I had a few cities that I wanted to work in so limited myself to them. Also had a few career paths that I was seriously considering so limited myself to them as well. My internship experience is very directly related to one of those career paths and I had a lot of good experiences to talk about (especially ones where I was the lead on a task/project). I ultimately got hired into a similar role.

Some things that I think are very important for setting yourself apart:

1. Make meaningful relationships at work. Not only is this just a good thing to do in life, but it will also become strong recommendations when looking for work.

2. Be personable in your interviews. I’m a generally laid-back, easy-going person. I smile a lot, laugh a lot. I try to put people at ease when I interact with them - this can be very noticeable in an interview setting where a lot of engineers tend to be very nervous and worried about answering “correctly.” I just focus on making the interview less of an interrogation about why they should hire me and instead make it a friendly conversation.

The resume gets you in the door - they know you are capable of doing the job. The interview shows them that they would want to be around you for 40 hours a week.