Having just recently landed a new job, I thought I’d share my experiences with some of you here on finding and procuring employment both at companies that will be rewarding, and in places that you enjoy. This is the first part of that series.
Finding a job, and landing an interview, can be one of the most challenging steps in the entire career journey, however it isn’t the first. To be a marketable asset, which is all an employee is fundamentally, you have to be capable of doing something that returns value to a company. As engineers mostly we design and analyze, and possibly supervise and create documentation. So as a student, anything you can do to help you learn these tasks will help. At first take a wide swath of courses, to determine what you like and what you’re good at (not always the same things). Further, work!
Getting a job not only gives you some pocket/beer money, but you gain valuable experience that you can’t get listening to your professors, most of whom have been out of the industry for years, sometimes decades. This isn’t to say that your professors are invaluable, but obtaining a job in an industry that you’re interested in working in gives you a chance to see firsthand how the engineers are working, and what they actually use. More importantly you build a priceless network of coworkers, which you can draw on after graduation for employment, and if you and the company you work for get along you may even have a post-graduation offer. Finally, demonstrating both school knowledge, through a nice list of “completed courses” on your resume and a decent GPA, and practical knowledge, through a list of previous employment, will gain you far more opportunities than someone with simply a stellar GPA.
During my college career I worked basically four jobs, one at the world’s leading microprocessor manufacturer when I was interested in computer science and computer engineering, one at a satellite manufacturer when I was interested in VHDL and solid state electrical engineering, one at a large IOU (Investor Owned Utility) in Arizona, and finally as a research assistant for one of my favorite professors. My senior year I took 19 credit hours, and worked two of those jobs concurrently, and graduated with 170+ credit hours, most of which were in courses I just enjoyed. You might think that “wow this guy is just nuts” or a glutton for punishment, but that’s not the case at all. I paid for all this with a sub-par GPA, below 3.0, and to tell you the truth I wouldn’t change a thing! I could have had a much better GPA had I simply studied full time.
I also know without a shadow of a doubt that my first post-graduate job was gained through my network and work experience, with little thought given to my GPA, and I also know that after your first job GPA matters little. I’m not saying don’t try in school, far from it work as hard as you can, but speaking from my own personal experience if you can sacrifice some study time for some valuable work time, do it!
Now, landing your first job during college might prove to be difficult, since you’re young, you don’t have any experience, and you don’t even have much schooling. But landing a first job (and doing very well there) is paramount, and you should work very hard at it.
There are several ways to find jobs:
· Your campus career center.
Your best bet in my experience. Local companies often go here to find young talent, and it’s a good deal for both of you. $15/hr for an engineering intern is cheap labor to do paperwork and less important task, compared to the $50/hr that they’re paying the senior engineer in the next cube.
· On-line websites (hotjobs, monster, etc)
Your worst bet in my experience. Typically not many companies go there looking for interns or engineers with little experience. Go ahead and place your resume here and peruse the opportunities, but be wary of things that sound too good to be true.
· Rock myspace, linkedin, and facebook.
At my current job, I hired my last intern by doing a search on facebook for students in my area, majoring in EE, and looking at their list of experience. Then select candidates I sent a message to inviting them to apply to a position not otherwise posted online. As time goes on, I predict more and more employers will be realizing what a valuable tool these things are.
· Cold calling.
I personally have never had this work. But don’t let me stop you, this may be something that you need to resort to!
Finally, if you’ve exhausted all your options here and not found anything you are interested in, one viable alternative is finding a volunteer job at a non-profit. Even if it’s not as an engineering position, this can be very valuable to you as it does many things. First it widens your network, which can be instrumental in the future. Secondly, you prove to future employers you know how to get along and otherwise work well in a real-world environment. Third, you get something that you can place on your resume that proves you’re a good citizen interested in the community, an asset to a team, and just generally a super-duper guy/girl.
I’ll be continuing this series soon on landing a good career, stay posted for more tips.
