C Term and Internships

Hi guys!

I know you haven't heard from me for a while, but I'm back! :) Sorry for the lack of posts at the end of B term... I was caught up in the ridiculousness of finals and my Humanities and Arts project and didn't have time to update this as often as I should have.

Winter Break was awesome. It was so nice to see all of my friends from home and just have a vacation from schoolwork and the normal stresses of WPI. But after being genuinely lazy for a week or so I decided I needed to do some work on my internship search. It was really difficult to get motivated to work on it a lot, so I did some in small pieces throughout break.

I started my search on Job Finder. At first it was pretty discouraging because I didn't really find anything I was looking for. But, the good thing about Job Finder is that even if you don't find what you're looking for at first, check back in a few days or a week and you may have more options.

I also used general search engines like www.indeed.com, www.careerbuilder.com, and even Craig's List. These are a little more hit or miss, but, like Job Finder, are important to keep checking.

Also, last year I applied for an internship with a company, and, after emailing back and forth for a while with the lady in charge of hiring college interns, she found out the company wasn't hiring at all that summer. She told me to feel free to contact her again for next summer (aka this one coming up) if I was still interested. So, over break I sent her another email. I got an automated email saying she was on maternity leave and to get in touch with another woman in her office who wasn't as friendly. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to have great news either. BUT the good thing is that I just saw the company posted jobs on Job Finder. So, although they aren't specifically in Mechanical Engineering, they're in stuff like R & D, and quality control which could still be relevant considering the company works in an area that I'm interested in.

Finally, my friend's mom works in an administrative position in a Biomedical Engineering company in my town. She reached out to me and offered for me to come in and meet someone in her department. I took her up on the offer, and it ended up being really helpful. It was neat to talk to someone in a job that I'm interested in and to figure out what steps they took to get there and what they think is important. Even if that doesn't actually help me get an internship with that company, it's still a helpful step in my internship search overall.

But, even though I've obviously made a few steps in the right direction with my job search, I still have a long way to go. (Which I'm kind of stressing about). The funny thing is, I think everyone is in the same boat that I am. Whenever I run into friends on campus a few of them always ask the question "Do you know what you're doing this summer yet?". When I tell them I don't they look really relieved and say "Phew. Me either!".

So if you're also someone who doesn't have an internship yet, rest assured that you are most definitely not alone on this campus and a lot of people are in the same position as you are. Although some companies have already decided on interns, there are still internships out there and you're not too late. But, with that being said, don't relax too much. It's definitely the time to be looking now. Good luck!