<p>i've just finished freshman year in college and was looking for a mechanical engineering internship. is it too late? n can anyone suggest how i cud look for such internships? I got an internship with the CIR union (community of interns and residents) but it has nothing to do with engineering. it requires management and organization only. Shud i go for it or shud i apply to engineering internships and wait n see what comes along? thanks!
brett</p>
<p>Most companies hire in September for summer interns. The second recruiting period is in February. So, yes, you are very late.</p>
<p>You’re too late. Some summer engineering internships already started.</p>
<p>The only place I can think of that MAY still be hiring is your nearest State Department of Transportation or MAYBE Corps of Engineers. If you can’t find anything it isn’t that huge a deal since many don’t get any sort of internship after their freshman year and you’ve at least got something. Even if it isn’t related to what you want to do if you do a good job there you can get a good recommendation for them next summer.</p>
<p>wait…they hire in september for the following summer?</p>
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<p>Some do, yes. However, I think it’s very unrealistic to say most do.</p>
<p>Most don’t. They may start looking in September but most internships I’ve known of weren’t announced until early October and interviews/hiring didn’t start until after Christmas break. There were still a lot of internships available a couple months before finals, but that’s when it starts to run dry.</p>
<p>At the schools I visited, about 80% of companies hired in September for Students starting in December, May, and August. </p>
<p>Most companies calculate their hiring needs and set recruiting targets over the summer. By September, they’re on campus for a career fair, and by Late September / October, they’ve conducted first round interviews. Most students have an offer in hand between Thanksgiving and Christmas to start in either December, May, or August. That time line is how every school (note: I didn’t qualify that - I actually know every school’s process) in the Top 25 (for engineering) interviews for full-time, and as I mentioned, 80% interview for co-ops/interns.</p>
<p>The other 20% of companies looking for co-ops (and sometimes full-times) come in February and are either 1) the very disorganized companies that occasionally hire one or two people every few years or 2) the companies from the first group that didn’t get enough people the first time around (or targets changed). Most people don’t like to interview in February because you’re basically getting the “scraps” - either low GPA people that weren’t hired in September or unmotivated people that don’t know how the interview process works.</p>
<p>And, yes, this means that if you’re a freshman looking for work in your first summer, you have to interview in your first month of school with no GPA.</p>
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<p>Which means they were hired in November/December, not September. Sure they were interviewed in September, but they weren’t hired… which is what you originally stated and where the discrepancy lies with.</p>
<p>Eh… I refer to the entire process from career fair to accepted offer as “hiring” (because to a recruiter, the entire evaluation period is part of the hiring processing), but you’re right. Interviews start in September and the actual mailing back of the signed offer acceptance is in November / December.</p>
<p>But as far as the OP is concerned, in September is when he needs to start applying to companies for jobs and checking his school’s online recruiting system. May is way too late.</p>
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<p>Most internships related to construction hire pretty late in the year. Usually they wait until they can get an idea of how much work they will have during the summer, since it varies based on the contracts they can get. Outside of construction-related internships, they tend to hire pretty early on.</p>
<p>September is when to start looking, but I’ll reiterate that the vast majority of internships don’t hire before Christmas break.</p>
<p>How do you find internships if you go to a CC?</p>
<p>No internships were available for freshman (rising sophomore), students when DS was looking from CMU. Sophomore (rising juniors) opportunities became available, and rising seniors could pick the positions.</p>
<p>US and the World is in a severe recession.</p>
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<p>Not true. Many, if not most, set Christmas as the deadline to accept an offer (January 1st is another popular date). But nearly everyone has offers out before December 1st. </p>
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<p>It depends on the major. GT had plenty of internship positions for freshman last year. Companies seemed to reduce new hires, but still wanted the lower cost, temporary students.</p>
<p>Internships: it a bit late.</p>
<p>Job: Maybe. Look for federal stimulus money going into civil/infrastructure and green energy. Some engineering firms unexpectedly need to bump up their hiring for fast projects paid for with short term federal money.</p>
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<p>Alright, I did a search of my email to see when internships where announced and broke it down by month, and the results were a little surprising. Most aren’t announced till March, and most haven’t been announced, let alone filled, by Christmas break. SOME may have a Dec/Jan deadline, but the rather vast majority don’t.</p>
<p>March on- 13
Feb - 9
Jan - 3
Dec - 6
Nov - 2
October - 3
September - 7</p>
<p>CMU’s big career fair is in Jan with decisions beginning in Feb. DS took internships in May for late June start, April for May start, Nov for Jan start, April for June start, and Oct for Nov start. Coop programs may be year round.</p>
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You are correct. The first round for summer internships offers will occur very early, but not for all companies. If they do select this early, they select the brightest and most qualified students. Some hiring managers will close the requisition if they find the right match by then, and decide not to wait until February/March for more candidates. These companies would like to finalize their summer interns before Thanksgiving (and definitely before Christmas holiday). The reason for the early dates is to plan the intern project(s) beforehand. An example is BP. That means interviews will begin in about October-November.</p>
<p>However from my experiences and observations, not too many people I know of received their internships this early.</p>
<p>In the West Coast, the most common period for internship interviews/receiving offers is between February and late April. This is for the second batch of internships, which is most common for companies I know of. This is also when the most requisitions are posted externally on websites (at least for defense industry) and the most infosessions are taking place.</p>
<p>If you don’t have anything pending by early May, you most likely will not be getting an internship for the summer unless you know a manager who works at a SMALL firm. As some posters mentioned, some internships will already start in May.</p>
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True for most companies, but some have rolling requisitions (ex. Boeing)
If they see a good match, they won’t wait.</p>
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Most colleges should have an industry relations department, or coordinator at the very least. Try the career center (yeah, nothing new), go to infosessions, go to career fairs, attend leadership events, and apply to requisitions online.</p>
<p>Some programs, like NASA-JPL, have internships specifically for students at CC.</p>
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Typically, freshmen at my school don’t get internships unless they are very motivated and bright, or have outstanding connections. They don’t even make efforts to go to career fairs. Even if they do, they have no idea what to look for and don’t even have a resume. Career fairs though are best for these types of people though because they don’t help you get a job, but they provide HRs to describe the company to you and the work they perform.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, there are bright freshmen students. A freshman brought a printed CAD model of an aircraft he worked on in high school, impressed some representatives (even though they weren’t engineers), and immediately got an interview.</p>
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<p>Convenient that you’re using data that no one else can access.</p>
<p>I know [. . .] most engineering undergrads assume that they are more intelligent than everyone else in the world (have to love that 20-25 year old age range), but the truth is, there are people in the world with more experience than you at more colleges.</p>
<p>I could care less of what you think of anonymous posters on an anonymous message board. </p>
<p>Both of you are using their personal experience from the college they attend. That’s a very small sample size of 1. I’ve interviewed and hired at TAMU, and interviewed at VT. The process is exactly as stated previously.</p>