Hello! I am an engineering freshman at Texas A&M university and I just finished going to three career fairs! After talking to 21 companies I only received 12 companies willing to give me some kinda direct contact (while the rest said they would evaluate my resume). Only 3 companies replied to my follow up emails. Two of them were just to tell me I didn’t get an interview . Did I do something wrong? Is this a normal turnout?
I understand companies want someone with “experience” but I wrote my resume around things like relevant engineering projects and relevant research experience and I discussed with each recruiter why my current experience and skill set is relevant to current (or general) projects they are working on. I did my research before hand and showed that I knew about the company and I though my work experience with research and class projects would help .But it seemed like no one was willing to look at me twice after I mentioned being a freshman. One of them pointed out that I didn’t have many school related activities or leadership (which I can’t help as a freshman) .
I have a 3.8 community college GPA, my resume is filled with engineering research and projects, and my skill set seems on par with some upper class men. I hear it happen here a lot so I’m curious , how do freshman normally get internships? Or at least get a company to overlook the freshman part. What advice would you give me for the next career fair in the spring?
I’m sorry your first experience with a job fair was a bit stressful. It sounds like you did everything right. There is no question that a lot of companies are not interested in first years. That said, there are plenty that are. I have two college engineering students. At their school, the companies specify what year students they are looking for. A small percentage will talk to first years. Often first years have developed more technical skills by the time the spring job fairs roll around.
Completely normal. I was a freshman last year and got denied from all of the positions I applied for and only got one interview. The positions I applied for were at a fortune 100 company my dad is a senior manager in as well. The name of the game is second years on up. Where you have both “project and club” experience plus coursework
After 1 year in school, your engineering course work is of a very general nature. Too early to have taken upper level courses and those subjects specific to a particular engineering major. In another year or so you’ll have the knowledge companies are looking for to be a competitive applicant.
FWIW, my son graduated from TAMU with good job offers from the companies he interned with. He didn’t have an internship after freshman year either. TAMU has excellent job fair opportunities and even if you don’t get an internship this year you are gaining good experience for next year. Give it your best shot in the spring, have a plan B but having an internship for the summer after freshman year won’t hinder your career plans.
Typically for freshman year the big thing is to go to the career fairs and learn how it works. Landing a summer internship is possible, but not likely. However you have the advantage of the Community College classes (and great GPA!). So maybe you will hear back more. If not, just keep trying other methods. Learn to be a regular visitor at your campus placement center.
I think my daughter sent out at least 50 applications for summer internships during her freshman year. Radio silence. Her advisor suggested she offer to research for labs at the local university close to home. She found a great gig that way, but unpaid. She did notice she finally started getting responses right before spring semester ended. At that point, she already committed to coming home. If you are willing to wait until the 11th hour, you might get something. FYI: she found most of the internship openings on engineeringjobs dot com.
Large companies use internships for basically 2 reasons: 1) As a 2 month job interview and 2) PR amongst for the rising seniors. So anyone less than a rising senior has little chance for an internship at those large companies.
Smaller companies are where one should concentrate their efforts as an underclsssman.
Came to post this. Internships are basically interviews for full time job offers.
(not sure how they serve as PR though - would you mind explaining that?)
Anyway, when I was a freshman at A&M, I didn’t know a single freshman that had an internship unless it was some connection through their parents. Sophomore year, same thing - there’s only one guy I can think of that got an internship that wasn’t set up for him. But after junior year, almost every engineering student I can think of who made a serious effort to job hunt had an internship.
OP - if you want to keep busy during the summer, there’s a couple options you have.
A&M offers some 200 and 300 level engineering classes over the summer, and it’s great to knock those out ahead of schedule and open up more time during the school year.
If you don’t want to stick around in College Station, you can take CLEP credits to knock out some breadth credits you don’t want to take, though I’m guessing you have most of those taken care of from community college.
Or, if you know any professors, you might ask if you could do more research with them. It would most likely be unpaid, but they’re not going to just write you off beacuse you are technically a freshman. If you’ve done some research before and you can code a bit, someone probably has a spot for you.
If you think about it, interns, even really sharp rising seniors, can’t offer too much to a company. There simply isn’t enough time to learn what you need to learn to do meaningful work within their culture. As a result, what they are doing is seeing whether or not they want you to be part of their team for the long term. That’s the internship as an extended interview paradigm.
Once the answer is yes is when the purpose shifts to actually landing the students they’ve invested time into vetting. That’s the PR angle. It may be as subtle as taking you around to different departments to see the breadth of what they do. It might be showing you details of some of the current or previous cool work they’ve done. It may be as overt as discussing benefits. It’s the phase of getting you to choose them over the other companies you’ll be applying to.
@HPuck35 could flesh this out even better. He did it.
As for summer work after first and second year, don’t overlook knocking on the doors of your local firms. Doing structural CAD work for example is better for you and your resume than mowing lawns even if you have no interest in doing that in the future.
Back in the 1980s, when far fewer students had internships, I was lucky enough to have two summers at the same company. But I don’t think I would have had a prayer of getting one after freshman year. Funny story - during sophomore winder I just happened to get up early enough to be person #78 in a line with 80 interview slots one cold and windy morning. (I was not one of the crazies that slept overnight in sleeping bag outside). Today’s method’s are different - you just need to talk to upperclassmen and learn the game.
DS tried to get an REU (research university position) his freshman year. Despite really good stats etc, he did not get an REU offer (and I think never even heard back from some of his apps). He found an on campus job. It was minimum wage, but the free dorm room that his school offered (I think that is rare?) made it worthwhile.
The PR angle is quite simple. A company doesn’t have the budget to hire, as interns, all the engineers it typically will want as full time hires after they graduate. So, they want the interns they do hire to go back and tell their classmates what a great place that company is to work for. So the interns are usually treated quite well.
@nordicdad, I think that’s probably the better option for both the student and the company. That said, I’m guessing the lack of prevalence is due to getting student buy-in to commit to delaying their graduation a full year.
