is that MANY businesses are more reluctant to pursue candidates that require relocation. Try to look for at least some positions within commuting distance of where you have a permanent or school address.

I am a us citizen

My son is a CS major at a major tech school. As a sophmore, he has applied to many internships for next summer. He has gotten interviews at some top firms, but no offers yet. As a hiring manager myself, the time spent working with an inexperienced person who may or may not come work for me a year or more down the line, is difficult to do. When you graduate and ready to work full time, managers look at you completely differently.

Make sure that you are applying to geographic areas where employers believe you will eventually live and work full time. Nephew attends Purdue, and he needed to take an internship for second semester junior year plus the summer on the east coast while living at home where an employer feels that he will eventually reside and potentially work full time. Internships are an investment from and employer perspective. Daughter also returns home each summer for an internship. Employers are screening potential full time employees.

@Notimportant4

D2 is a material science engineering sophomore at a top 50 school. She has about a 3.5 (average is about 2.85) and is a semester ahead of the other sophomores (she has Junior standing based on her credits earned). Her linked in is up-to-date, she has strong ECs, and is very sociable.

She applied to a large number of paid internships for summer of 2018. She was only offered a few interviews and none of them resulted in an offer. A couple of weeks ago she received an internship offer from a large brand-name company for the summer, but it is unpaid. She accepted it anyway.

I suspect that the number of paid internships is somewhat limited outside of CS and that many of the ones that are available are probably going to rising seniors. Still, it seems to me that most of the students end up finding something for the summer that is career-related even if it is unpaid or working as an assistant for an engineering professor.

As someone else mentioned, aerospace is more specialized and that may be a bit more limiting, but most of the engineering students I see are finding full-time engineering or related positions when they graduate. I know it is frustrating, but I think if you hang in there it will eventually pay off. Be persistent!

The large aerospace companies I know about will only offer internships to rising seniors no matter what their GPAs are. You are better off looking at smaller companies.

My sons only had internships after junior year and both had 3.5 + GPA’s. I think that is not uncommon. I would not have wanted them to take an unpaid engineering internship but that’s just me. They worked every summer during college, all paid work. But, we wanted them to bring in some cash, even if most of it went for spending money!

Mine company would advertise as requiring a 3.2 GPA for an internship. The real cutoff was more like 3.5 because of the large number of resumes we’d collect and the few internships available. We’d also focus on the top engineering schools. Tough to get an internship…

Interesting thing was that it was easier to get a full time position once you graduated. Many more full time positions than internships, so competition wasn’t as bad.