<p>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>I'm new to this forum and tried to find a thread like this, but none hit the mark.</p>
<p>I'm a third year in Mechanical Engineering and I recently got an offer to Intern at a company that designs and manufactures metal arc lamps of various sorts used in lighting and ultraviolet applications. It looks like a great opportunity to learn some designing and testing processes,However, my main interest in the long term is to work in the aerospace/defense or automotive field.</p>
<p>I'm wondering if this internship will be appealing in the aerospace/defense field despite being in a different field (I hope that makes sense).</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi Andrei,</p>
<p>I’m just starting out on the marketing side of things (product management) in the auto industry. Can’t speak for defense/aero, but industry internship experience is HUGE in auto. Part of it is just the connections that you make.</p>
<p>That being said, any legit MechE experience you can put on your resume is way better than none. It’s late in the summer already, so I’d say if it looks good…take it! For auto, you can always join your school’s Formula SAE or SAE Baja next year. For aero/defense, you’ll have to spin this internship as gaining experience with the same tools necessary in those industries.</p>
<p>yeah I’m planning on doing SAE next year for sure. I have some friends who got internships in the fields they’re kinda leaning towards and I’ve been trying hard to get an internship in aero/defense or automotive field but, some of the positions just got dropped or I never hear back (I’m jealous of them now lol!)</p>
<p>I have a 3.3 GPA. is that pretty low for ME’s you think? maybe that’s why I haven’t gotten an interview.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks for replying Sherman8r!</p>
<p>I say take the intern. Experience is experience. From personal experience half of my interns are not in my field/desired field but have helped me land other interns and jobs. I was an Economics major who had finance, programing, and research interns.</p>
<p>I think you’re right Juggernaut. I’m definitely taking the internship regardless. I’m just afraid it wont help me find a job in the aero/defense or automotive industry. I could just imagine a recruiter looking at this on my resume and thinking “arc lamps? that’s irrelevant”, but maybe that’ll still help…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s orders of magnitude better than a recruiter looking at your resume and thinking “oh, this guy has absolutely no engineering work experience” don’t you think? ;)</p>
<p>I totally agree Sligh, I’m doing the internship regardless. Just wondering how far behind I’ll be in comparison to someone with aero/defense or auto internship experience…</p>
<p>You should totally be up for it. ME is vast field as compared to other Engineering disciplines. This particular internship would have seemed odd if your major had been Aeronautical/Aeropace Eng.
Moreover, your future employers could also think you got interested in Aerospace after college or something.</p>
<p>The bottomline is any kind of industry experience gives you an edge.</p>
<p>I am senior in M.E. and I want to work in aero or auto industry too. I recently had an internship at a software company doing something completely different than engineering. At career fairs, interviews, etc that I have had in the past the employers still ask what types of work I did and how I will used it to better myself. They ask all sorts of questions about leadership within the position, basically they are asking questions to get to know me and how hard of a worker I am. I would say any professional experience is better than none</p>
<p>ISUCyclone33,
quick quesion: do recruiters ever ask for contact info for your manager? Like, do they ever try/want to call your previous manager to see how you were as an employee?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I have had times where people asked for my References, but it doesn’t happen every time. I have never actually had an employer call the people on my reference list, but personally I feel that the employer was just testing me to see how prepared I was.</p>
<p>For those of you that don’t know, but it is highly recommended that when you speak with employers that you have a list of references (3 to 5 people) with important information (name, job title, address, phone #) that the employer can contact. People on the list can include previous bosses, family friends, etc… You want people that can speak highly of you to make you look good for that employer (some will even exaggerate a little to make you look good…) Don not lie about these people, and make sure that you contact the references before you add them to your list. You want to make sure that they are prepared to speak on your behalf and not surprised by some random phone call.</p>
<p>As for on the spot, if you are unsure of how you did at the last job, you could say that my previous employer does not want to be contacted. Then you can say “however I do have a list of references (hand list) of people that you could contact to discuss my skills and qualities as a person and worker…” That would look a lot better than saying “no, you can not call my previous manager”</p>
<p>Hope this helps</p>