Obviously internships and co-ops are key to landing a real job later on, but what are some good ways engineering students can get experience in the infamous “people skills” arena that can help them get those initial internships and later jobs? I am going into AeroE. And does anyone know if leadership experience in high school and middle school (namely in Civil Air Patrol and Toastmasters) can be listed on an application to show those skills when applying for a job? If a forum on this general topic has already been started, please direct me to it and I will post my question there. Thanks for any replies!
Bump.
Getting significantly involved in any clubs, tutoring, fraternities (social or professional), professional organizations, community service efforts, etc. should all show significant leadership skills on a resume and this is a very good thing to show on a resume. I’m sure whatever school you’re at has plenty of these opportunities. These are obviously resume builders and hopefully being in any of these would build “people skills”, but people skills are not about having bullets on a resume and more about being able to have a conversation with a professional.
If you go to a career fair/networking event/interview, having a strong resume is important to show you’re smart/motivated, but they’re going to determine your people skills by how you interact with them at the career fair/networking event/interview. Being involved in these leadership roles should help you with people skills, but honestly the best way to build them are to just talk to people and be social.
Thank you for the reply, @hokiefan223. I hope that is true. I am a naturally social and outgoing person, so I’m hoping that I will impress employers by just being me, along with having some kind of club/organization involvement. I just hope I don’t use too much enthusiasm and start sounding silly, lol.
First, don’t bunp you own thread 24 min after you post it.
Second, I’d avoid putting many, if any high school things on a job application.
I think the same idea applies to what you were told in HS. Leadership positions show you are able to take charge of a need by the club and work with others. If you are interested Baja car seems to exist at many schools, which is another group get along role. Being a TA or a tutor would also be good.
After your first couple of years in college, you really should have better things to replace high school activities on your resume, and if you don’t, then you should probably get some. You can put them on if you need to fill space, but they should really be significant and relevant to what you want to do. You really shouldn’t be putting anything from middle school on your resume at this point unless it’s really amazing and really relevant to what you are applying for. And to be honest, if you haven’t done more meaningful things since, you may need to be rethinking how you are spending your time. You should be showing what you are capable of now, not what you did when you were 12. Remember that your resume will likely be only a page long, and there’s only so much room on it. Make sure you’re prioritizing relevant, significant, and recent jobs, activities, and accomplishments.
You can spin pretty much anything to turn it into “people skills” and you can demonstrate soft skills in any arena. Pretty much any job or internship will require soft skills: being able to work with coworkers and supervisors, being able to communicate with customers/colleagues/coworkers, making presentations or explaining your work to others, being professional with a good attitude, etc. So you don’t necessarily need to find other ways to show that you have those skills. If you’re looking specifically for leadership skills, you can get that pretty much anywhere in college too, if you work at it. Get involved with a club and work on committees to plan events and/or run for a leadership position. Work your way up in a part-time job until you get a leadership position. Become a tutor or TA. Do whatever interests you, and do it well. If you seek out opportunities to lead a group or plan an event or supervise others or whatever you want to do, you will get lots of that type of experience.
Thank you for the replies. Point noted on bumping protocol, @boneh3ad, thank you.
A college friend did very well in life via contacts made when arranging professional speakers for our ASME meetings. But I really think the best path is to pick activities that interest you, not try to “pad the resume”.
Unless you do absolutely nothing other than schoolwork in your college years, it is actually pretty easy to make a convincing resume. It is less about what you did and a lot more about how good you are at spinning what you did into the most useful and important activities a person could ever have done in their college years. You embellish and write stuff that hiring managers will want to see. Besides that, all you really have to do is pick something, hopefully but not necessarily engineering-related, and run with it. Robotics is an excellent one, for example.
Basically: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2004-07-13/