A long process
A lot of the time it takes a few months for everything to process through HR before they even start sending out interview requests. Being contacted 6-8 months after applying for an initial interview is not a rarity.
@eyemgh I was just going to check in with you to see how your son’s search was going when I saw your update. Good luck to you son and I hope he gets some interviews out of his efforts. If it gives your DS some comfort, my DD waited in line over 2 hours to speak to Boeing last week! She was in our home state for a national engineering conference that had a career fair as part of it. She had won a scholarship from the organization and they paid for her to fly out and attend the conference. About a week before, she received emails from several employers that they were having hospitality suites on the evening of the first day. DD planned to go to 5-6 employers. Boeing sent out a second email that students needed to submit their resume during their hospitality suite hours because they were screening them and setting up interviews. I drove her up for the conference so I could get a few hours with her and I was sticking around to see her for few minutes later that evening because I had a meeting in the area.
I called when I got back and got a very frustrated DD. She said she felt like she was in the line for the “Space Moutain Ride” which was appropriate since the conference was across the street from Disneyland. She only made it to Boeing’s suite because the lines were so long to submit a resume and to prescreen. DD is normally supportive to her fellow students, but she said that over half the students in the line should have never been in it based on what she was overhearing. She relayed that the student in front of her told the recruiter he didn’t have his resume because it was in his hotel room, his gpa was 2.7 ((Boeing had said you had to have a minimum of a 3.2), he had no previous experience (he was a senior and you had to have previous experience) and he didn’t know if his college was ABET accredited. My DD said you could tell the Boeing recruiters were also getting frustrated by how long the line was- when she met with the recruiter he told her “you and I know the answer to this question but to be fair I have to ask it of every student” when he asked her if her college was ABET accredited. When she answered yes, the recruiter said he worked with several graduates from her school. My DD said the recruiter appeared very happy to finally get a resume from a student who fit the posted qualifications. My DD thought they should have had a second line just to screen out the students who didn’t fit the basic qualifications like gpa or experience before the resume hand-off. My DD was upset beause the Boeing line meant she never got to visit the other hospitaltiy suites. I agree your idea to start a line waiting business is a good one!!
Although I agree that sometimes the process can be very long, it also can be very short. At this same conference’s career fair, my DD was looking over a very long line for a company similar to JPL deciding whether to wait in it. A recruiter saw her and called her over to the side of the table. He looked at her resume and set her up for an interview later that afternoon. My DD said it was different from previous interviews because it only lasted 15 minutes and the recruiter wanted her to submit an essay on a certain topic to him via email. Well yesterday this company made her an offer for a summer internship. It has been my DD’s experience that getting interviewed at professional conferences has lead to really quick job offers compared to the process at the college fair.
@Ballerina016 I know you didn’t raise this issue in this thread but I saw on another thread your question about an upaid one month internship. I don’t think at this stage of your daughter’s college education it is worth the expense of paying for housing and after her first semester of college, I bet she will be pretty tired and want a break. If she wants to fill some time, have her voluteer in STEM, work on a project or do something with MakerPlace if it is in your area. To me the fact that she received the offer means she has what companies are looking for future internships. Most freshmen at my DD’s school do study abroad after their first year summer. It is at a discount and gives them more technical classes that in turn are attractive in the fall job hunt.
I can offer this advice. Make sure she attends the Society of Women Engineers conference in the fall and also have her join SWE now. They have a leadership institute and the applications are available in the summer. My DD applied and was selected so it gives her some special workshops during WE16 (plus a stipend). Last conference my DD got an interview and on the spot offer and she already has two interviews set up for next week. The career fair is two days long and employees will send out emails before the conference to set up interviews (including doing that at the conference.) This year SWE has a option where you can upload your resume to thier website and my DD has gotten some inquiries that way. Also have your DD check with your local SWE because they may know of some opportunities this summer in your area. If your DD likes programming then have her look into the Grace Hopper Conference. Your DD can get practical experience in other than the month long unpaid internship; she can join competition teams at her school or other projects. My DD did both and it has really helped her in the job hunt.
Good luck to all the student job hunters this fall.
Thank you @itsv She is a member of SWE and a freshman representative on SWE board of her school. She loves it. I sent her information about conference.
@Ballerina016- The conference is next week, but I don’t know if is a good idea for your D to attend just yet. She should be focusing on doing well in her classes because some employees have gpa requirements. A lot of colleges will pay for their SWE students to attend the big national conference. My DD went last year as part of her SWE college team and they paid for it all which was nice for me. Also if you DD is doing CS then Google has travel scholarships for SWE and Grace Hopper and a few others (e.g. SHPE) . Networking helps and then applying to things that may come in an email are other good things. During my DD’s freshman year she got an email about a fellowship through Exxon Mobil that provided mentoring. She applied (I especially wanted her to do it because it included a $1k educational grant and we are always hunting for scholarships), well that lead to a lot of other good opportunities including my DD interning for this this past summer. PM your DD’s school and major and I can share with you some things my DD has done or heard about.
@itsv, he did get to spend some time with a few of them. The process is just far more involved than it was when I was job hunting. He’s done everything right that he can do. Now it’s just a matter of waiting. Thanks for checking in!
@eyemgh You are right about it being more involved, even from last year. Now my DD is not on campus this semester because she is interning, but she has had to take 5 assessments which are like exams where she had to do physics and math problems using her computer, plus there have been multiple interviews for just one position where last year it was just one interview at most for each company. She also has had to do an “essay” or two that is equivalent to a college application essay. By the way my DD says there are a lot of postings for ME interns by Tesla.
In all honesty, for a lot of those more involved assessments, you may want to consider whether or not the position you are applying for interests you enough to be worth the effort. It’s not particularly respectful of your time when a company asks you to do an open-ended homework project to even qualify for a chance to have an interview with a decision-maker. While you may be willing to grin and bear it for a dream company of your choosing, for most of them you might just want to walk away. Job searching is already a strain on the time of any adequately busy person; getting additional homework assignments will more likely than not simply burn you out on the prospect of doing more interviews.
He can certainly relate. Ford required a multipart timed test. Many of the applications are long and each requires a custom cover letter and possible resume tweaks. He can sympathize with your daughter’s interview experience too. He had three with Tesla as a sophomore before ultimately being passed over.
Customizing resumes and cover letters are honestly probably one of those things for which quantity beats quality. The benefits of tweaking your resume are minimal (your experience is what it is) but the time costs are substantial (time that you could spend applying to 10 other companies). Again, that’s only worth doing for a select few “dream” companies, if such things exist for him. Job hunting really is a numbers game, especially for new graduates; the entire issue of customization and putting in a herculean effort into each application comes into play more for senior positions.
Timed tests aren’t even the worst thing out there. Try week-long take-home projects. Unless you have a really good reason, you should skip those because the company is just being obtuse if they do that.
Yea, I’m reviving a dead thread, but it’s my thread. 
I just wanted to say thanks for everyone’s help. My son has had an interesting go of it.
He applied to quite a few, from ones you’d think he’d be very qualified for and that they would not have many applicants, to some very competitive positions. He never heard a thing from any of the “low hanging fruit,” not a peep. He did get tech interviews with Space X (he was passed over), a Raytheon subsidiary (he has an offer), Lincoln Lab and Tesla (neither of which have made a final determination).
It’s intriguing, and probably frustrating for those doing it, how seemingly random the whole hiring process seems to be.
Thanks again. You’ve all been an immense help.