Internships

tywy

I'm in 3rd Elec Eng in UCD and I'm considering taking a year out to do an internship, is this a good idea or not?

I feel like I don't really know what I want to do and this might point me in the right direction, give me some experience and maybe allow me to mature a bit before final year.

How do I go about getting an internship? Do most of the big elec companies offer them?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

themole

Do you not have to do a work placement as part of your degree?
I did Elec and Comp Eng in NUIG and we had to do a work placement in 3rd year. It was usefull and does look good on a CV.

If your course does not have a workplacement, they why not try looking for an internship for the summer?

Red Alert

Most of the big elec companies are interested in people doing internships of six months, because all of the other colleges like DCU finish up the term a few months early and the internship continues into the summer.

Here in UCD we don't for whatever reason. Therefore the only internship you're likely to get is in the summer, or like I did with one of the lecturers.

Taking a year out could ring alarm bells for some companies, and most are not designed for a whole-year internship. I'm not sure i'd advise doing that.

(EE Postgrad in UCD)

gubbie

Theres a Microelectronic Research Centre Down NMRC or Tyndall as its known now) in Cork thats part of UCC. It offers internships to Chemical and Elec students

Alternatively Google also do internships: http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/static.py?page=studentseu.html&sid=intern
I think theres a sign up for it on the bottom floor of the eng block
Its the greatest place to work in the world I'd say! Tough enough to get though-7 interviews but definately worth a shot cos they don't just look for smarts but also really into the "team" spirit of things and how likely you'll get on with others and how unlikely you'll be to argue

I wish UCD did internships for elec. This means I've gotta bother going out and looking for something during my summer :mad:

godtabh

Red Alert wrote:

Here in UCD we don't for whatever reason. Therefore the only internship you're likely to get is in the summer, or like I did with one of the lecturers.

Civil Engineers do work experience as part of their course. In my office we've had 2 people over the last two summers working for 4-5 months depending on stuff.

I worked all my summers during colllege in engineering offices. Even did an internship in an american office in NY (got paid alot as I was from out of town!).

Dunno what is like for EE but for civil even if you had no work experience a job was handy to get.