What Do Companies Look for in EE & Comp. Eng. Interns & Co-ops?

[DefaultName]

For those of you in the industry, working as electrical & computer engineers... what is the one of the valuable things your company looks for regarding student interns & co-ops?

Obviously, it's going to vary by the industry/project/etc...

 

[ice109]

can someone tell me what a co-op is?

 

[DefaultName]

can someone tell me what a co-op is?

working & going to school, gaining both academic as well as practical experience at the same time.

 

[chroot]

We look for solid understanding of the basics, clear problem solving skills and thought processes (meaning that you can tell us how you'd approach a problem, even if you do not know how to solve it, talking us through your ideas), and enthusiasm.

- Warren

 

[symbolipoint]

We look for solid understanding of the basics, clear problem solving skills and thought processes (meaning that you can tell us how you'd approach a problem, even if you do not know how to solve it, talking us through your ideas), and enthusiasm.

- Warren

Most sensible job interviewers conduct a spoken or written assessment to check those, too.

 

[DefaultName]

Any one particular technical skill (such as programming) you think all EEs & CoEs must have, aside from C/C++ programming, etc..?

 

[chroot]

Signals and systems, solving of basic circuits, transistors models and biasing techniques, op-amp building block circuits, sorting algorithms, one-dimensional calculus, K-maps and basic logic design, timing diagrams, finite state machines (Mealy and Moore), basic x86 assembly, etc.

- Warren

 

[DefaultName]

How does my resume look?

I just finished my sophomore year in EE - any suggestions/advice/tips from an engineers/scientists POV?

 

[chroot]

Well, your resume is full of "school name goes here" kind of things -- are you not aware of that? I can't tell what you actually wrote, or what you just copied from some kind of a template.

Also, you haven't gotten along very far in your degree yet -- it seems a little disingenuous to list a bunch of courses you will take, yet have not already taken.

Your research experience looks very interesting -- I would expand on that more. That's the core of your resume, and what you'll probably discuss for most of your interviews.

- Warren

 

[DefaultName]

Well, your resume is full of "school name goes here" kind of things -- are you not aware of that? I can't tell what you actually wrote, or what you just copied from some kind of a template.

Also, you haven't gotten along very far in your degree yet -- it seems a little disingenuous to list a bunch of courses you will take, yet have not already taken.

Your research experience looks very interesting -- I would expand on that more. That's the core of your resume, and what you'll probably discuss for most of your interviews.

- Warren

Hehe :) I just took out my name, school name, locations for privacy's sake. And it's no template, I made it myself =D

Oh, and I just put the courses I have taken so far - so they know what I've been through - maybe I should write "Completed Coursework", rather than "Selected".

Is there anything you would change, other than what you said previously?

Thanks.

 

[chroot]

Ah, okay, I didn't think of the privacy aspect. Just making sure!

You seem to have taken a LOT of courses for a student who still has two years left to study, so that's why I asked. I think "Completed Coursework" sounds better, too.

I would expand a little more on what you did at previous jobs, if that's possible and relevant. Your goal is to get the interviewer's interest and provoke him to ask you questions. Your description of those previous jobs doesn't seem like it would excite many interviewers.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good.

- Warren

 

[DefaultName]

Ah, okay, I didn't think of the privacy aspect. Just making sure!

You seem to have taken a LOT of courses for a student who still has two years left to study, so that's why I asked. I think "Completed Coursework" sounds better, too.

I would expand a little more on what you did at previous jobs, if that's possible and relevant. Your goal is to get the interviewer's interest and provoke him to ask you questions. Your description of those previous jobs doesn't seem like it would excite many interviewers.

Otherwise, it looks pretty good.

- Warren

As far as writing more about my previous jobs, I tried to keep it minimal to have other parts of my resume highlighted (such as campus involvement).

I don't know how interested he would be in my PC job for a major company, it seems bland, but a good work experience.

The IT thing was done when I was 15, so I didn't do anything hardcore, just the basics.

These are all the courses I have taken so far, I just tried to highlight on the ones that might be relevant to engineering in general:

MATH 332 Calculus III Summer 2007 In-Progress
CS 240 Data Structures & Algorithms (using C++) Spring 2007 Completed
EECE 252 Microprocessors Spring 2007 Completed
EECE 260 Electrical Circuits Spring 2007 Completed
ISE 261 Probabilistic Systems I Spring 2007 Completed
CS 211 Engineering Programming (using C) Fall 2006 Completed
PHYS 132 General Physics II (Electricity & Magnetism) Fall 2006 Completed
EECE 251 Digital Logic Design Fall 2006 Completed
EECE 281 Electrical Engineering Seminar Fall 2006 Completed
MATH 371 Ordinary Differential Equations Summer 2006 Completed
PHYS 131 General Physics I (Mechanics) Spring 2006 Completed
MATH 222 Calculus II Spring 2006 Completed
WTSN 104 Technical Writing II Spring 2006 Completed
WTSN 112 Engineering Design II Spring 2006 Completed
HIST 231 Science and Technology in the Modern World Spring 2006 Completed
CHEM 111 General Chemistry I Fall 2005 Completed
MATH 221 Calculus I Fall 2005 Completed
WTSN 111 Engineering Design I Fall 2005 Completed
WTSN 103 Technical Writing I Fall 2005 Completed
ECON 160B Microeconomics Fall 2005 Completed

The selected coureswork in my resume will only be there until the summer. I will be taking out the Selected Cousework, and putting in ALL of my junior level courses (which are all EE/Comp Eng classes), in a neat and nicely ordered fashion.PS -- that long list isn't in my resume, it's just something I copied out of an excel sheet.

 

[chroot]

You took differential equations as a freshman? Wow. I can only assume that's not typical. Maybe you should try to highlight how quickly you're going through your coursework. I don't think I took Diff Eq until I was a junior.

- Warren

 

[ice109]

You took differential equations as a freshman? Wow. I can only assume that's not typical. Maybe you should try to highlight how quickly you're going through your coursework. I don't think I took Diff Eq until I was a junior.

- Warren

ehh at my school you can take it concurrently with calc 3, so yea calc 1 first semester, calc 2 second, then calc 3 and diff eq third semester.

my physics prof told me he took calc 1-3 in high school at his local community college and took diff eq his first semester . i wish i knew what was available to me when i was in high school.

 

[DefaultName]

i wish i knew what was available to me when i was in high school.

So true! I wish was actually given advice that meant something