As you can assume from the title, my question is how are the internship opportunities at Georgia Tech? I’m an undecided engineer: likely to go into CS or MechE. Ty!
My DD is a 4th year ME major at Tech. @icef1ame Are you asking about internship while you are enrolled for fall/spring semester or are you asking about summer and co-ops (which some can be just one semester if that is how you and your employer agree to set it up). Also are you asking about internships just in Atlanta or across the country/world? For example, I know of GT ME majors who have interned for BMW in Germany.
My DD has had a wide variety of internships with a variety of major companies all over the country. She has had no problem getting multiple-internship offers during her time at Tech. Tech holds multiple career fairs each semester. For ME there is the regular career fair, the ASME career fair, the WIE fair etc. I also recommend you join a competition team such as Off-Road, Robojackets etc that are held at the Student Competition Center. Several employees come through each semester to visit the students involved at the Student Competition Center (for all majors involved including CS, ME, etc.) and these are also hiring events.
Another thing my DD recommends is attending conferences such as SWE, ASME, SME or SHPE in your field. My DD has picked up interviews and internship offers at these conferences. Some of them have been held in Atlanta like the ASME regional conference or Tapia (which is CS focused). My DD finds hunting for internship opportunities at conferences to be easier because there are less students, the employers interview you on the spot and usually make offers. Most of these conferences have resume databases and employers will contact my DD or my DD looks at the employers who will be present at the conference and then applies online before the conference.
Although you have not asked this question, I figured I would share that the employers for my DD’s internships have paid for her housing, mileage, travel (hotels and meals while getting from Atlanta to locations) and shipping her possessions (clothes, bedding). In two summer of internships, my DD was able to contribute $20K toward her tuition expenses (We ask that she contribute 70% of her earning after taxes).
Let me know if you want other info. Employers value students with a Georgia Tech education and if you as the student get decent grades (e.g. 3.0), participate in some relevant activities (clubs, competition teams, research etc.) which eventually lead to some leadership experience, you should be good for getting internship opportunities. My DD has 5 roommates and 4 of them have interned in Atlanta during their time in Atlanta.
Hope this info helps.
Internships in CS are readily available on Indeed, and most GaTech students we know just apply on Indeed. Job fairs at GaTech are not about getting a job, but more marketing for the companies that show up. Even girls do not get offers if they are interviewed at GaTech job fairs, they are free for alls with thousands of lines and not much point in attending for a CS major. Note that Tapia is a CS diversity conference held in Orlando this year, and SWE is the Society of Women Engineers. But don’t worry too much, there are plenty of CS jobs in the Atlanta area
and plenty of your CS classmates will be finding jobs using Indeed and showing you how to do it !
There are literally 10s of thousands of summer jobs for CS majors in California alone. See Indeed.
If you want to stay in Atlanta, look at Keysight, Home Depot, PinDrop, and others in Tech Square Atlanta, for CS jobs.
Most freshman in CS at GaTech do not find internships unless they really hustle or know someone back home
to help them. It is very hard to get a technical internships from any university after freshman year, but one GaTech freshman we know took her resume door to door in northern CA and was able to land after freshman year. It will
be a pretty unchallenging job, when you have few skills after freshman year. Things get a lot better after sophomore year, but it does depend on the math and coding skills you bring.
Aggressive job hunting Sophomores at GaTech are flown to INTERVIEW in CA in CS in our experience, for summer work. Its highly competitive to get the best jobs, but possible from GaTech. You will have a leg up. Summer engineering positions pay a very high wage ,today, especially after junior year.
Co op is possible in CS at GaTech, but less favored anymore, as it just lengthens the four year degree to five years
and largely unnecessary today because you will get many offers in CS with just the four year degree and
some summer experiences.
So the school doesn’t help you much getting a job, it’s kind of the name of the school on your resume that just helps…?
I am a parent, so I hope a student will write a better answer than I can give. @icef1ame It will depend on your major. For summer work, most CS majors in year 1 and 2 at GaTech, are on their own to find summer work, but there are start ups in Atlanta and GaTech faculty contacts may help. But that means you have to make contacts at GaTech, by doing a research project, which many freshman and sophomores may not have time for, but some do. By junior year, it may be better, I don’t know as my son is a sophomore now. He and his friends found the first two summer jobs, after freshman and sophomore years, on own, although professors are willing to write recommendations, if needed. I don’t know about other majors, only College of Computing and only my son’s experiences.
Another way in Computer science to make contact is to volunteer to TA. Computer science TAs are NOT payed a dime at GaTech for the first semester ! Math TA’s are payed and need to pass a tough mathematics exam and have an A in the class to TA . Becoming a TA will get you professor contacts at GaTech and recommendations. TA’s grade papers and may help answer questions, but do not teach the class.
GaTech is a large public school, so advocating for yourself is encouraged. Co op degrees may open doors though, so if you want a five year degree, where you work some semesters, and that could be in Atlanta so you can stay on campus, that will give you a good boost towards getting a permanent job, and the co op plan will help you get co op assignments, as long as you want a five year degree. With careful planning that does not cost more semesters of tuition.
I would guess in a smaller major, there may be specific job fairs that may be useful. I know that business majors have their own job fairs. Computer science is not considered difficult to find summer work, so it may be that everyone finds work easily, I don’t know for certain. My son used his own contacts in summer one and came home to work, and found a research position through a federally funded program in summer two. He wants a PhD, so he was not looking to work on an industry coding project,for second summer, but wanted a learning experience in a specific branch of computer science.
His GaTech friends used Indeed to find work. Job fairs in Computer science are free for alls that do not lead to actual
job assignments over the summer. For instance, a GaTech woman, sophomore I know, got interviewed at Sandia
but it was the classic “black hole” never heard back.
My son’s three student team got prize money from a GaTech hackathon, from a specific company, they promised the team a summer job offer, then they went silent on it ! Its the way the world works today, be prepared to work hard to find summer work.
Its how the world turns today for any engineer. Yes the name of the university will help and alumni network will help you too, but freshman rarely have alumni contacts. Seniors may be connected to alumni, but so far I don’t know how that works!
There are other ways to make money on campus during the school year, such as being on the housing staff, which gives free room and board if you live as an RA with freshman and free room and stipend, if you live in a house with kitchens. The application and specific requirements are outlined here. While its not a technical job, it really will save a lot of money if you are suited to being a resident advisor or peer advisor for freshman.