According to different surveys and studies, there are 20-36% of college freshmen will choose to major in science. Many students will concentrate on engineering proper. Many of them will find themselves struggling to work in a decent company to provide for a living while the very small percentage of those students will actually obtain VIP jobs in the United States. So choosing an engineering field is quite risky. However, it is like that with any career choice you make: you have a chance to become famous and you have a chance to end up pretty much nowhere. What can you do in order not to get into the second group of people?
Engineering Internships
In this article, we don't really want to talk about the skills you have to obtain or contacts that you should have. Those things are useful in any other field as well as in engineering. However, there is one thing that can make a difference in your career if you have decided to become an engineer - internship. This word doesn't make much sense because how can an internship make a difference in one's whole career? However, you may be surprised to know that most employers don't even want to look at the resumes of graduates without any internships. So engineering internships then often become a requirement rather than just a bonus. And before you close this article and start ignoring internships you have to read at least why employers are so interested in applicants who actually have them on their resume. The thing is that the engineering field is very technical both in terms of knowledge and practical experience. However, because knowing engineering principles and being engaged in the practical side of it are two different things. And there are plenty of things one can learn from college, but the matter of the fact is that the reality is a little bit different from what we learn theoretically.
Being aware of that fact, employers don't want to hire people who are theoretical engineering experts, they are rather looking for those who have already confronted the practical side of engineering projects. Guess where can one get such an experience being just a recent graduate? That's correct, from an internship. But engineering internships are not about the practical experience only. From the employers' perspective, a candidate who has had one or two internships somewhat has proved his/her commitment. During summer holidays all of the students and recent graduates have a choice of how to spend that summer: either enjoying party time with friends or working hard to gain valuable experience. So it is also about passion and determination to work in the engineering field. Besides, it is not that easy to actually get an engineering internship. So that would most likely mean that a candidate invested his/her time and efforts into getting one.
Setting Goals in Advance
It is better to have your goals set at the very beginning of your engineering career. If you know what kind of company you want to work for in the future it is best to try and get an internship in one of the market leaders. Everybody knows that the brand Tesla is related to electric cars so if that is something you want to do, then go ahead and win the internship there.
Please don't confuse engineering with software engineering. These are two completely different industries although they sound similar. If you are interested in how to write a software engineer, you can check this new article on our blog.
