How did you prepare for your internship search? What were some of the steps in your preparation?
The biggest step was getting a solid first draft of the resume. Setting up personal appointments at the Career Center kept the process un-rushed. Jason Whitney, UACC Internship Coordinator, helped me relate my (totally unrelated) past work experience to show why I would be a good fit for an engineering intern position. The engineering-specific Resume Review Day was great for fine tuning the resume. Going to both Job and Internship Fairs was also huge for me. I was able to become comfortable meeting with people during the first one, so during the second one I could get some good information and not feel nervous. Finally, I lived on MonsterTrak, applying to every job I was interested in. I kept track of where I applied so it would be easy to follow up with the places that I didn't hear back from.
What was the one thing you did in your internship search that helped you get the opportunity you wanted?
The College of Engineering and Physical Sciences (CEPS) hosted a resume review day where people from the engineering field came to Kingsbury and looked at your resume and gave some real-world advice on it. This is where I first met one of the managers at NHBB, the place I would eventually intern that summer. He told me to add an "about me" section onto my resume. When I met with the manager of the engineering department at the Job Fair and again at my interview, we talked about the company and the position for a few minutes, and spent the rest of the time talking about cycling and working on cars. I go for road rides with him and a couple other guys at work every week now.
What three things would you tell your peers they need to do so they find and secure a great internship?
Figure out why you really want an internship and use it as motivation to keep applying and following up. Find ways to relate yourself and your experience to each place you apply and explain why you would be a good fit. Make the internship/job hunt like your 5th (or 6th) class, putting time into it 2 or 3 times a week.
Talk about the benefits of networking, timely follow-ups, and being proactive in your search.
Networking is huge. I met Dick at the resume review day, I dropped Dick's name to Paul and Donna at the Job Fair, and that helped get a good conversation started. Paul is my boss now.
I also used my friends' parents as resources. Some of them work at really cool places, and they will go out of their way to put in a good word to their boss just because they think you're a good guy. All they have to do is get your email or your number to somebody with hiring power, since you already have some rapport built through your network. My friend Matt is a bartender at a popular restaurant in Hampton, so naturally he meets a lot of different people. He dropped my name to the CEO of an Engineering company, and now I have his business card.
What did you learn from your internship search that you will apply in future job searches?
Use all of your network connections. Also, being in an internship that offers real experience and allows me to work on interesting projects that the company will actually use has been awesome - I plan on finding a job where I can continue doing the same thing.
