<p>I posted this in the College Search and Selection section yesterday by mistake. I got a couple of suggestion which I appreciate and he will look into. I was wondering if anyone else had any suggestions. </p>
<p>My son is an EE major at UDel. He will end up with a 2.97 GPA when he graduates this spring. His engineering GPA is actually a 3.2 (he had a horrible first year) He had a great internship/research thing this past summer and was hired to continue during his senior year. He has worked 15-20 hours/week throughout school. He has tremendous worth ethic and anyone who hires him will be glad they took the chance. How should he proceed? He works closely with the career center and has sent out many resumes, but thus far no job offers. He's willing to go anywhere in the US and do just about anything to get his foot in the door, but he's a little frustrated. Any helpful guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks</p>
<p>IIRC, it is a bit early; my EE major child had offers in March and that was before the economic downturn. Only the stellar classmates had offers before the new year.</p>
<p>He should only list his Major’s GPA on his resume.</p>
<p>Is there any chance that he could obtain a full-time position with the company where he interned last summer and is now working part-time?</p>
<p>Or could he ask his supervisor there or other people at the company for suggestions about places where he could apply? Even if their own company is not hiring entry-level people, they may know of other firms that are. </p>
<p>In his situation, networking might yield opportunities that the more impersonal process of on-campus recruiting would not.</p>
<p>I will offer an alternative solution. I work for an electric utility company and I know of a handful of engineering graduates who have started their careers in positions which do not require degrees. Your son could apply as an instrumentation technician, engineering technician, or possibly as an operator. These jobs pay well and provide him with a foot in the door. Once he is employed, then he is eligible to apply for internal postings at his company. He may be required to be in his original position for a specific period of time before attempting to transfer, but he will be gaining valuable experience. I definitely prefer working with engineers who have taken this path as they know from first-hand experience many times what will or what will not work. I believe that companies also benefit from employees who have a more broad range of experience within the company. Engineers speak a certain language, it is not the same as technicians, and it also is different from operators and definitely separate from managers and business degrees. When an employee’s experience crosses these job categories, I believe the communications are highly improved and quite beneficial to the company. Good luck.</p>
<p>DH graduated from engineering school 30 years ago with a 2.7. He had worked the summer before senior yr. at an electric util. company’s nuclear plant. When he graduated with his 2.7, he got job offers from four different utility companies.<br>
All liked the experience he had gotten the previous summer. Thirty years later he still works in the “power house”, a nuclear power plant. </p>
<p>I think your S’s work experience will stand him in good stead when applying for future jobs.</p>
<p>I think it is too early to be overly concerned about not having a job lined up yet. I imagine that relatively few students who will graduate in May already have a job lined up.</p>
<p>Having done an internship is a great thing. I hire EEs and am always very interested in internship experience. </p>
<p>I can repeat some of the advice upthread: Work with his school’s career center. Network with the people he works with at his internship - let them know he is interested in a full-time position after he graduates, and ask if they are hiring. If they are not hiring, ask individual engineers if they know people in other companies who they could introduce you to. </p>
<p>Also, have him create a profile on LinkedIn, and link to all of the people he works with at his internship, which will then connect to him to a network of all of the people they know. </p>
<p>If you PM me with the name of his internship company and what concentration within EE he has studied, I might be able to offer some more suggestions.</p>
<p>Yes, some EEs have job offers this early. But there is still plenty of time.</p>
<p>I recommend that his resume list his Engineering GPA above/more prominently than his overall GPA. Personally, I don’t feel he needs to put his overall GPA on his resume. Some companies will have online apps where he has to put that in; some won’t.</p>
<p>He may well have to present transcripts when he gets further along in an interview process, but as long as the transcript documents what he has put on his resume, that is still fine.</p>
<p>Your resume is yours to present your best self - never dissembling, but organizing and presenting your strongest points for each job.</p>