"Relevant" experience

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Al6200 posted this in another thread as the most important thing that engineering firms use to make hiring decisions.</p>

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Internship/Co-op experience directly related to job/internship.

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<p>It got me thinking because I've heard this in a lot of places... "relevant" experience and coursework.</p>

<p>What sort of relevancy is this? Is this on the order of a cashier's job at Walmart not helping an engineering student's prospects, or is it talking about a testing and validation internship not helping for a design job?</p>

<p>For example: I'm a EE major, but I've got interest in CS. If I wanted to do do hardware design full-time, would an internship writing device drivers be unhelpful? I have the impression that at the undergraduate level generally-related experience is sufficient...am I wrong?</p>

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<p>It’s not black and white. The less related the job is to your field, the less important it is. A position in software is better than a cashier’s job when you’re looking for a job in hardware, but a previous position designing hardware will help even more.</p>

<p>Thinking of it as a sliding scale rather than a definite yes this is helpful or a definite no this is not helpful.</p>