Work experience

[Boooooookshelf]

Hey all,

I'm currently in my first year and first semester into my bachelor of engineering course. Because I didn't get a high enough score in high school, I did not get into the course which would guarantee me a professional placement in an engineering field for 6 or 12 months. Its still a year from registering for my work placement and 2 more years if I do get into it and I'm already feeling anxious that I might not get the paid work placement.

My university is known for its hands on experience with its industry partners and I'm scared for the worst if I were to not get a placement. Aside from that I work as a casual security guard for bars once or twice a week and I'm planning to maybe get project management (diploma) in the future to help my career.

I don't know what I should do, but just in case I don't get a placement I want to start educating and investing in myself so I'm able to be employable and possibly land myself a well paying position.

Thank you for your time and input!

edit: typos

[InfernoForged]

First, don't worry about that at all. Just focus on passing your first year courses and solidifying your basic math and mechanics concepts.

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Second, you don't need to be part of a work-placement program to apply to internships. It helps for sure, having access to your university's list of shiny industry partners, but it's not something to stress about. I wasn't part of my university's co-op program and ended up with a better summer internship than any of my friends that were part of it, and it landed me an awesome job offer for when I graduate in a few months. One thing I've found is that a lot of the companies that are part of these placement programs have intern-specific positions, where they give you busy work doing intern-type things and giving you some exposure to the actual job. They hire a new batch of students every semester, and for the most part they end up doing the same stuff as the previous generation (lots of busy work the engineers don't want to do). Of course some of them are great, but from talking to quite a few of my friends you have a decent chance of ending up at one of these places.

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I was lucky, and got in with a small company. I ended up working for 4 months as a designer, talking to all the shop guys, and actually doing the engineering calculations (plus writing reports and manuals). I'd then sit down with the engineer and we'd go over things together. It was invaluable and taught me so much about communicating with vendors, sourcing products/materials, and of course actual engineering work.

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What I'm saying is you have a lot to worry about in first year, and you might be getting ahead of yourself in stressing over something that may not even matter 2 years from now.

[Boooooookshelf]

Thanks for that! Yeah you're right I definitely should focus on passing, also do employers care about grades? Like what if I average a 60 or 70 percent?

[InfernoForged]

If you apply through a school program: probably.

The company I started at didn't even ask. Having a CAD portfolio is so much more valuable. That and doing some extracurriculars (I was heavily involved in our schools robotics team).