March 11, 2008
Dear Trinity Engineers:
On behalf of ASME and the Trinity Engineering Societies, I have compiled just about everything I wish I had been told about engineering careers and what to do after Trinity. I tried to keep it relatively concise, and I believe everything in here is worth reading. I urge you to read through this entire document and to visit Career Services early and often, starting freshman year.
While I have tried to include what I think are the most important aspects of job hunting, and those aspects that I personally missed, there is a lot of other important information out there that you may need to find. Look through all of the standard material at Career Services, and most importantly, perform your own research. Meet with different people at Career Services and compare the advice you get. Look through websites, message boards, Vault guides, and books. Talk to your advisor, professors, older students, alumni, and your parents. The career services website on http://www.trincoll.edu has some helpful information, and you can find an electronic copy of this document on that website as well.
You are spending an extraordinary amount of time, effort, and money on school. With all of the work we do as engineers, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the point of our efforts at Trinity is to prepare us for meaningful and successful careers and lives. You would be selling yourself short to not explore all of your options, decide what is important to you, and inform yourself of what you can do while at Trinity to reach your goals.
I would like to thank Lanna Hagge, Director of Career Services, and Professor Mertens for looking over what I have written. I would especially like to thank Career Services for helping me finally figure some of this stuff out. I hope that you find this document helpful, and I hope that you find a way to make the most of your Trinity experience, whatever you choose to do with it.
Sincerely,
Phil Almquist, ‘08
ASME President, ’07-‘08
INTERNSHIPS
The most important thing I wish I had known earlier is how important internships are. Most competitive positions are filled directly from the intern pool at each company. Full time offers for the following year are often extended to interns in August. Pratt & Whitney (part of UTC) takes their base salary for your major and adds an amount based almost solely on a simple count of the number of relevant internships you’ve had. GE reserves eighty percent of its leadership program slots for its interns in what is part of its “Early Identification” program. Especially at larger companies, you can find internships after your freshman or sophomore years. Don’t wait until junior year to start looking. In general, internships with larger companies are more prestigious and may count for more when applying to full time jobs, unless the job you are applying for is where you interned or is highly specialized. Internships (and jobs) at defense companies like Raytheon and Textron also tend to be more competitive. Choose which jobs you may want to have after graduation and look for internships at those companies. See the jobs sections for more information on the types of internships you may want to pursue.
You will want to apply for internships by November or December at the latest to give yourself the best shot. Plan on spending at least one month working on your resume and cover letters with career services, your parents, your friend’s dad who works as a vice president in engineering, and your girlfriend’s aunt who works in corporate human resources. As with full time positions, find a human contact with an email address to whom you can send your resume and cover letter. Also, plan on spending at least a couple of months finding contacts. People are generally busy and slow to respond. The most competitive internships require extensive and continuous networking.
ENGINEERING JOBS
There are plenty of entry level engineering jobs available, at least for now, and you should be able to find plenty of help finding and applying to these typical jobs. I recommend that you take a look at these opportunities, but make sure you consider all of your other options as well. Within engineering, many, if not most companies, offer rotational development programs for top applicants. Search for these programs.
Typically recruiters only work within one department at their company. A stronger resume only encourages recruiters to try to keep you for themselves. If the Fire & Safety department recruiter thinks he can sign you on to their department, there is very little chance that he will give you up and refer you to the company’s engineering leadership development program. Make sure that you ask about development programs and about opportunities in different departments. Make an effort to contact different people at each company and ask them where they think it is most desirable to be starting out within the company.
The following links show some examples of rotational development programs.
GE: http://www.gecareers.com/GECAREERS/html/undergradLP.html
See especially the engineering and operations programs.
UTC: http://careers.utc.com/under_fulltime.asp
UTC departments also have smaller development programs that they do not advertise.
Raytheon: http://www.rayjobs.com/campus/index.cfm?Tool=Engineer
Intel: http://www.intel.com/jobs/usa/students/programs/rep.htm
Especially in engineering, some companies and departments who are trying to keep you for themselves may attach very quick deadlines to their offers. Accepting an offer without having time to weigh your options and make a confident decision will only cause you to question your decision, even if in the end you would have accepted the offer given any amount of time. Some companies try to rush offers through and will give as little as two days. These deadlines are negotiable and can often easily be extended to a few weeks or a month or more. Be sure to ask for more time if you come across this type of situation.
At least locally, most major engineering employers offer current employees bonuses of $3,000 to $5,000 for successfully referring new hires. Do not be afraid to contact and network with employees at these companies; they will often have a very large additional incentive to be as helpful to you as possible.
OTHER JOBS
Trinity is a small school, and we aren’t Ivy League. Especially in engineering, it is hard to get employers to come to campus. It is important to know, however, what kinds of employers are recruiting on other campuses. At places like Harvard and Princeton, the top students are recruited by investment banking and management consulting firms. These business jobs come with extremely long hours but unbelievable pay and career growth. Successful investment bankers and consultants can easily make many hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in their 20s.
The good news is that despite not being actively recruited, Trinity students go to such top firms. The other good news is that in both industries, analytical skills are highly valued. Consulting and banking firms will consider engineering applicants with lower GPAs than applicants with any other major. The liberal arts side of Trinity can also be an advantage. A double major or minor or other quantifiable experience in humanities and any econ courses or financial experience will augment an engineering resume very well when competing for these jobs. Leadership experience in clubs or other organizations will also be especially beneficial here (or when applying to engineering development programs).
JPMorgan has a good description of investment banking opportunities at http://usibcareers.jpmorgan.com/content/content_310.html. McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group are the top management consulting firms. McKinsey has a decent description of its work at http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/, and Bain’s website has a pretty good description of its entry level position at http://bain.com/bainweb/join_bain/associate_consultant.asp. Other related opportunities also exist, such as those at the McKinsey Knowledge Center (http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/knowledge_center/opportunities/). Management consulting and other firms also consider applicants with a few years of engineering industry experience, and of course you can always apply after business school.
Management consulting and investment banking jobs are extremely competitive. Some offices receive thousands of resumes each day for the tens of openings they have per year. Many less competitive business jobs and other types of jobs exist outside of engineering in which an engineer’s skill set is valued very highly. Majoring in engineering is an advantage in many fields, so it may be worth considering other fields if you haven’t yet. You will not be at a disadvantage to other majors. Do a web search and use Trinity’s “Vault” access to learn more about different careers. Get to Vault by visiting http://trincoll.erecruiting.com, signing in with your Trinity email address, and clicking the link in the top left. Don’t rely on the Trinity recruiting website for many job hits though. I’ve had the best luck finding out about jobs through companies’ individual websites and through networking contacts.
MILITARY JOBS
If you have ever considered the military, consider the NAVY’s Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NUPOC) program. There is a five year commitment for the program, but you will be trained at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command and other graduate level schools. You will train on a live nuclear power plant and be certified by the Department of Energy to manage the operations of a nuclear power plant. You will also earn your top-secret clearance. Nuclear propulsion officers receive the highest level of training in the NAVY and have the highest rate of promotion. You will work on either a submarine or an aircraft carrier, and on your first assignment you will be in charge of the engine room and its crew while training to become captain of the ship.
NUPOC program members currently receive a $15,000 signing bonus, and are paid $2,850 to over $5,000 per month for up to 30 months while in school, with absolutely no military duties until graduation. If you sign up to the program halfway through sophomore year, which is the earliest possible time to sign up, you can expect to graduate with well over $100,000 in pocket. You also earn seniority during this time in college, a benefit not given to Annapolis students. Members of the NUPOC program will have up to 30 months of seniority over Naval Academy graduates. This seniority means higher pay, better benefits, and an earlier retirement if you make a career out of the military. The NUPOC website is here: http://www.navy.com/officer/nuclear. Other surprisingly good options also exist in the military and are worth looking into.
NETWORKING AND GETTING THE JOB
Online job applications are almost always a waste of time. I still have not heard back regarding the online application I submitted for the job I eventually accepted (after networking and getting my resume in by other means). You should only ever submit an application online as a last resort or when directed to by an actual hiring manager, preferably after they are already interested in you and know to pull your resume from the system. The best way to be considered for a job is through personal contacts. Talk to your family members and friends. Find out if anyone knows anyone who might know someone in a company you are interested in. The Bantam Alumni Network (BAM) is also a great place to start. You can search through the alumni network to see where past Trinity students are currently working. The system also lets you send alumni email. You can search by current employer, major, graduation year, clubs, or other information. Access BAM at http://www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/TNC/bam_student.html. Be persistent, and follow up after every application you submit, every HR contact you make, every interview you attend, etc.
People are very busy and any help they give you is a gift, so be very formal and respectful when contacting them. Showing an improper level of respect to alumni can also result in them refusing to help anyone else. You will be lucky to hear back from ten percent or so of the people you contact on BAM, but it is very much worth using. Every once in a while you find a very senior person who is willing to forward your resume and offer you advice, and that is infinitely better for you than sending your resume into the black hole that is the online application. You may very well make other contacts through your BAM contacts, and you may make further contacts through them, etc.
When making contact with alumni or sending networking emails, never ask for a job or anything related to finding one. Only ask for advice. State your interests, and ask if the person would be willing to speak with you about his experiences. This may lead to what is known as in “informational interview.” Stay in contact with these people over time. Send updates about the progress you are making in your job hunt or school or anything else that might be appropriate, and try to include some sort of question with your messages. Especially for highly competitive jobs, relationships, not just contacts, are required for success. Having said that, attach your resume to every networking email you send. Always say that you have included it for your reader’s reference and never for any other purpose.
Your resume is everything; take it seriously. Your resume is your entire life, summed up in one or two pages. If it isn’t on your resume, it didn’t happen. Start with career services and have them help you out with your resume. When you think it is decent, have others review it. Find everyone you can. Really, you should ask your parents, friends’ parents, BAM contacts, former boss, etc, to review your resume. You’re a Trinity Engineer; you’re intelligent. You will get all sorts of conflicting advice but if you can pick out the best of that advice and put it into your resume you will do well. Aim for one page, but at least for engineering jobs, no one will really care if you legitimately need to go onto a second page.