Any career advice for students interested in electronics? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: polarbearsEE
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 05, 2011, 02:38:43 pm
content: I have been lurking for a long time here and I finally have something to ask.I am a junior EE student interested in electronics hardware at a small school in the US. I am supposed to co-op this upcoming spring and in the following fall. In the process of looking for a co-op, I applied or sent resumes to about 40 companies over the internet and did not hear back from a single one. I have an interview coming up with a company that does big scale power stuff. I think it will be interesting but not really what I want to do. I was just wondering if anyone had any advice for how I can improve my odds of finding a job that deals with electronics when I graduate.Some additional details about me are that I do some electronics work in my free time, mostly using microcontrollers. I do not know enough to do any big projects yet. I am also involved with my schools micromouse team. I mostly write code for it, since we needed people who can program. I also have a pretty good gpa.

author: Hypernova
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 05, 2011, 03:06:31 pm
content: Include pics of your personal projects in your cover letter, and it's important to emphasize that this is your personal work not some school assignment.

author: caffeinatedbard
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2011, 03:12:17 pm
content: I know you have probably heard it before but networking really works.Try asking your friends or professors if they know someone that knows someone who might know of any openings that haven't even been posted before. From personal experience, management would rather take someone that their employee referred for the position than going through piles of resumes on monster and taking a risk.Good luck with finding your co-op.

author: Jimmy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2011, 03:14:35 pm
content: Try posting your location and what you want to do. You never know someone here might be able to hire you

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2011, 03:19:40 pm
content: Quote from: polarbearsEE on October 05, 2011, 02:38:43 pmHave someone have a good look at your application letters and resume. Someone familiar with the way it is done in your country. Sometimes schools offer such service, or job centers.Also check out things like recruitment fairs and such events if there are such things in your area. And build up and use a contact network. Tell friends, family and neighbors that you are looking for an internship, maybe they know a small company, or know someone who knows someone. If you can, show up in person in small companies, ask for the owner or workshop supervisor and tell tehm what you want. If possible carrying one of your own projects to show.

author: Lawsen
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2011, 05:18:32 pm
content: You are at a good start. Let people around you know that you enjoy electronics related work and are willing to take work that has electronics in it by 30% of the time at work and 70% not related to electronics. I am sure the great recession caused by the U.S.A. who sold house loan derivative investments that were worthless, the Euro's failure to keep its value by a some countries in Europe that went into debt, China refusing to increase currency value to reflect upon their productivity, and oil prices have the world suffering in a recession.Imagine anything, that needs electronics and apply for it. You are just starting out. I got my first electronics job, while at university as a research assistance to Cu Se material. I changed into another study and now I help repair giant HP plotters. I got my electronics education from a community college and the research Cu Se material from the university. I have done some freelance jobs repairing Macintosh computers. You might try office equipment or something that interests you by desire and inquiry the businesses that cater to this. I do not live in your area, so I do not know the market there as well as you do.

author: polarbearsEE
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 05, 2011, 07:44:00 pm
content: Thanks for the advice. I have been talking to the co-op director for the engineering department. She has been trying to help but most of our alumni don't go into electronics or anything like that. I attended our job fair but we don't attract that many companies. I will be the first to admit that I have not done the best job networking. If you have any other advice about how to network better I will gladly take it.

author: gregariz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2011, 09:08:39 pm
content: Here's my take FWIW.The industry is quite concentrated. Most business happens in a few hubs in the Northeast (+NC triangle), Texas and California. If you are not in these regions you will have less ability to do any 'choosing', and will most likely just fall into some local niche, which can be dangerous for the rest of your career as you then have no place else to go.I would be targeting these regions, particularly California (LA, SD and the valley). If you are able to.. maybe you could show up to a few large trade shows (ie embedded or whatever interests you.. but embedded is big.. so is the CES in Vegas) in the valley... or some hacker/networking events at stanford or similiar. You need to be in the same place at the same time as the people who are actually doing stuff.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 06, 2011, 06:49:33 am
content: Don't knock on the front door like everyone else, find the back door.Find out a company you want to work for, and find contacts within that company. The engineering director or whatever, and then contact them directly. This is pretty easy these days with LinkedIn and various other online avenues.Dave.