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Hey guys, I'm a student in college working on my Industrial Engineering degree in my sophomore year and I feel like this is an issue that I need to worry about as I'm going to be out of college soon. And I know I need to be looking into internships and stuff during my summer.
However I have some problems. I've never had a job before so I have like no work experience let alone any references. This poses a serious problem when trying to construct a resume because I have no references,no work experience. And don't you need these to be considered for intern and stuff?
I did volunteer at a local hospital and chamber of commerce but this was during like my sophomore and junior year of high school summer break and I'm currently a junior in college so it's been about 3-4 years and I doubt the people remember me lol.
I've spoke to this issue with a friend of mine and I told him how lucky he is having worked at officemax for a year and now working at officedepot since that's retail experience and he's got references. But he told me it wasn't as good as getting a college degree which I had and it made sense. But still.. like my frickin resume..it's so blank with no refernces..and this worries me. And i'm not friends with any of my professors so i cant use any for references either.
And almost every summer I been taking summer courses to get caught up. This summer I'm going to korea and then gonna go straight into taking summer courses again. I don't have time for internship. I hate the thought of having a job AND going to school but i been thinking about doing the workstudy my financial aid offered me and try to get references that way. It's just so hard for me because my engineering classes take enough of my time already and I'm mostly studying anyway.
I guess I kinda went off on a tangent there but my question was
Do I really need a good resume with many references,volunteer hours,extracurriculers,job experience when I honestly been investing all of my time into studying and taking courses during the summer? I mean everyone learns at a different pace..not everyone can work multiple jobs and hold a 3.0 GPA in engineering.
Edit: is there anyone else out there that's never had a job before and just focusing on school only or ami the only one? And if there is how are u planning on filling your resume?
Edit2:After re-reading this thread several times, I decided to take the intern route this summer. However, a problem arose as I looked into it more. I heard someone mention that I needed a 3.0 GPA and I'm nowhere near that >_> I been struggling so is it still possible to find interns with a low GPA? Also, I made a mistake while I wrote this..I'm acutally not a junior yet, I'm still a sophmore.
 
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Industrial Engineering. There's your problem tbh
To give general advice though, things didn't heat up for me until after I dropped out :S On the flip side my friend who stayed at Rose JUST got his first offer for a job in his senior year and it's looking like he'll land a job with either Caterpillar or Cummins
Edit: It's kind of off-putting how demeaning you are when you talk about minimum wage jobs. Noone likes an elitist. I used to be like you but then I dropped out, worked at a lighting company, and now I work in lighting design for another company.
When I dropped out it was because I was too cocky and felt things like going to class, doing homework, etc etc were beneath me. Left and it turns out people want to see you do those menial things just to see that you can be committed to something and put effort into it.
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On November 14 2010 08:01 Risen wrote:
Industrial Engineering. There's your problem tbh
Can you explain a little more why this is a problem? Thanks.
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IE isn't even real engineering to begin with... and people consider IEs as those who didn't want to try and complete a math degree
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wow what the hell are you doing at college
i'm an engineer too but i have a part time job and do research and still find time to do homework and study
you haven't even joined any clubs?
and i agree with risen, you're demeaning minimum wage jobs when most college students have decent on campus jobs
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I don't understand something: why can't you have summer internships? Why must you take summer classes?
Summer internships are the best way to gain working experience, assuming your school does not offer co-op. Otherwise, read up professors' webpages, and find some fields that interest you and ask them if they have small projects that you could work on (most will even offer to pay you a minimal amount of money).
And yes, working experience is much more important in landing you a job than grades, assuming your grades are not abysmal.
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Why are you going to Korea this summer? If it's for SC, then I'm not sure what you want us to tell you. Taking summers off for videogames leaves you worse off than using those summers for career-related things. If not, carry on.
You can land an internship without any work experience. I'm a computer engineer and I landed a very good internship at a well-known company with no work experience or references. But no internships and no work experience getting out of college? That's going to look pretty bad. Not insurmountable, but bad.
You need to prioritize a summer internship over summer classes if you want the best chance of getting a job out of college. Getting a good internship is basically future-proofing you. I'm not an industrial engineer (nor do I even know what you do), but as a CE locking down this internship is going to basically ensure I get a job right out of college. I'm sure yours would be the same, as companies typically re-hire interns at a very high rate.
Most companies have online applications now, hop on their websites and apply for all the internship positions you can. Look for job fairs sponsored by your school.
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I was in the exact same spot as you my Junior year of college in Engineering. I had no relevant work experience at that point either.
The things I'm saying are going to be from personal experience and what I felt was important.
This is the best time for you to find a summer internship or a co-op. Start applying to everything possible that is somewhat related to your major. I'm sure you have some courses that have other engineering principles related (ie: maybe mechanical engineering and civil engineering jobs?), so apply to those jobs too. I don't know what your curriculum is like, but all engineers at my school took a Matlab course and a mechanics course.
For your resume, list the courses that you feel are relevant. Start asking professors that taught a course relevant to your major (if they don't know your name, don't ask them) if you could list them as a reference while applying to jobs (internships I had interviews for all called my references, but this may not always be the case). Preferably in classes you got A's in. I pretty much got my internship because my manager saw the relevant courses I took and felt that I would have a good basic understanding of the concepts behind my job because of those classes.
I'm going to say again to apply to as many places as possible. I'm sure you'll find an internship that you feel is a perfect fit for you, but chances are low that you'll get the exact one you want. When I was applying to internships I probably got rejected from 100+ and got interviews for 3 and got offers from 2. First worry about getting the interview, and the only way to do that is to applying to as many places as possible.
Anyways, to give a more clear answer for your question. It really varies what the hiring manager looks for when looking at resumes. Some won't care at all if you have volunteer hours or extracurriculars in something that is irrelevant to the job. Some will care. Hopefully your GPA is good enough as some companies may not even look at your resume if your GPA isn't above a certain threshold.
In terms of hobbies, I always left those off my resume, and if it comes up during the interview I'll mention it.
good luck.
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kitaman27
United States9245 Posts
I'm also a junior and was in a similar situation having little to no work experience, but luckily I had decent enough grades that hopefully it made up for that. I took the "apply everywhere" approach and was shocked to find that out of like 25 places, only one required a letter of recommendation (which I didn't have either). Basically everywhere was online where you just submit your resume/cover letter, check off a few boxes saying that you aren't an illegal citizen and answer a few questions about your race and sex -_-
Surprisingly I already got a few offers, so you might night be out of luck. If you do plan to apply, I would do it as soon as possible, since many companies are already selecting candidates at this point. Good luck!
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Your problems have already been mentioned by some ppl here.
You shouldn't be using your summer time to "catch up" on your studies. You should be using them to find internships. More and more college degrees are not good enough (unless you really are at the top in terms of grades). You need real world experience and companies are expecting students with some internships under their belt. I dunno your entire situation but it might be implied that you are not working hard enough during the regular school year and that's why you need to take classes during the summer to make up for it.
You also need to be more pro-active. Again, a decade ago it was alright if you were simply in the top 20% of your college major without any other things or extracurriculars. But nowadays you need to actually be active and get the stuff that are out there. If you think research is needed or better yet, are interested in research, YOU need to go out and find the resources and use these resources. You also need to be talking to your profs. They should know you by name at least. Please, please ask them questions. Even if they are dumb questions, at least they know you care about their classes. If there are contests or scholarships out there, pursue them. Also look into finding a mentor ... maybe a prof that you like and that you can ask career questions about. Don't rely on generic academic counselors ... but find someone who does something you want to do (or is related).
Don't be passive!
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Well, an internship is very desirable to most employers because it provides you with real-world experience that you can't really learn in school. Also, I wouldn't think of an internship as a "job" but more as a learning opportunity. Because you don't do an internship for money, you do it to learn and get experience.
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The reason folks want to see job history is to prove that you can work. Minimum wage jobs are minimum wage because anyone can do them, but due to that very fact many people suck at them. Both the bright eyed undergrad the 28 year old life drop out will work the same position -- one is more likely than the other to stick around and do a great job. Some of the hardest jobs are poorly paying -- but they teach you (or prove that you already have it) work ethic. When you want a "real job" with your degree you'll be able to backtrack and show them that you're able to work hard with references to prove it.
I'm an engineering student so I know exactly how hard it can be. Think of it from the perspective of a potential employer -- Would you rather hire someone fresh out of college with no work history or myself who has worked a few different jobs since early high school and excelled fantastically at all of them, including part time management?
Jobs can be fun anyways, you get what you put into it. Also -- how do you go about life with no income by your junior year? Even if your parents feed you, house you, and send you to school don't you need fun stuff like money for the occasional beer, video game, fast food run, or gas tank? I currently live with my parents and pay no room/board/health insurance. My personal costs are School, car(+upkeep/insurance), and any sort of personal items such as clothes/toiletries/computers.
Just find a job you think you might enjoy and put effort into the application process. The difference may seem minor to you but there really is a world of difference. If you're doing well in school I'm sure most low income jobs would love to have a smart engineering student. I'm currently working as a host for my favorite hang out spot. I love working there and look forward to most shifts -- it's a college student's dream job pre-internship. Other benefits of working as a host include tips and a clean cut environment -- working at mcdonalds does painful as hell and I would not suggest it. Think of a company you would be proud to work for-- sure you have a lowly position but guess what... thats the roll of a college student starting out at his first job.
I'm hoping to pick up an internship as well in the next year or two as from what I understand those are the best stepping stones to getting a "real job." Good luck man, just keep the eye on the prize. If it was easy everyone would be an engineer cracking home six figures.
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Go do extracurriculars, on-campus jobs, whatever you can find. I know a lot of people with engineering degrees that did research for professors, stuff like that. To answer your original question, no, it's not enough just to have a college degree. To be completely honest, I work in finance and have a BA in econ and a BS in math and I probably could have done without 99% of the actual knowledge component of undergrad coursework. I didn't learn anything particularly useful, but you need to go to school to show that you have the capacity to learn; obviously that's not enough when we're talking about competitive positions at prestigious firms.
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So basically you fucked yourself for your entire life because you put off important things because you had better things to do then make minimum wage and am paying for it now.
And you want to know what can possibly be done. There is no magic easy button in life. We all have to work our way up, we all have to work for what we get. Its just like starcraft, you don't magically get to be idra or foxer (scuse me OP) or FD by slacking off.
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So is it even possible to get a summer internship without any work experience?
I'm in high school btw.
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You mention also having multiple jobs -- that is over the top. You don't need to be working 50 hours a week, you just need to be working. Even if you only work one shift a week it is unlikely that your potential employer will know the difference. Part time is part time. 15-20 hours a week is probably ideal for the income to work involved ratio. Three to four nights a week for four hours a pop is not bad at all, especially if you can find a way to enjoy it. For me it's pretty hard to handle much more than 25 hours a week -- I had to quit my part time management job because it was 27.5 hours a week and between work and school I was driving for about 2 hours a day.
16 credits of calculus based physics, circuits, and linear algebra and two labs a week is not something you can keep up with reasonably when you minimum "work day" is 7.5 hours + class/lab hours (so 10.5 hours or 13.5 hours on lab days) before homework kicks in. Some people can keep up with that, but I wasn't strong enough so I cut back on my load. I learned some fantastic stuff at work during that time, but my school work suffered.
Honestly it sounds like you don't know what it is like to work -- which means you aren't familiar with the benefits! I'm not sure what your financial situation is, but unless mommy and daddy are paying everything for your schooling, shipping you on Korean vacations, and sending you a few hundred bucks a month for food and spending money you'll absolutely love the extra few hundred bucks a month. If you parents really do pay that much for you they're pampering you quite a bit so be very grateful, but keep in mind working hard might do you some good to avoid becoming "spoiled."
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On November 14 2010 09:19 4iner wrote:
So is it even possible to get a summer internship without any work experience?
Yes, I did it, as did a lot of people I know.
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I just want to thank everyone for putting things into perspective for me and I really appreciate it all the advice. But I do want to answer Cambium's post so that people will know why I was planning on taking summer class.
On November 14 2010 08:16 Cambium wrote:
I don't understand something: why can't you have summer internships? Why must you take summer classes?
Summer internships are the best way to gain working experience, assuming your school does not offer co-op. Otherwise, read up professors' webpages, and find some fields that interest you and ask them if they have small projects that you could work on (most will even offer to pay you a minimal amount of money).
And yes, working experience is much more important in landing you a job than grades, assuming your grades are not abysmal.
Basically financial aid requires me to take at least 6 credit hours in order for me to receive financial aid during the summer. If I don't then I have to pay 3 months of my apartment's rent which is 320 per month so $960 which i would have to pay myself if i choose to do summer intern.Not to mention the electric bill too.
But I do see the importance of internship and it's definietely something I will not ignore. And I'm gonna start now and I know you get paid during intern but I'm not sure if I have to move and pay rent for my current place AND the place i moved to. I don't really know anything about this.
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On November 14 2010 09:19 iEchoic wrote:Show nested quote +On November 14 2010 09:19 4iner wrote:
So is it even possible to get a summer internship without any work experience? Yes, I did it, as did a lot of people I know.
K, what if you're majoring in engineering and have only completed one year of college (so all of the necessary math, physics, and chemistry would be done, but only 1 or 2 engineering classes)? Also, how common is it for you to get paid for a summer internship?
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On November 14 2010 09:25 4iner wrote:Show nested quote +On November 14 2010 09:19 iEchoic wrote:On November 14 2010 09:19 4iner wrote:
So is it even possible to get a summer internship without any work experience? Yes, I did it, as did a lot of people I know. K, what if you're majoring in engineering and have only completed one year of college (so all of the necessary math, physics, and chemistry would be done, but only 1 or 2 engineering classes)? Also, how common is it for you to get paid for a summer internship?
Generally you won't get hired for internships until your Junior year. I've never heard of anyone getting an internship after their freshman year of college.
In engineering, generally all the internships are paid, and surprisingly paid pretty well. I've seen people get paid anywhere from $15-35 an hour in my field (computer engineering) for internships. They will often pay for relocation (moving fees and some of your rent) as well up-front if you have to travel.
On November 14 2010 09:24 MaRiNe23 wrote:
Basically financial aid requires me to take at least 6 credit hours in order for me to receive financial aid during the summer. If I don't then I have to pay 3 months of my apartment's rent which is 320 per month so $960 which i would have to pay myself if i choose to do summer intern.Not to mention the electric bill too.
Keep in mind that you'd most likely be paid for an internship. I would guess more than you'd get from financial aid.
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EPT
