<p>How common are they and how hard are they to get? I'm not an engineering major, but need the experience to qualify for some of the lab-tech jobs at the national labs I'm interested in. I meet all of their educational requirements and skills, but they all require 2-3 years of industry experience. As far as I know, there are no engineering internships open to a math/physics major, but I still need that experience in order to qualify for these jobs. Hence, would it be better for me to contact some electronics companies for an unpaid position and, in return, gain the proper training and experience necessary to qualify for the type of lab jobs I'm after? </p>
<p>Engineering internships are paid. No one really ever ends up with 2-3 years of internship experience by the end of their programs. You may want to look at more entry level jobs. </p>
<p>@Chucktown: Entry-level jobs are absolutely a no-go. I have no interest in working for them long term, and companies have no interest in paying a non-engineering graduate when there is no shortage of engineering graduates. Hence, I have to set myself apart by offering unpaid work in the return for some valuable experience that I can then use to apply for a good lab tech job. </p>
<p>Did you miss the part where he said unpaid internships are basically nonexistent in STEM fields?</p>
<p>Let’s think about this for a second: you want a job that requires experience first, but you refuse to consider a full-time job that would get you that experience and instead are focusing on a subset of jobs that are nonexistent? Think about that for a moment.</p>
<p>Companies hiring engineers often do hire non-engineers into similar positions of they are in other STEM fields, by the way. If you want to achieve your goal, tone down the hubris and take a job that isn’t ideal to try and get your experience.</p>
<p>@Boneh3ad: I’d gladly take any job that is paying, in fact that would be a best case scenario. However, I have tried and no employer is at all interested in taking me on or the skills I possess right now. Meanwhile, all my friends in engineering have been able to get internships and full time positions no problem. It’s not like I didn’t expect this, of course. But, now I’m stuck in this catch-22: to get the jobs that I realistically have a shot at (national lab jobs), I need experience that can only be gained from the type of jobs that are only open to engineering majors.</p>
<p>Otherwise, how should I go about getting an internships/job as a non-engineering major? I’m open to advice, as the common channels of applying and trying to sell my skills are not working. </p>
<p>I couldn’t honestly tell you given that I have no experience as a non-engineer applying to engineering positions. I only know that it happens frequently. Have you considered graduate school? If your goal is a national lab, they tend to prefer (or require) advanced degrees for a lot of their jobs anyway. It depends, of course, on what you want to do there, but all the heavy research positions are going to want graduate degrees.</p>
<p>What year are you in your program? What is your major, Math & Physics? What has been your current form of searching for internships? When did you start looking?</p>
<p>Also, try to avoid relying on sending your resume into the black hole of the internet. Sometimes that is your only option, but try to put a face to a name and talk to the recruiters as much as possible, for example, at career fairs.</p>
<p>@boneh3ad: It’s mainly a lab tech job, not as an actual researcher. The main requirement is only a BS along with some other educational requirements and lab skills that I satisfy. The main problem is the experience requirement, which I think is silly to require of the average physics graduate. I can only get that type of experience with an engineering company, and I’ve been sending out resumes for the past few months with no response. I am interested in graduate school over the long term, just not now as I’d like some practical experience first.</p>
<p>@Chucktown: I just finished my third year, and I’ve been looking through online job ad websites for the positions and sending my resume for those I felt I had the necessary skills. I’ve been looking for the past 5 months.</p>
<p>My understanding is that unpaid internship are illegal, except when tied to an official work-study program or done for nonprofit employers. </p>
<p>@colorado_mom: It’s only illegal if the student is being exploited and not getting valuable training experience. I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t be the case at all, otherwise I’d simply leave. </p>
<p>There is no shortage of companies in other industries that have a slew of unpaid interns, yet the government turns a blind eye to it and does not enforce this useless law. </p>
<p>Just want to bump this and hopefully get some advice as the best way to approach this. As I understand it, most engineering interns aren’t contributing to the company’s bottom line in the first place and need to be rigorously trained for quite some time before being useful. </p>
<p>Anyways, I have an entire summer and I could either do another “unpaid internship” in a professor’s lab (which is what I’ve been doing for the past 3 years) or gain some practical work experience at a company that will actually be valued by an employer. </p>
<p>The purpose of an internship is to be an extended interview period, with some cheap (comparatively) labor and training. </p>
<p>If you want to get a slight advantage while applying for jobs, take the internship. People who are looking to hire are looking for work experience. </p>
<p>Many companies do want to follow the law. Unfortunately that means that some students (usually non-engineering majors) have to do the unpaid internship in an approved for-credit program That means they have no salary and they pay for school credits too. </p>
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<p>I have no problem with that, as long as it gives me invaluable work experience. How would I go about getting into this sort of arrangement with an employer and my school? Such programs do not exist at my school at this time, unfortunately. </p>
<p>Mag - I’m not sure if you can do unpaid internship for credit if your own school does not have a program. Check with your campus resources. </p>