Yet another, but specific, internship thread...

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

My son, having read several places, that it was the best time to begin, started his internship search in January. It turns out many positions were already closed by then. So, as he gets ready to ramp up again, is there a “hiring season” for engineering summer internships? If so, when?

Also, besides job fairs, LinkedIn and engineerjobs.com, are there other places to look?

As always, thanks!

2

@eyemgh for summer internships, applying in the autumn before the internship is usually not a bad idea. If the engineering position may require a thorough background check or security clearance, apply as soon as possible.

3

There are generally two “hiring seasons” if you could call them that - one ending around November the year before, one ending around April or May the year of the summer internship. So basically some companies recruit in advance by 6-8 months, some do not. There is a definite dry streak before September (when companies haven’t started), in November-January (some have wrapped up, the rest haven’t started recruiting), and May (most positions have already been filled).

It’s mostly a continuum of openings, honestly. All companies have their own rules and their own considerations. Some like to recruit early because they either need to get clearance or they want to pick out the best prospects early. Others only get their intern budget a few months before their start date and they start recruiting only when they know how many they can afford. Some recruit fast because they can, others have a huge HR process and move slowly. And so on.

Try the university career webpage as well. Those usually get a lot more hits than the other job boards, because they are looking specifically for students from your school.

4

Thanks!

5

Companies look for summer interns even in the Fall job fair. There is another job fair in winter in my D’s school. Start looking around in January may have missed some opportunities. For my company, I think the application was closed in March.

6

He missed the fall window last year, but put a significant amount of effort in after winter break. Several things conspired against him, mainly choosing only “home run” internships like NASA/JPL, Tesla, Google, Oculus, etc. and the fact that by years, he was only a sophomore. I think this year will be more fruitful as a junior starting in the fall. Thanks!

7

Hmmm, an all-reach list of employers to apply to? Seems like a mistake some high school seniors make in applying to only reach colleges, resulting in shut-outs.

Of course, getting hired to jobs and internships is not the same as applying to colleges.

  • Although some extremely popular employers are obviously "reach for everyone", there is little transparency in knowing how selective an employer is.
  • All evaluation is holistic, and criteria may vary considerably for different jobs in the same employer.
  • No employer is a safety.
  • All employers want to see a high level of applicant's interest.
  • An applicant who receives an offer may have to decide whether to accept an offer before getting other pending decisions. I.e. no coordinated decision day like May 1 is for colleges.
8

@eyemgh I was just about to send you a pm to tell your son to start gearing up for the internship hunting season because my DD was starting to get inquiry emails from potential employers. This summer she is interning for one of those “home-run” employers and the 200 or so interns all were hired in the fall. Just so you know, her employer told the interns that they would let them know either the last week or within a few weeks of the internship ending as to whether there would be offers of future employment for the group of interns (both full-time permanent and summer internship position for the following summer).

As we discussed previously, my DD’s college really hits the students hard with multiple career fairs the first two weeks of September and that is where my DD interviewed and received her offers. My suggestion is to have your son start the process in September especially if he wants to apply to the home-run employers. My DD shared with me the list of interns for both of her internships this year and the students seem to come from a variety of schools. One thing to remember is that your son is on the quarter system and he is competing against other students from engineering schools on the semester system and those students are applying in early September.

Since every college and/or major may be different, I will just share where my DD has been fruitful in the internship market. Our children are the same school year and the same major so I hope this is helpful.

  1. College career fair and job positing on the college career site. Most employers requested that she also fill out online applications with the employer at the same time so the search can be very time-consuming. If you son went to the national or regional SAE competitions, I know there are career fairs and employer meet and greets at those events. My DD came home from hers with lots of contacts and she received emails in follow-up from employers that she met at the competitions.
  2. Competition teams. Your son and my DD are on SAE competition teams. My DD's team has sponsors come in for career presentations and recruitment events so have your son make direct contact with the sponsor contacts. My DD's student competition center also holds a separate career fair for the students on the competition teams. These happened in the fall.
  3. Attend professional conferences both in the fall and spring. My DD received a great job offer with a top company at the Society of Women Engineers national conference; she attended the conference's job fair, was interviewed the next morning and received a job offer the next day. Many of the attendees from her college also received offers. My DD also attended the regional ASME conference and career fair. SHPE, ASME, SME, etc all hold career fairs for students at their conferences. Plus the added benefit for attending the conference is to network which my DD did and followed up with people she met for job prospects.
  4. Scholarships- my DD has been fortunate to receive some private scholarships from national organizations including engineering organizations. As part of receiving these scholarships, she has been given membership to networking events, mentorships and invited to professional dinners. From there she has channeled those contacts into job offers. One of the scholarship organizations asked my DD if she would launch the student chapter at her college in the organization. She then worked with the staff including the national director and top faculty at her school. From there she received more opportunities (plus they doubled her scholarship this year-yeah!). My DD also received a scholarship from a department in her college and the company who funded the scholarship has contacted my DD about applying at their company this fall.
  5. Mentorship-have your son seek mentorship opportunities. My DD was selected by a national organization to participate in a mentorship program where she was paired with an executive from a top company who taught her how to apply for a job in engineering, how to interview etc. This lead to my DD receiving her job offer for this summer. My DD if time permits will attend the local professional chapter meetings for organizations like SME or ASME and sometimes she has learned of opportunities. She also has a mentor through her college's alumni association. My DD also receives emails from her college department of mentorship and fellowship opportunities and she has received a few. Fall and Spring.
  6. Faculty-there are a lot of start-ups at my DD's college started by faculty. My DD was doing a research project and the faculty in charged asked my DD if she wanted to work for her husband's company. The Executive Director of a big program who my DD has gotten close to always is sending my DD's news of opportunities. Have your son talk to his faculty and get their advice about job hunting. They may have contacts at some of the companies where your son wants to work.
  7. The Greek System-Surprisingly my DD's sorority has some good career leads. A sister will send an email that their company is looking for interns or that the sister is leaving the company and does anyone want to work there.
  8. Other Students-My DD did some research to find out who had interned from her college at some of the companies that she wanted to work at and she made contact with those students. The students shared their experiences, how they got the job, contacts and sent emails introducing my DD to their contacts.
  9. Fun Events-during the weeks leading up to and after the big September career fair at my DD's school, several companies had fun events like tailgates during football games, picnics etc. My DD made sure to attend them for companies she was interested in and she ended up receiving interviews and job offers from those companies. You just never know where attending those events will lead to.
  10. On-Campus Club weekly emails and weekly emails from the ME Dept. Certain clubs and the ME dept each week send my DD a newsletter and companies will ask those clubs and ME dept to spread the word about job opportunities with those companies. Therefore my DD gets weekly available job information. Also the clubs on campus will have weekly meetings and usually a company will do a presentation which leads to more opportunities etc.
  11. Resume books. The SAE competition team, SWE, SHPE, WIE etc all solicit resumes from students and members at my DD's college and they put together resume books which companies obtain. My DD has been contacted by such companies and they always say "we got your name from the XXX resume book and think you would be perfect for a job at our company. Please apply or schedule an interview....you get the picture. My DD got a job offer with a big company that way.

I will say my DD’s college does an excellent job of making sure every student who wants an internship has one. I know your son’s college engineering school is highly regarded and her friend who attends has had an internship every year.

@eyemgh your DS has great grades, experiences and honors-I am sure if he just starts earlier this year and does a really good resume outlining his practical experience, he should do well in the internship job market. Obviously if your DS is seeking employment with smaller companies it may be differently, but the small companies advertised co-op and internship positions in the fall and my DD applied and received offers from those size companies too. Good luck to your son.

9

@ucbalumnus, yes, in retrospect he realized that he was both late and not diverse enough. He’ll adjust both this year.

@itsv, thanks! I’ll pass this on.

10

@eyemgh For example this morning my DD told me she just received two invites to two eng and tech conferences and students can attend the career fair portion for free. Also got an invite from Google to apply for travel grant where Google will pay for her to attend the SWE national conference.

Make sure your son is a member of ASME and then look at the different groups and make sure he joins the relevant groups. Same with SME and SAE. My DD showed me invites to the ASME Collegiate group events.

My DD has learned my networking skills and she has discovered it has helped her a lot in her engineering field in college. Good luck to your son. Also some employers said that they liked that she was a “leader” in some college organizations (she is a lead on the SAE team) and that is why they wanted to interview her. If you so has any interests, see if he can take a leadership role in a campus club or organization.

11

I’m not sure if he’s an ASME member or not. I’ll mention it to him. I know he had a student membership to ASEE in HS, but I’ll pass the info on. Thanks again!

12

Does anyone have a good list of companies that tend to hire in the fall and ones that wait until spring? I know Boeing is early and NASA is late, but there are many others. Thanks!

13

Government and government contractors tend to be early, because they have a substantial bureaucratic process, sometimes a more than average background check, and lots of demand. Companies that make money in the private sector tend to wait until spring to know what kind of budget they’re looking at for interns. Startups can be in both, but local ones usually want you to start at least part time ASAP.

There are plenty of great options both early and late. But it might take you as late as May to get a good Spring offer so it is always good to start early for the peace of mind.

14

True – particularly if you don’t have a security clearance issued by the DoD or other agency. I’d be surprised if a NASA engineering internship is “late” since you’d likely be dealing with classified documents. I’ve also heard that the clearance process has gotten a lot slower due to the [OPM data breach](Office of Personnel Management data breach - Wikipedia). However I may be wrong with regards to NASA since I have never worked for NASA.

15

NASA does early and late. Their application system (USAJobs) is really bizarre and requires understanding of their automated application filtering system, and has a very substantial preference for veterans and locals. They’re not the wealthiest organization in the world.

16

Here’s another approach you could consider. My son (a rising senior) has an internship with small engineering firm that is local to his school. Got the job this past spring by just contacting a bunch of small firms explaining that he was completing his Junior year and was looking for an opportunity to do some engineering work. Not looking for a structured internship, just wanted to work. One firm responded and hired him. Nothing fancy, mostly mundane (from my point of view) but he really enjoys it. I think the firm hired him to provide short term relief to the full time staff so they could enjoy some summer vacation time.

17

@NeoDymium, the NASA (and all companies who use screening algorithms) sort of chap my son’s buns, because they become more about the game than real horsepower (unless creatively beating the game is demonstrative of said horsepower :wink: ). With that said, he’s learned some tricks, but do you have any to share? Thanks!

18

Make very specific, quantitative statements and in the case of the USAJobs site, wordy is good. On the multiple choice questionnaire, always answer exactly what the expected result you think they want will be. There is a lot to that site specifically, and it’s there for the taking, but I’ll leave it to you to do the necessary web search.

Companies use screening algorithms because they have a lot of applicants and they just want to toss as many out as they can. It’s just easier.

19

"Nothing fancy, mostly mundane (from my point of view) " - That’s perfectly fine for an internship. The student gets exposed to a particular field/workplace, and the regular employees get some help on mundane tasks.

Another idea for finding internships leads is to find out which professors have industry ties.

20

@eyemgh I suggest you see if you can find the lists of employers who will be at the fall or spring career fairs for some of the larger engineering colleges. GT still has their list up from FAll 2015 and I saw a few other schools had their list up. The lists also may be available after Sept. Employers such as Tesla, Space X, Microsoft, Rockwell, P&G, Michelin, Exxon, GM, Toyota, Cheveron, Ford, Eaton, Shell, Boeing, GE, Northrup Gruman, NASA, Amazon, Babcock, BSAF, Becthel, Bosch, Caterpillar, Emerson, Lockheed, SanDisk, and Dow were just some of the 400 companies who interviewed in the Fall. My DD’s roommate got her NASA job in the fall.

For the smaller companies, my DD’s friends did like another poster mentioned and just reached out to those companies.