So this can be any engineering student this summer.
My son’s Kohler internship in supply chain just got rescinded yesterday. Last week they were helping with housing choices…agh… He also got notices recently from NASA and John Deere but signed with Kohler. He is currently a junior with minors in both Engineering sustainability and will have one in Engineering entrepreneurship. Just met with his adviser etc. The Kohler one has a great supply chain program and he was going to be part of the more business aspect of it and the company is really into sustainability so it was a great match. He had an international internship last year in Project management with a known company.
So what do the pro’s suggest for this summer?
He can graduate in the fall if he doesn’t do the second minor but really wants to have it. I know there are certificates he can take or learn about and do classes online but really don’t think he wants to do that. How to get work experience when no one is hiring?
Yes, he has some leads and will reach out. He is not one to sit all summer doing nothing.
So how to get experience or do something that looks good to employers during times like these? I welcome any and all suggestions. He will go anywhere and do anything if the opportunity exists.
What about supply chain in the healthcare industry? Pharmas, distributors (e.g., McKesson, Cardinal Health), payers (e.g., UnitedHealth, Anthem, Humana), maybe even the government (CMS)…many are hiring, but not sure about summer interns. Maybe worth a look though.
Also, perhaps supply chain consulting. Don’t know which companies have a strong book of business there, but may be worth a look too…Navigant, Bain, IBM, Accenture, and don’t forget smaller firms based in Chicagoland.
Thx. The problem is it’s not just him
Most of his friends etc in different sectors for internships already have been rescinded. He was one of the last holdouts.
As you know these students all start like last September - February applying to multiple internships with the hopes of landing one. He had some offers and choose this one since it was a great training program in something he wanted to learn more about.
He is going back to the drawing board. Already let company know if something changes he’ll be there. He is talking to his advisor and some contacts but it’s like the same story. Hopefully something will give but it’s getting late in the internship season.
I appreciate all suggestions if this doesn’t work out about what to do this summer.
I don’t know how his curriculum and course availability stack up, but if it will work, he could take classes during the summer with the hopes of getting a Fall or Winter internship. Classes right now aren’t ideal either as most are being taught online. That said, as you know, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Also, as @HPuck35 frequently and wisely points out, there’s no need to be in a rush when put in the context of a 40+ year career.
Even if he does nothing, it won’t be nothing. Sometimes a recharge is very helpful. Alternatively, he might consider self study of something he’s intrigued by by never felt he’d have the time.
He’s not alone. He seems to be on a good path. When all of this clears, he’ll land just fine.
@eyemgh. Thanks. It’s just disappointing. He just put something on Linkin after the conference /webinar he just put on last week. He had over 300 people from around the world that are into Augmented/Mixed reality. Major players like Microsoft, Unity, Light Source, Helium etc were part of it. 8 speakers in 6 hours with networking on Slack. This was initially canceled but he said screw it and took a chance.
Over the years I have enjoyed reading about your son and others and seeing their accomplishments. All these kids have that oomph to get to the next level. The training he would of gotten would of been a nice skill set to have in his toolbox. Especially when applying for jobs. At least he has the assistant project manager position from last years internship. He learned a lot and actually has been applying things he learned into his student organization.
Again,he is not the only one. This is happening to thousands of students and will impact the hiring process next year. He has gotten some leads and will follow up on them.
If he gets nothing doing nothing is not an option. He will be bored after a week. He sorta has a back up plan with Michigan but it’s what he does during the year with them.
Maybe honing some programming language or trying to learn some skill set. I know there’s some different certificates that might aid him in some way.
I talked to him about taking classes in the summer but it won’t work out or even be beneficial for him. He will be taking like 12 credits each 2 semesters left. He normally takes like 16-18. He is looking forward to an easier last year taking classes that really interest him while doing his senior project. He can but doesn’t want to graduate in the fall and I don’t blame him. This is his only chance at undergraduate college.
Do you know any IEs that participate on this thread? Maybe you can reach out to them and ask the question “What do you wish you’d learned during school that you didn’t.” I remember reaching out to @boneh3ad with that exact question back in the day and he said he wished he’d taken a class in numerical methods. It wasn’t a part of my son’s BS or MS curriculum and was a graduate level math class. He took that class and uses those skills extensively. There are bound to be IEs out here that could point him to an important skill that he could either self learn or get a cert for.
As for my son, he hit plenty of roadblocks. He had an internship lined up after his first year that fell through late. He literally walked through the door and was told they decided not to hire an intern. I was telling that story to a patient of mine who is a ME and it just so happened that his intern had just bailed on him. He was a senior, so he wasn’t sure my son would work out. He ended up hiring him and still keeps in contact with him to this day.
The next summer, he and several of his friends had gotten through multiple tech interviews only to all get left at the altar. They, as a group, spontaneously went to europe.
After he graduated he had job offers, but he had his sights set on a stealth mode startup that had come to the school looking for an EE intern. They spent a lot of time talking with him and what he’d done prior. He didn’t know anything about them at the outset, but after learning more, knew that was the job he wanted. There was some synergy between what he’d done and a position they were looking to fill, but they had never hired a new grad. When he interviewed with the founder, he pitched the idea of hiring him as an intern. We aren’t talking rising senior, but graduated ME with a MS. They did and 6 weeks later, converted him to full time. He’s now in charge of that department.
I say all of this to reassure you that as much as we think we know what the road ahead of us looks like, it’s really an illusion. Sometimes things happen, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse that we cannot foresee. If nothing more comes from this than reinforcing his resilience, he will be better off than he was before.
It is surely a disappointment. But the fact that he had an internship last summer is really going to really help him. A lot of seniors will graduate next year w/o any internship experience due to this summer’s unfortunate situation.
Yep. Not just him evidently. He has very few friends that still have something and they are remote and starting later then usual.
He’s still trying but can’t phantom both kids home all summer when they usually have something going on. My daughter graduates in May and all her potential jobs she’s applying to are telling her “Great resume but we are in a hiring freeze right now”.
One of my sons is an Industrial and Systems grad, the other a Systems Engineering grad., although neither had an interest in supply chain. The good thing about IE is how flexible it is. In a good economy, your son should not have a problem finding a good job. Sorry the internship doesn’t seem to be working out. Your son also has an interest in augmented reality. Any potential opportunities with any of the companies that attended his conference/webinar? Some IE’s also go into things like technology consulting . Good luck!
Thx. He is reaching out. Just don’t think anyone is hiring for internships. Most of his friends are in the same boat. Mine really didn’t have an interest in supply chain either but it was also a skill set he didn’t have and a nice thing to really understand to help in work going forward.
I think he will be fine. Internships are important, but it sounds like he is a motivated kid, and he is still in school. My brother just graduated and his job put him on hold until January. But he has the rest of his life to work. So he will start later. Sucks, but I’m finding there’s actually a lot to do with all this free time. I’m learning a new language, playing piano again, reading. Hope he finds something but if not, I don’t think it will hurt him since the whole world is upside down now.
Thx. He just started Lean Six Sigma class and certification through one of the engineering associations. Major discount if you join as a student member ?.
He is also looking at a project manager certification one after this (I think).
If anything he will learn some new things. He is so much happier that he is actually doing something. But honestly the time off to chill seems to have done him a great service also.
His school also has ask him to be on some “live” panels for online lectures. He gets to play the role as an expert per se on this topic. But it’s just great experience.
Fall will be here soon and I guess he will start to apply for real jobs at that point. Hope that goes better… Lol.
Good luck to your son. It’s tough but he will find a job. DH and I got our master’s degrees the month that oil prices plummeted in 1986 and nobody in Texas was hiring structural engineers. Six months and 273 resumes later, we were both offered a job at a company in Portland. It certainly was not the start to our careers that we envisioned! Now I’m happy we went through all that, because we found a beautiful place to live.