<p>me and my boyfriend are both college juniors and engineering majors. he is civil and im electrical. we were both applying for summer internships and i did the third interview for a one two days ago. they said i will hear from them in two weeks. i honestly dont feel i did good in the interview though i studied a lot and scared i wont get the job. my bf had an interview this monday and they hired him on the spot. his gpa is 2.5 and mine is 3.6. his sister is a business major with a gpa of 2.7 and got hired on the spot too. many of my class mates also have internships and now this summer im sitting home doing nothing and feel so depressed and useless. i dont know what to do and have no money and has to depend on my bf. people say im so smart and my teachers say im a top student but it makes me mad when i even hear that crap anymore.
how should i get out of this and what should i do. please help me.</p>
<p>p.s:im not jealous of anybody and i was genuinely happy when my bf got his internship because i was worried about him and wish him the best of luck. i just dont feel good myself.</p>
<p>I was you a few weeks ago. I sat down at my laptop, looked at my university’s online job portal, applied to all the ones that sounded interesting, if not technical.</p>
<p>End of my story: got an internship. It’s not a brand name, but I’m basically being paid to learn coding, so my friends are jealous and keep asking me to hook them up. haha</p>
<p>Also, I too am a girl in electrical engineering. It’s hard. There is sexism for sure; if there’s one position to be filled by an intern, and it’s engineering-related, they prefer males. -_- It sucks. My friends got interviews for jobs I was definitely much more qualified for (on paper and activities/job experience-wise). You have to grin, bear it, and don’t stop looking. It also helps to personalize the HELL out of every single job application: tailor your resume and cover letter to each individual person/company you contact.</p>
<p>“just because someone got an interview and you didn’t, does not mean it was because of sexism.”</p>
<p>Girls believe in sexism when rejected from a job, but then when they end up getting a job they werent qualified for, well now this time it had NOTHING to do with their low cut blouse.</p>
<p>Same shoes here. No internship, ended up doing paid research instead. Still worried though as I have no real world experience yet. Just keep at it. The worst thing you can do is to give up</p>
<p>Let’s be honest here, domrom1 is right. I wouldn’t put it quite so crassly, but there are many, many instances I know of where someone got a job they were clearly on the less qualified side for by being pretty.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that there are a lot of reasons people get interviews, and what you think your “qualifications” are is irrelevant. It matters how you present it, and speaking as someone who’s proofread a LOT of resumes, most don’t have the first, second, nor third clue how to do it. Just because you think your resume is brilliant doesn’t mean anyone else does, and a high GPA only gets it to past the pre-screening.</p>
<p>OP - It’s very easy to get down on yourself. Trust me, I’ve been there (got to 2 final round interviews at Goldman and Barcap and didn’t get them). Pick yourself up and keep plugging away.</p>
<p>@static75
I definitely agree with you…there is sexism out there and people that are denying it are ridiculous…i was interviewing for the Philadelphia electric co. and they told me that they cant see me out in the field and of course i was the only girl and all others are guys…they just looked at me and assumed that i can’t work on an underground pipeline because im a girl…it is ridiculous because i get better grades and have good work ethic than many guys in my class</p>
<p>Top engineering firms will actually jump for high-GPA female candidate because it adds diversity. </p>
<p>Also, I wonder what jobs your bf and your bf’s sister got. Because with those low GPA’s, I’m guessing that they were willing to get any job offered to them, even if it was a crappy job. You, on the other hand, probably (and rightfully!) aimed higher. You’ve only had 3 interviews! That’s not a lot. Keep applying, apply to as many interesting jobs as possible. Apply to research positions as well. Maybe those professors who called you a top student would be willing to give you a position in their labs or something (if you cant find an internship)</p>
<p>There is sexism, but it’s less common in the more elite white collar professions - I would argue it’s reversed at entry level (where firms fight for candidates that add diversity). Women did just as well if not better recruiting my year in finance than men did.</p>
<p>On paper, women often beat out men. But men are usually better at dressing up and talking about what they’ve done on resumes and cover letters. And men are also typically more congenial and build rapport better in interviews. Gross generalizations, but from what I’ve seen it’s mostly true.</p>