Seminar on

Summer Internships and Coopsfor

Engineering and ICS Students

Galen SasakiSeptember 20, 2011

POST 127Organized in part with IEEE

Refreshments by College of Engineering and IEEE1

Agenda• Introduction• Career Development and Student

Employment• Student Panel

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What is an Internship/Coop?

• An internship is an opportunity to relate a career related experience into an undergraduate education by participating in planned, supervised work

• A cooperative education is a structured method of combining classroom-based education with practical work

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Who Offers Them?

• Companies– Local: e.g., Referentia, Lockkheed-Martin, Spirent,

HECO, in CEE there are many– Mainland: e.g., Raytheon, Advanced Micro Devices,

Cisco• Government– Local Military bases: e.g., Pearl Harbor, Army Corp of

Engineers, SPAWAR– Mainland: e.g., CIA and NASA– State and City and County

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What is an Internship/Coop?• Engineering internships are similar to entry

level engineering positions but often with less requirements– Less responsibilities – tasks are not as critical to

the employer– Less required skills– Less pay and benefits– Short duration – Examples: summer or six months– Part-time or full-time

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The Benefits• Experience at the engineering work place• Apply what you learned in school– More motivation for your course work, which

becomes more interesting– Focus on what senior electives to take

• Looks good on the resume• Exposure to professional culture• Possibly work in a different part of the country• Help build a network of people for mentoring,

career advice, and expertise

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The Issues• No negative issues except– If you do a coop during the regular academic year,

you may be a little out of synch with your courses – Can avoid this issue by being careful in planning

your future course work

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How Do You Find Them• On-Campus Career Placement

– College of Engineering Career Fair• Every mid-October and mid-February• Next one October 14 Holmes Hall

– Company Employment Information Sessions– Career Development & Student Employment

• Queen Liliuokalani Student Services Center– Talk to recruiters: even if they are not specifically looking for

interns, they may interview you if they have open interview time slots

• Referrals– Important to network

• Timing is important to find a job– Social networking workshop by CDSE: October 4– Networking with fellow students

• Be a good lab and project partner• Student organizations: e.g., ASCE, ASME, IEEE, ACM, SWE

– Faculty as a resource8

How Do You Find Them• Internet– All companies have an Internet web site and many

have summer intern and coop programs– Social networking sites for professionals.

Examples:• www.techhui.com• www.techjobshawaii.org• www.linkedin.com

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Example Internet SitesCisco Summer Intern HardwareCisco Summer Intern Software

Juniper

Broadcom – need to set up an account with them

IBM

CIA: Applications for Summer 2012 employment will be accepted until 15 October 2011. Applications for winter, spring, and fall employment should be sent nine to twelve months before the desired start date.

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NASANational Security Agency (NSA)

Intel – need to set up an account with them

Google

CDSE also has coop arrangementswith NSA and NSA

Example Cisco Software I Intern Job Description

SKILLS REQUIREDThe ideal candidate should possess the following attributes:-Self motivated and highly ambitious-Creative problem solving skills and excellent troubleshooting/debugging skills-Strong written and verbal communication-Excellent teamwork and people skills-Ability to manage multiple tasks and work towards long-term goals-Flexibility and openness to change

Depending on the role, the following may be required:

-Programming experience (C, C++, Java), script languages (Perl, Python), familiarity with Linux/Unix and web application development (HTML, AJAX, JSON, etc)-Understanding of networking fundamentals and protocols.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND-Pursuing a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or related major. -3.0 GPA or higher is required

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Increasing Your Chances of Success• Prepare a good resume– Formatting is important – concise and clear– Important information at the top– Keep it to one page (if possible)– Make it perfect – it is your first (maybe last)

impression on a recruiter• No spelling or grammatical mistakes• Everything lined up perfectly• No blemishes

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Increasing Your Chances of Success• Resume Content is Critical (Of Course)– Higher the GPA the better– Good skill set– Important professional experience• Professional Internships• Significant projects• In-class projects good too if they highlight important

skills

– Good list of references– Extra-curricular: service and hobbies

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Prepare for Interviews• Become familiar with companies who hire interns• Know their products• What skills are they looking for• Anticipate questions and be prepared/study for them• Show enthusiasm– This should not be a problem if you are interviewing for

the right company• Dress properly for the interview – show respect to the

interviewer and your potential employer• Resources for interviewing and resume building– Internet– Professional Societies: ASCE, ASME, ACM and IEEE

• All this requires studying14

Example Found on the Internet: 25 Engineering Interview Questions

1. Tell me about the most challenging engineering project that you have been involved with during past year.

2. Describe the most significant written technical report or presentation that you had to complete.

3. In your last engineering position, what were some of the things that you spent the most time on, and how much time did you spend on each?

4. What do you enjoy most/least about engineering?

5. What new engineering specialty skills have you developed during the past year? and so onEtc 15

Opportunities Off-Island• More challenging • Be prepared to interview by telephone or

teleconferencing (Skype)– Good idea to have a cell phone and access to skype

• May require you move to your job – e.g., Silicon Valley, Seattle, Austin, Phoenix, Oregon, Idaho, Maui– Housing– Car rental and lease: Be familiar with your car insurance

coverage. Need a credit card– Companies/organizations usually offer some help but vary

in degree– Welcome to the real world!

• Advantage – you’ll learn a lot

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Follow Up

• Follow up on interviews– Thank the recruiter– Immediately after the interview, think about how

you could improve– If you didn’t land the job, you could ask the

recruiter about any advice he/she could give

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Alternatives• Research projects – UH Manoa faculty have

research activities• Student projects (part of curriculum)• Significant projects of your own interest– Examples: Playing with System Development Kits,

Engineers without Borders (service projects), Android Apps, etc

– Internet has project ideas– Faculty have ideas– If possible, have the project improve your skill set

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What Do You Get From This Process?(Whether you find an internship or not)• Take the employers point of view• Get a head start– Writing a resume– Sign up for projects and complete them– Develop good skills set– Develop good time management– Be a good team player– Learn to effectively communicate and sell yourself– Become knowledgeable about who hires– and so on– Develop to be a good engineer or computer scientist

• The earlier you start the better!!!19

CDSE

• Naomi Arincorayan• Brent Fujinaka• Slides are available on this web site– Also available is the flyer about the networking

session on Oct. 4

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Student Panel

• Tiffany Au: Pearl Harbor Shipyard• Harley Cumming: Advanced Micro Devices• Kale Nakata: Kauai Island Utility Co-op• Aditya Singh: Alcatel-Lucent and Bombadier• Todd Yamakawa: Raytheon• Christopher Yoshizaki: Referentia and

currently at Spirent• Wendy Yuen: HECO and currently at HECO

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Questions 1

• What kinds of internships and coops did you do?

• How did you find your job?• What was your experience?– How was the work environment?– If you needed to relocate, how was the

travel/move and how did you find a place to live?– How did you deal with any expenses?

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Questions 2

• Did your experience affect your outlook as a student?

• Did your classes in school help in your job?• Did your experience help with your decision

on a career path after graduation?

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Questions 3

• What are your top three DOs as an intern/coop?

• What are your top three DONTs as an intern/coop?

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Questions 4

• Any final comments or thoughts?• Any questions from the audience?

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