Is an internship necessary for a Mechanical Engineering degree?

AnthroMecha

I'm currently an ME student about half way through my Bachelor's degree and plan to graduate in 2 years. I'm older (37) and because of that I planned to get through my degree without doing an internship so I can get back to work asap. I don't mind taking a low paying job after I graduate for a while to gain experience, hopefully not too low though. My fear is that I won't be able to get a job at all after graduating without having any internship experience.

Any insight is appreciated.

Ben Espen

Internships almost always look good on a resume. Since you need to interview for the position in competition with other students, and you gain some relevant work experience, this is a good indication that you will do well in subsequent interviews and subsequent work. Think of it as a screening experiment for employment.

This is a "tends to", and "for the most part", kind of judgment. I would definitely consider hiring a new grad engineer without internship experience, but I find that most of the students I hire have internship experience.

AnthroMecha

Thanks for the response. I went ahead and applied for a summer 2013 internship.

bschwartz

I would definitely try to get an internship. My GPA was relatively low compared to lots of people, but because I had a 7month internship I feel like I'm getting a little more exposure than some. If you land an internship at one of the oil companies (Shell, Halliburton, Schlumberger, ect) you can expect to make ~$30 an hour which is ridiculous for an internship haha. Good luck!

AnthroMecha

I applied for one at Bell Hellicopter, it probably pays about half of what you're getting, LOL. I don't really care about that though, I just want a foot in the door.

bschwartz

Definitely! I never had an internship that paid that well, just some friends who did. My internship paid like 1/3 of that haha. But all that matters is the experience. The experience from any engineering job far outweighs how much you make.

vincent_vega

Is research experience just as good as an internship to employers?

Ben Espen

I'm not sure I know how to answer that question. What I'll do instead is tell you what would go on in my head if I saw research experience on a resume.

• What kind of research is this? Lab work? Prototyping? Data collection? Just what did this person do?
• Is the field of research relevant to this position?
• What does this project tell me about the interests of this applicant?