<p>Hey, I'm currently a freshman in college, majoring in Petroleum Engineering. Around seven people from oil companies come to our college each year looking for students who would want to intern, but they mainly take juniors and seniors. What can I do to make me stand out?</p>
<p>I'm waiting for next year by the way.
Right now, I plan on making a 4.0 my freshman year(I have a A's right now and probably won't struggle much to maintain that)
I am also in the honors program which may or may not help.
In two clubs, but one is a video game club and the other is a tennis club so they won't help me much.</p>
<p>What else can I do? Is volunteer work helpful? There is an engineer volunteer program that I was considering to join.</p>
<p>Honestly, trying to get an internship anywhere this year would help. Having some actual work experience would definitely set you apart. Most people don’t want to be the first to test your mettle.</p>
<p>You need to have internship experience to get an internship. Joseph Heller would be proud.</p>
<p>What were your high school grades?</p>
<p>That aside, the more important thing for you is just to go through the process of trying to get an internship. Whether or not you get one isn’t important as a freshman. Companies tend to keep the same recruiters and you will be surprised to see how many people remember you next year. You just need to be persistent. You need to convince someone you want that internship more than the next guy.</p>
<p>And you need to complete your foundational engineering courses as soon as possible. That’s why many companies (not all) and REU projects prefer upperclassmen and upperclasswomen.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the replies everyone
In response to the replies above me:</p>
<p>Highschool GPA was a 4.3(weighted), 3.87(unweighted). I also have a 4.0 (unweighted) over the last 3 semesters of high school, but I’m not sure if this information would be of any significance on my resume.</p>
<p>Every internship I see says only sophomores+, but I will keep my eye out for an opportunity. (I missed an opportunity already. I didn’t realize that just showing up and getting interviewed would have helped me until I read these responses =/</p>
<p>I tested out of calc 1 and 2, tested out of intro to physics, and tested out of 2 English classes(21+ cred hours total), so hopefully I can get finished with some foundational engineering courses if I take enough credit hours next semester. I do recall that some internships required enrollment or completion of certain classes so I’ll have to look into that I guess.</p>
<p>Thanks again everyone!</p>
<p>Maybe some of them will hire “rising sophomores”? The year terminology is tricky in the summer.</p>
<p>Try looking at smaller companies. </p>
<p>The big companies usually look only at upper classmen. The will get so many resumes looking for internships that the first screen is to eliminate all underclassmen. At least that is what would happen at my company. So your resume would be round filed without much, if any, review.</p>
<p>Smaller companies don’t always show up at job fairs as they don’t have the time or budget to do so. Finding a small company will require more searching and more work on your part. Good luck.</p>