Next summer's internship opportunities for engineering rising sophomore

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p><a href=“As%20for%20the%20internship%20there%20is%20no%20sponsoring%20issue%20,%20the%20only%20issue%20is%20when%20one%20is%20applying%20for%20a%20work%20visa%20and%20that%20needs%20sponsoring%20from%20the%20employer!”>quote</a>

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You’re either ignoring what the others are saying or just don’t get it.</p>

<p>HPuck has hit the nail on the head - lots of companies won’t hire international students for internships because it’s really just an extended job interview.</p>

<p>So yes, for a lot of companies, sponsoring IS an issue for interns.</p>

<p>

The best thing you can do is apply to literally EVERYTHING you find. This is advice for anyone looking for an internship, int’l or not.<br>
Personally, when looking for my co-op (that just ended), I applied to 50+ companies. Had interviews with 5. And got 2 offers. </p>

<p>To only hear back from 5/50 is quite common and very frustrating. The key is to keep going rather than giving up (like I’ve seen a lot of my friends do).</p>

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<p>I know this is a couple of days old, but what has been said is solid. I can add just a little more clarification and insight on the internships.</p>

<p>I work at a nuclear power plant.</p>

<p>For one, I had an internship my first year at a community college getting $16 an hour. I was hired on after as a “contractor” through out the rest A.S. in Nuclear Engineering Tech degree for $20.</p>

<p>Second, I have already lined up another internship through the Electrical Engineering department at my job and I will be transferring to my new university being considered as a freshman yet again. (Nuclear classes don’t transfer to well to non-nuclear degrees.) This is because of my networking skills. I introduced myself to the EE manager at my job and he ALWAYS wants interns. This guaranteed me a position.</p>

<p>Third, everyone hit it on the head, again, with your chances of getting something as an international student. To be honest, in order for most employers to recognize you in a work environment you would need atleast a masters degree. There are plenty of these threads on here when I look through the forums.</p>

<p>The chances of you getting a scholarship BASED on being a freshman is probably 5 out of a 100. If you were doing computer science and doing the programming, then its plausible to get an internship easily. Other degrees, like others have said, not so easy.</p>

<p>Being from a TOP 10 university has nothing to do with anything. The actual degree only shows that you took the time to learn the basics so that the job you get will teach you the rest. I know this by talking with every damn manager at a nuclear power plant.</p>

<p>And frankly, hiring international students, in my honest opinion, a hassel. There was a kid who was in his senior year that had an internship, but he couldn’t understand any question you asked him or even explain what he did in his work. This might not be your case, but your sentences do strike me in a sense that you won’t be able to clearly communicate with your coworkers.</p>

<p>The research is a good opportunity for experience. Not only that, but get into the local chapters of the engineering field you are in. For example, ASME, ANS, IEEE, etc. If I knew your degree, it would have helped a bit on different things you could do. If its programming, doing web development or apps in your spare time ALWAYS helps. </p>

<p>But in all honesty, get that Top 10 and “being international is 3x harder to get in” crap out of your head now. The diversity schools put in to the incoming classes BETTERS your chances of even getting into the school. Hell, I’ll be honest and say that if I applied to the same school you did with the grades and extra currics I had in high school, you would have still been selected because they have a percentage of students of different ethnicities. I know this because of reading different articles and facing this horrible thing when I applied for the Coast Guard Academy. It is like 2/3 males, 1/3 female, 1/3 ethnic groups. Why is it that if I’m more qualified over a female or a different ethinic group that I wouldn’t be selected? (Honestly, I hate the CGA now and I don’t wish to continue that topic)</p>

<p>Your school name doesn’t increase your rate of pay AT ALL. It might provide more opportunities, but I can guarantee that if you and I applied for the same job with the same qualifications but with different names on the degrees, you wouldn’t have a higher rate of pay. </p>

<p>TLDR; Find engineering society chapters to join for socials, do research, do things in your own time, and just apply is your best bet.</p>

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<p>@blazinbboy: thank you for the elaborate post! It was really helpful!
AS for my posts that you deemed unintelligible, I must say that it would rather due to my state of mind at that moment(being shocked by some posts), and certainly not due to weak communication skills. After all I did conduct interviews and am used to speaking English fluently with native speakers(sooooo many occasions) and never was I referred to as incomprehensible.
AS for the diversity thing, there a detail you are missing. If I were an American citizen with international background I would have had 3X better chances than a white american with the same qualifications. Meanwhile, if you read enough posts concerning this issue you’d have realized that this isn’t the same for international students because the schools have to fund their scholarships on their own contrarily to Americans who get partial scholarships from the federal government. Statistically speaking, an international student wold have 3X less chances than a white american!! Man, I was getting this same talk about opportunities for international students in the college admission forums !! There was quite an unanimity that it was IMPOSSIBLE for me to get to the college where I am now! And you know what? I NEVER GAVE UP AND GOT IN !!! SO I will never give up! Yes you could call me a dreamer, living in a fantasy world hhhh ! It doesn’t matter !
As for the advantages of coming from a Top10 University, I would say that NETWORKING is the most important one, rather than the quality of the program!
As for the rest of the tips, I really appreciated!!
I am waiting now to get to the University, meet my advisor and get to the job fair.
Thank you all :D</p>

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<p>Ghastn - good luck with your search and kudos for thinking ahead to next summer. I know that the tech industry hires many foreign students for permanent positions so the limitations described by other posters may be applicable to other industries.</p>

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<p>Totally understandable Ghastn. I didn’t mean for the post to come off as rude or anything, it just had a lot of information and insight based on my experiences. </p>

<p>Never give up and that will be a good feature to have in a work environment. Because you are an international student, you will have to apply to a LOT of places. Apply to the small and big companies. Even if you don’t see a posting online, call local companies as well if they seem interesting to you. I actually will plan on doing this in my future univeristy years. (I don’t need 4 years of internships at 1 location) </p>

<p>You should network though. Through engineering societies, your professors, or even phone calls. Best of luck.</p>

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<p>I am an international student in my senior year of EE program, will graduate this semester, and got a job offer from 2 companies already. From my experience, don’t even waste time applying for internship the first summer you are here. I won’t repeat the obvious reason that many people have stated earlier .Most of the time, everything you get back will only be waiting for the reply that never come. Yes, I don’t go to school in top 10 of engineering program, not even in top 50, but I know a bunch of international students who go there. Nobody ever got an internship offer when they were rising sophomore, and believe me they are at least close to as brilliant as you are.
Now, I said don’t apply for one, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look for one that you are interested in. See what they need from you, make you more well rounded, more valuable in recruiters eyes. Another thing you should do is looking for summer research opportunity from a professor. This is fairly easy to do, compare to getting an internship, especially if you are enrolled in the honor program. After sophomore, or junior year, all the effort you put in should be enough to make you competitive on the job market.
Well, at this point if you still want to find an internship in the summer of freshmen year, do it. If you are good enough, you might be able to get one. Just remember to not get disappointed when the bad results come.</p>

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<p>Good thread, many helpful and insightful input. Ghastn, GE hires at my school but I know they only want citizen/PR interns. I’m quite sure GE doesn’t care about internationals.</p>

<p>Like Ghastn, I am an international/alien/foreigner engineering student. Many of us are on F-1 visa, so we have tools like CPT and OPT that can legally gain us internship/temp employment, but once we graduate college, it’s bye-bye. So on paper, we intls should be at no disadvantage compared to citizens when landing engineering internships, but like someone above said, skilled internships are meant to ‘audition’ interns as potential full-time workers or not. Therein lies the unwritten hesitation to hire an equally qualified intl for an internship compared to a citizen. </p>

<p>In fact, I sometimes wish companies would be more outright in saying whether they would consider intl students or not in the first place in their internship job descriptions! Oftentimes it is hazy, like “must not need sponsorship” (yes, intls do not need company sponsorship for the internship, because while interning we are covered by F-1 visa). I have a suspicion that I was granted a few interviews through my career center that were just formalities. Sometimes I don’t know how akin this hiring process is to not being allowed to say “no blacks or latinos for XYZ job”, which we all know is illegal and discrimitory to write in job descriptions.</p>

<p>Word of advice, don’t bother looking at companies with the following in their title:
Department of <insert government="" dept="">, anything with “Defense” in the title. Yep, anything “federal” or “state” is out as well. National Science Foundation REUs are out as well.</insert></p>