OT: Looking for Input from Engineers
So, suppose you were an engineering student at Michigan or any other selective engineering school. CE, EE, ME, automotive, manufacturing, design, ChemE, Environmental, any sub field at all.
What engineering/applied science -type people or organizations would you follow on Twitter and/or Facebook? I'm thinking internship info, job info, career info, academic info and funny stuff (engineering & science related).
Thanks for the help!
nuff said
I'm an Aero, a few I follow on facebook:
Neil deGrasse Tyson, I Fucking Love Science, NASA
I'm an engineer and this question made me feel really old.
BACK IN MY DAY (10 years ago) college sponsored career fairs are where I had the best luck picking up internships and making connections with potential employers. I work in the engineering department of a very large utility company now, and can say that 95% of the interns we hire are interviewed at college career fairs, and most of them are offered full time positions once they graduate. So really use to the full extent possible the resources at school. You're paying them, after all, for it.
I've only ever gotten a single interview from a career fair that never went anywhere. I went to like 6 career fairs and overwhelmingly got "apply online; we can't help you here." Maybe it's an issue with my specific field.
Well, you might want to consider whether it was that "NICE TITS" t-shirt you were wearing.
And as others have mentioned, LinkedIn has been the only social media platform I can say successfully helped my career. Facebook and Twitter are just too unprofessional by nature.
Same here. My current employer found me through LinkedIn and I regularly get emails from tech company recruiters through LinkedIn. I highly recommend it.
That being said, for a college student, I would think your best bet is to just get interviews through your career center.
I get calls about twice per week from LinkedIn. I turned my profile off because I was getting hit up so much. However, it is an excellent method to network.
I've gotten multiple interviews after talking to people to the career fair (3-4 years ago). Once you make the connection into a company, make sure you follow up with them. Odds are they'll contact you when they come back to the career fair and you'll have an inside track to an interview.
Also the tech sessions sponsored by companies are a great way to meet the recruiters and its usually free dinner.
DARPA, SpaceX, Orbital Sciences
Also, get a LinkedIn and follow stuff there, too.
I love Nature, Nature Materials and a lot of nanotech scientific journals. As far as finding a job goes, nothing beats contact (which can be tough for engineers). If you read an interesting article and want to do research for the professor, send them an email and schedule a time to meet. If you want to work in industry, go to corporate information sessions and talk to all the recruiters. Many times, the rest of the team has as much say as the one manager who gives the presentation.
im in tech. i graduated with an a degree Engineering and Applied Sciences from a top school a couple years back.
for job info/career building/networking type of stuff, i've found that alumni networks, friends, co-workers (past and present) are the best way to go about this. also, linkedin is actually really helpful with this, because recruiters use it to find you. i get several emails every month asking me to interview, etc. just make sure you have a fleshed-out, accurate, and attractive profile.
for news, funny stuff, etc, i read wired, engadget, the verge, etc
if you want specific, technical stuff, look into journals published in your particular field.
facebook and twitter are pretty useless for this stuff, unless you have tons of followers or are a real rpo. i'd also stay away from mixing work and personal social networks. cuz anything there will be found.
I am a construction student at ASU but have a couple CE friends and they are apart of:
ASCE - American Society of Civil Engineers (should have a chapter at your school)
or
Chi Epsilon - Honors Civil Engineering Society (should have a chapter at your school)
The clubs you join at school will better your chances of reaching out to industry professionals and in turn get you internships. Also, these clubs lead to regional competitions where you can showcase your skills infront of industry members. This is what gets you jobs, the networking!
Also, the school you are a part of should have information regarding events with industry members and available internship opportunities with local companies.
In terms for good reads, ENR and ASCE put out a magazines.
If you are interested in construction management there are much more I can refer you to.
If you do CE/CS, there are a TON of groups focused on tech/startups, LinkedIn has a ton of groups (i.e. Ruby on Rails community, etc), VC funds have pages/social media accounts focused on hiring for their portfolio companies, etc. For programmers opportunities are easy to find.
Nuclear Energy Institute (@N_E_I), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (@NRCgov), Nuclear News (@nuclearnewsbot), American Nuclear Society (@ans_org), NuclearStreet.com (@NuclearStreet - more helpful for jobs, etc. than some of the others).
hard on yourself - clown college is real college - I couldn't get in because their standards were way too high
I follow companies I'm interested in working for or learning more about...some post job opportunities but most of them will post some interesting content (presentations, articles, etc.).
Don't forget your professors. Be sure to ask them about internships they're aware of. They have written letters and acted as references for students before, and just like with high school football players, there are ofter pipelines between certains schools and jobs. Be sure to attend all classes on time, do all your work, and talk to your profs on occasion before or after class (not to the point of being obnoxious) so they know who you are. Scoring high on tests and getting good grades by themselves don't make for the most glowing recommendations. One of my daughters (not the Sparty) is an EE sophomore and already has a decent summer internship lined up. As she was talking to a recruiter on campus, one of her profs walked by and said "she's a keeper." When she was selected over several other similarly qualified (or possibly more qualified on paper) candidates, the recruiter told her that that affirmation by her prof (whom the recruiter knew from previously recommended students) was one of the things that swung the internship in her favor. Profs are recommending a lot of students, but not all their recommendations are the same, and attributes like diligence, maturity, and work ethic in many cases are more important than high scores, because that's often what separates the students who perform effectively in the real world from those who end up embarrassing a prof.
My current position and my previous position have both come to me thorugh networking with former profs. At a place similar to M where grad students go on to industry jobs and look to hire other grad students/undergrads from their school, networking with a prof can get you a recommendation from a trusted source.
I'm a civil engineer, and I would recommend ASCE for that. But you want an internship? The best way is to know someone personally at a company. Whether it's a friend , family member or some far off acquaintance. Just knowing someone's name can be enough to get your foot in the door. Even talk to a professor, they know people in the industry and are great at getting people's names out.
BSME 82
But also, indeed.com . great job board, lots of tech jobs
Don't know if I communicate well, but I'm an embedded software engineer who majored in EE so I like hearing this.
Also, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you work for Smiths Aerospace (or whatever it's called these days).
GE bought out Smith Aerospace a while back.
The only organization I know of for BME is the Biomedical Engineering Society. Its a national organization so following the organzation isn't too hard and if you have interest in the field and you're not BME its not an exclusive organization. Of course if you do specialize in any specific aspect of the field (Bioimaging, Biomechanics, Nanotech) you can always follow more smaller organizations (i.e. American Society of Biomechanics) if you're more into the academia setting. Not sure if that helps.
Also, I'm not sure if you're a female or minority but there is:
- Society of Women Engineers
- National Society of Black Engineers
- National Soceity of Hispanic Engineers
Funny stuff
XKCD (especially what-if.xkcd.com), I fucking love science,
Make a professional looking LinkedIn page. This is how you'll keep in touch with people you've networked with
Join the trade organization (ex: IEEE for electrical engineers, SAE for automotive related)
Ditto all above on LinkedIn.
You can join multiple groups and you will get recruiters calling you if you have a decently put together profile.
Here in NYC, one of the better ways to find jobs is through meetups and other social/professional gatherings, at least for the IT set. Also, as others have noted, LinkedIn is about the only social-media site that seems to work for some professions, but your mileage may vary. Joining the various orgs like IEEE, ASME, etc. may also help, but in my experience they tend to just be meetings for a particular subset of your field, and you might not identify with them that much. And depending on the type of job you are looking for, even places like Craigslist, Dice, etc. might have options.