What companies should I target in order to get into the industry I am pursuing? (info included)

Career Opportunities & Internships
1

Hello,

Currently I am a mechanical Engineering undergrad with minors in business management (finance) and Japanese.
Academically, I am an honors student who has been awarded accolades in:
-University honors
-Major honors/dean list
-national honors (Tau Beta Pi)
-etc
(I know that awards often dont mean anything; but, I hope it gets me noticed for my first job or serious connections)

I have had 4 internships
—Biomedical where I had to design, test, manufacture, present, budget, etc for a research lab project.
—Private contract/consulting: for an engineering firm I communicated with clients as I also helped with device research and analysis. Experience in both business and engineering.
—Federal research: I was a student researcher for a project funded by the fed. gov.
—Corporate executive assistant: has to reach out and collaborate with clients from across various engineering projects. Some were international clients.

I have studied abroad once in China, and I hope to study abroad one more time in Japan.
If everything goes well. I will have studied in the top 3 economies in the world and 3 major regions: Toyko, Guangdong/Hong-Kong, and California.

I am hoping that someone will help me understand what companies hire engineers within the business, finance, or intl. banking industry. I have seen engineers enter the industry and I hope to join it as well.
I have a strong understanding of the relations between China and the US and is I get to study abroad at Keio, then I will be able to better understand the relations in east asia.

Is there anyway I can begin to contact, understand, and network with individuals or companies that do allow engineers into the business sectors?

(Link I posted within enigneering: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1952425-based-on-what-i-have-done-with-while-studying-engineering-what-are-my-career-options.html#latest )

Thank you.
Y.H.

2

Maybe start with your Career office at your school and get a list of alumni to contact. You may find one that’s taken that route, but maybe not. Regardless, if you start doing “informational interviews” of about 15 minutes per meeting, you should be able to network to someone who has taken that route.

  • Ask for a quick interview with alumnus/a
  • Take about 15 minutes asking: After asking about their personal path, then ask: Where can someone like me fit into a business like where you work? They can explain what they know.
  • Ask them for at least 2 more names of people that you may talk to.
  • Thank these people profusely, reserve their names in your contacts file for networking later;
  • Do the same with the names of the new people.

6-degrees of separation: within a few interviews you will be talking to people who have followed your described path.

Best of luck

3

@Dustyfeathers I have tried going to the career center; however, every adviser is either new or has not done a good job documenting where students go.
The few times I went there, I ask for assistance in networking and got connected to people working part time in retail. Te retail workers stated “I am only working here part time, I dont have anyone to direct you to”

I am very scared of graduating. I dont have any connection to any real industry, professionals, or alumina