<p>I am wondering how difficult it will be to land a job upon graduation either in the Aerospace or Computer industries at the entry level without extracurricular experience. (robotics club, ASME, etc.)</p>
<p>I am a Mech E. master's student at Cal Poly SLO with a 3.3. I do not have any extracurriculars, but 2 internships. One was in the construction industry building extensive traffic control plans in AutoCad and the other was at Western Digital. Great references for both. I do have some meaningful school projects, but most of them are either in testing or analytical work.</p>
<p>Is not having extracurriculars going to hurt me? I have not had time for them with all of Cal Poly's hands on labs. I am currently trying to find a thesis project.</p>
<p>Depends on the person who is interviewing you. In my experience most employers seem to care about summer internship or academic co-ops. The summer is a long 3-4 months, so it’s good to show you were doing something. Your intern experience is going to pull a lot of weight when you’re ready to enter the job market.</p>
<p>Just be prepared to answer a possible question during the interview about what you did outside of academic coursework during the school year.</p>
<p>It might hurt you, depending on how you carry yourself in interviews. The interviewers that I know from my company have said that one of the big things they look for is enthusiasm about your field, and that they like to see things like club participation simply because it suggests that you really do like this stuff - they don’t really want to hire engineers who aren’t excited about doing engineering! Still, I cannot say for sure that every interviewer thinks that way, and even if they do you should be able to convey enthusiasm without pointing to group memberships.</p>
<p>Oh, and if it does come up during interviews, just tell them the truth - you wanted to do some EC’s in your field but your schedule never really allowed it. That’s a perfectly valid answer, and as much as they may like enthusiasm they also like people who are willing to sacrifice free-time to get the job done!</p>
<p>It won’t likely be a huge factor since you are in graduate school. Not many grad students have time for a boat load of EC’s, and if you are doing graduate school the right way, you ought to be fostering relationships with companies you have contact with and/or with companies your advisor works with frequently.</p>