How to Find Your Engineering Internship - Guest Blogger Taylor Dooner

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Beata Strubel 

Choosing a career is not a one stop shop decided solely by choosing your major when you come to college. Another key piece is your involvement once you come to Purdue! What experiences will you gain inside and outside of class? Will you pursue an internship?

Now that you’ve had some time to think about engineering majors you are considering, we expand on relevant internship advice with CCO Ambassador Taylor Doolen.

Meet the Expert:
Taylor is currently a sophomore in Construction Engineering Management. He interned last summer at DPR Construction in the Bay Area, CA as a Project Engineer intern. Through his internship, he learned more about the commercial construction industry and made valuable connections.

As a CCO Ambassador, he helps review Purdue students' resumes, share CCO career services, and more! Read on to hear his advice and response to our question - How did you find your Engineering internship?

In order to get an internship, I went to several career fairs to talk with companies. Prior to attending any career fairs I always spend several hours researching the companies that will be in attendance to determine which companies fit me best. I then prepare an informational sheet for each company which includes topics I
want to discuss, specific questions I have, and some background information on that company. I then review this sheet several times prior to talking with the company. 

An internship connects the “real-world” with the academic world. As an intern I was able to apply what I had learned in school but it was more of a learning experience. Many of the ideas that were introduced in my internship were later covered in coursework. An internship helps to show the application of content covered in coursework. 

The main advice I have for a current high school senior to prepare to find an internship is to figure out what they want to do. If a student goes into a career fair with the notion that they can get an “engineering internship” they are misguided. If students go into career fairs with a clear idea of what type of engineering internship they want to get and who they want to get the internship with, they will convey a sense of confidence that can go a long ways. An internship is not a career choice. If a student gets an internship in one field of engineering and later on decides it is not the right fit, they can change their career path and pursue opportunities in another field. 

Another piece of advice is to get good grades and have relevant involvement and experiences. This advice, however, is more appropriate for a younger audience seeing that there is not much time between senior year and college. Although what’s on your resume is not necessarily the most important aspect of getting an internship, if you have good grades and relevant experiences which you can speak about, an employer will likely take you more seriously. Furthermore, having experiences relevant to the internship you’re pursuing shows an interest beyond the typical verbal statement saying you’re interested. 

The CCO at Purdue has a variety of resources that will help students find an internship. The CCO offers both resume and cover letter reviews as a drop in service. Getting both of these documents reviewed prior to going to a career fair or applying for a job is critical. The resume of a college student is a living document, always changing, and the CCO is a great resource to get professional guidance on writing and maintaining a resume. Additionally, the CCO helps students prepare for attending career fairs and interviews. The CCO also provides the service of myCCO which is a platform that gives students a number of career tools. A major benefit of myCCO is the ability for employers to reach out to Purdue students to fill internship/job positions. Other tools of myCCO which help students to get internships include company research, career fair schedules/attendees, and information session schedules, among other tools.