<p>Rutgers is a fine school. A heck of a lot more engineers come out of state flagship programs than the Ivys. :)</p>
<p>I agree, Rutgers is a fine school. Its EE department is solid. I’m an engineering manager in NJ and have hired many employees who were Rutgers grads. </p>
<p>However, at a larger school like Rutgers, it will probably be more challenging to find a research position on campus. </p>
<p>@sacchi Now granted I’m only basing this observation on my current school that only has 26000 undergraduates vs Rutgers’ 45000, but I have classmates across the engineering school, physics and astronomy departments, even the classics department who are working/volunteering for a professor. I’ve had professors approach me asking if I was interested in something they’re working on and this is not an uncommon experience for other students. My own department has professors come into the freshman seminar course, tell them about their research, and then encourage the students to go ask around to see who has space. Going back to my experiences at CMU which only had 6000 students, opportunities for an undergraduate to work in a lab was not advertised and hard to get without impressing someone (I’m willing to concede this may have changed over the past ten years).</p>
<p>In general, large state public universities have much higher undergrad student to faculty ratios, which can lead to fewer research positions per undergrad student (even if many of these public are huge research universities). It’s recommend that students be aggressive in searching and approaching faculty for such opportunities. </p>
<p>You got to go get it, it will not be given to you. :)</p>
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<p>+1</p>
<p>I had been in a similar situation actually and eventually landed a series of jobs through a series of connections.</p>
<p>My first “connection” that helped me land an internship is a friend of a friend who used to work for that company. His friend was a full-time employee there and put in a good word for me. </p>
<p>After working at that first company for about 20 months as an intern (part-time during the academic year, full-time during the summer), I was looking to get into another field within the same discipline. The VP over there has a best friend who he went to school with, whose wife was a senior project manager with this other company I was thinking about applying to. He put in a good word for me and got me an internship there.</p>
<p>When I was applying full-time to that same company, the division I was working for was struggling for projects and couldn’t take anybody else on to the staff. However, one of my old professors was a VP and was looking for people and hired me. </p>
<p>Fast forward 6 years later, I start poking my head around other companies. I asked a former co-worker if I could use him as a reference. He agreed, but also asked me if he could pass my name along to another company he knew that was hiring. Sure, why not? A few hours later, I get a call from one of my old managers. It turns out he was the “other company” and wanted to take me on board. </p>
<p>You never know where your next job will come from. Could be a friend, a professor, a colleague, who knows. Just do the best you can at whatever you do, and put yourself in a position to meet people. Don’t overthink it.</p>
<p>Plus engineering is not a career that you need connections from wealthy parents. Sorry to break it to you, people with wealthy parents don’t study engineering, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs kids don’t study engineering.</p>
<p>I say keep applying to let a company know you’re interested and improve your resume in the meantime. I finished my first year of college this year and to my disappointment (I could read the body language of employers / they wrote down “freshman” on my resume etc), nobody wanted a first year. But it’ll astonish them that you’re looking early and they’ll give you some tips on how you can improve yourself–Ex: do some projects on your own.</p>
<p>Well, I’m still at the point of being a semester away from qualifying for internships, but I’m still going to apply to see if anything happens or to get some companies’ attention. As an electrical engineer, there is a shortage of supply and it troubles some companies to find recruits, especially those that will make a lifelong commitment to employment instead of moving around after 4-5 years. So I’m going to repeatedly apply until I get some word, advice, or connections for the future when I am finally qualified.</p>
<p>‘Networking’ is definitely the best route to jobs. All ‘networking’ really means is meeting people in person who may be able to help your career. There are lots of ways to network - speak up in class and go to your instructors office hours…allow them to get to know you on a personal level so they can offer recommendations or perhaps suggest jobs in your field that they are aware of. Get involved in your schools professional activities/organizations. Go to any career events hosted by your school for positions in your field - which may be career fairs or may be small events where representatives are speaking to students - shake hands, practice your ‘elevator pitch’, have something to hand them a resume or a ‘business card’ so they might remember you later. Start a Linked In page and unlike Facebook friend requests, focus your ‘friend’ requests on people that may someday be able to provide a reference for you - classmates in your field that you respect, instructors, people you meet through your fields professional organization.</p>
<p>But FWIW - my son did get an internship after freshman year not using any connections (in fact we found the position on an internet job board), so YMMV with any suggestions. He got his internship by focusing on a low paying position with a small organization that wasn’t going to have huge competition, he also started looking late in the spring so many very competitive applicants already had positions. It ‘only’ paid $10/hour, but gave him experience in his field to put on his resume. Now he’s doing a co-op which he got through his school, so by the time he graduates he’ll have over a year of work experience and (hopefully) some good references and connections in his field.</p>