<p>I'm a first-year mechanical engineering student at University of Iowa.</p>
<p>And despite sinking significant amount of time into networking, attending companies' information meetings and the career fairs, I don't think I'm getting anywhere close to having a summer internship.</p>
<p>I've only gotten one interview, and I doubt I did well in it. Eaton recently informed me that they only recruit freshman for their early engineering internship program during the fall, and I only knew about the program two weeks ago. </p>
<p>Emerson Process, Cargill and Union Pacific mentioned they won't take any freshman.</p>
<p>Rockwell Collins' HR recruiters seem to be persistently indifferent towards me.</p>
<p>I'm also doing online applications for companies such as PepsiCo and Schneider Electric. But I seriously doubt anyone would read my resumes.</p>
<p>On a side note, one of my contacts mentioned that his brother, a senior engineer, had recently retired. And other folks I know work at an engineering firm that is in the middle of mass layoffs.</p>
<p>If you are doing all that as a freshman, you are probably way ahead of your peers. The important part for you isn’t to get an internship, but to go through the process. Seriously, don’t beat yourself up and don’t give up.</p>
<p>Another of my concern is that I plan on transferring to UIUC’s engineering program for fall 2014, and if they accept my transfer application, that would make it more difficult for me to maintain my connections at University of Iowa.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about losing any advantage by transferring to the U of Illinois. Most folks know that Illinois is a premier engineering school.</p>
<p>You’ve discovered that many employers prefer upperclassmen. But all is not lost. It’s still prime season for Summer REU applications with engineering departments at various departments. Sure, a job with a private company is preferable, but for an underclassman like you, an REU is a great back up plan.</p>
<p>Most large companies that I know of will only consider students that have completed their junior years for internships. A couple of reasons for this that a freshman can’t overcome. First, they have so many candidates that have completed their junior year that they can make that a requirement just to help sort thru the applicants. Second, you need to have completed a fair number of engineering classes just to have the basic knowledge to make yourself useful as an engineering intern. Freshman year is generally basic math and science classes. But even if you have started with your true engineering classes, you won’t have taken very many. Third, and it’s a biggie, they use the internships as basically 2 to 3 month interviews for potential permanent hires the next summer; so the big companies wouldn’t consider a freshman. That would be why some recruiters would act quite indifferent towards you.</p>
<p>Getting an internship as a freshman will be hard. Concentrate on the medium to smaller companies.</p>
<p>Another thing you could consider would be doing some research at your college. A lot of colleges do have undergraduate research opportunities (and I don’t mean student run projects but real research). I did that instead of an internship. (I also worked on the research project during the school year). You get to know a prof or two quite well that way. That can have the side benefit of helping get you into some restricted classes (it did for me). Summer lodging around most schools is easy to find if you start asking around. Most apartment leases are on a yearly basis and many are vacant or partially vacant during the summer. Pay might not be the best, but it can be a great experience. My son did the same thing and when it came time to find employment after he graduated, the research he did was exactly the experience one company was looking for.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m interested in this topic too… I’m a freshman, but plan to graduate on the third year and am ending this semester where a junior should be minus 1 class (A matlab / C programming class) but ahead 3 classes on GE. I know a power company that said to talk to them at the end of sophomore year for an internship so hmm, I wonder if I’d be considered. (If not, another semester in I’ll have caught up with junior year courses)</p>
<p>There was a freshman girl with a 2.1 GPA that somehow got an internship at a General Mill facility despite having no university involvement other than getting drunk at bars and hanging out with the football players, and has no interest in anything that an engineer does other than the paycheck…</p>
<p>I should ask if one of her parents work at General Mills…</p>
<p>EDIT: I did check with some of the small and medium companies, but it seems that the ones that showed up at University of Iowa’s career fair also have restrictive requirements. </p>
<p>A manager from Rossi Group said that they don’t even have a co-op or internship program because their North American division is too small to support one.</p>
<p>If you can find a company nearby home, explore the possibility of doing an unpaid training; this is different than internship where you may be given assignments that you are required to complete. In a training situation, you learn different aspects of engineering, including some of the software used by the company. It is an immense advantage where you gain insights about engineering, and gain an edge for subsequent years’ internships. The discipline instilled in working during normal business hours will give you the perspective needed to succeed later. </p>
<p>I know a few people who got engineering internships freshman year but it is certainly far less common than getting one sophomore or junior year. Without being exceptional you shouldn’t expect one. If you do think you are exceptional, maybe it’s just bad luck or you’re not as exceptional as you think. </p>
<p>Keep trying but don’t expect one. Come up with a backup plan for the summer in the likely case that you do not get one. </p>
<p>As for advice, cast a wide-net. You have no specialization or anything yet, so any experience is good, even if it’s not quite what you plan to focus on in college. But again, don’t expect anything. </p>
<p>I had a nice corporate engineering summer job after my sophomore year . In those days, interview signup required standing in line outside in the cold an hour (or more) before the placement office opened. . Some students camped out. Probably only those of us with very high GPA had a good shot at a job offer. </p>
<p>I had to live the summer away from home, but it was a terrific opportunity. </p>
<p>At the career fair, you have to impress the HR recruiters and indirectly convince them to put you on the interview list. But there were a few times where I succeeded in impressing them, but either their interview list was already filled up (and thus they turned me away), or they showed up expecting to simply advertise their company after online applications filled their interview list.</p>