<p>I'm a PhD in EE as of August of this year. Just started with my PhD and would want to do an internship in the summer. I've started looking as early as October, applying online, going to the career fair, handing out resumes at technical talks, etc. I went to the career resource center to spruce up my resume and do mock interviews (the latter was kind of pointless as you will find out). So far I have received absolutely no response. When I say no response I mean I got no interviews or emails (at least emails that matter) of any sort. Before I got into my PhD program, when I was contemplating leaving with my MS or continuing with my education, I actually did get one job offer at a pretty respectable well-known company and I did get a couple interviews. I've been told that internships are harder to get so perhaps this is partly the reason for my lack of success. Likewise my GPA is kind of unimpressive (3.4 for undergrad and 3.4 for MS), but I don't think it's horrid by an means. When I go to career fairs people will usually tell me I have a good resume (without me prompting them) but my lack of success has me doubting myself. Maybe they say that just to be polite? Kind of like how when you ask people how they are doing they say "good" by default regardless of how it is they feel. So what's wrong with me? Is it just too soon to get most offers? I hear of people already getting interviews, for over a month perhaps. Are those exceptions? Do most people get interviewed in December or early in the year (Jan/Feb)? In other words is it normal not to get interviews at this time of year? Is now considered to be still pretty early to get interviews and the people that get them are exceptions to the rule? I've sent out probably over 50 applications by now and I think that's a conservative estimate. The total is probably closer to 100. Maybe more. Different companies, big and small, different positions, different locations across the country, some outside the country where I'm permitted to work, mostly positions that explicitly list a PhD or graduate degree as a qualification. BTW I'm a US citizen so nationality shouldn't be an issue. How is my situation compared to other people who get internships. Is it normal not to get interviews at this stage? Or is my lack of success an indication of something that I'm doing wrongly and an indication that I need to reevaluate myself.</p>
<p>I know of a few internship positions for which application will start after December and I think there's another career fair in February (but I have a feeling that they would be more interested in looking to fill FT positions) so I still have that to fall back on at least but I feel more and more that the doors on internship opportunities is closing.</p>
<p>The company I retired from would collect resumes all fall, HR would weed the ones that didn’t fit our criteria (GPA, year in school, etc) and have them on my desk first of January. Phone interviews would follow and selections made by about mid February or early March. This was probably more the typical time table.</p>
<p>My wife’s company would still be reviewing resumes in June. Way too late IMHO for both the company and any potential interns. </p>
<p>^ What HPuck35 said. It’s gonna depend on the company. A lot of companies seem to make offers in the January-March range. It also depends if it’s a defense type job and needs a security clearance. Those guys will usually extend offers earlier. Do you have any relvent work experience from undergrad? </p>
<p>It’s hard for me to give you an exact answer on that (as I’m only a senior in undergrad). However, most of the comanies I applied for over the past year typically had that time frame. The place Interned at over the summer gave me an offer at the beginning of march. The place I’m Co-oping at gave me a pretty late offer though (early August for a fall Co-op). So I’d say it can vary a lot but companies around my school usually recruit in January and make offers before the end of March. I would think they might recruit and extend offers a little sooner for graduate students (since your job will probably be more specialized than the average undergrad intern/Co-op).</p>
<p>Do the companies hire more undergrad students for the Summer internship/coop than for Spring internship/coop? I tried to get an internship/co-op for Spring but I did not get any offers. =(( </p>
<p>Typically companies have a lot more openings in the summer. However, since school is out, a lot more students are gunning for summer internships. I usually just go to indeed.com and type in what I’m looking for. For example, “Electrical Engineering Intern Spring 2015”. You can also type in locations if you’d like. Keep in mind, you’ll probably want to apply to a ton of different places (especially if it’s your first time getting relevant experience) since it’ll be very competive. From my personal experience, once you get at least one internship/Co-op landing another one is ten times easier. </p>
<p>^
Thank you for your comment. The chemical engineering department at my school grows exponentially every year, so I really want to get an internship/coop experience as soon as possible. Despite of having a high GPA, it seems impossible for me to get any offers. Do you think that it will be bad if I graduate without any internship/co-op experience? I am senior and I only have 14 credits left to take. </p>
<p>You might be overqualified.
My husband does not like having Ph.D interns because his experience with these students has shown him that they don’t want to “work” in the subject areas that aren’t or weren’t part of their research. </p>
<p>Not all Ph.D graduates have been this way in his company, but a majority often leave the company because they complain that it’s not what they want to do. They also don’t like to be given deadlines and told what to do because they have a “Ph.D”. Some try to return to the company because its nice to be employed and paid well, but they have already shown their work ethic, so they are not “rehired”.Many of my husband’s interns are rising seniors. </p>
<p>You are supposed to post your resume online, but you wont be called unless you have a name with that company. HR looks for buzz terms and they don’t know what they are doing, so you have to have a contact. </p>
<p>Right now, the jobs are in software engineering. My daughter is a software engineer and she recruits rising seniors and experienced/retired engineers with security clearances. </p>
<p>One thing you must realize is that many companies (including the one I worked for) use internships as long job interviews. So, if your experience / background doesn’t match a potential job offering, no matter how good you are, you won’t get an internship. </p>
<p>We would be hiring mostly BS and MS degrees and only a few PhDs. So it would make it hard for a PhD candidate to get an internship.</p>