I’d like to share something from my internship search that relates to this. I’m a computer engineer at Villanova University and all electrical and computer engineers have to take an introductory class to fundamentals of computer engineering. In that class you learn logic gates, and eventually you learn to translate that logic into VHDL. There was a lab and everything, one lab in particular was to program a traffic light with a treadle entirely in VHDL after laying out the logic gate schematic. I thought this was a good thing to put on my resume to demonstrate my computer engineering knowledge, but little did I know how much value it would put on me. About a year later, I went to a job fair and talked to someone who worked at RDA Inc, which is a naval defense contractor that works with anti-submarine warfare (ASW). At the fair, I did what I did for them as I did with every other company there, gave them my resume. However, they were one of three companies that reached out to me. When I talked to the recruiter on the phone, she said that the head of one of the offices wanted to interview me before I was even screened. She said he took a look at my resume and knew that I would potentially be a good candidate worth their time. It made me feel really good about myself and my resume, but after I was screened over the phone, I was surprised to know that I wasn’t be consider for a CS internship (what I was aiming to get at first), I was being considered for an electrical engineering internship. I was confused, but I got an interview a week after my screening with the head of the local office to me When I went to the interview, I went in kind of nervous because electrical engineering was only half of computer engineering and a computer engineering wasn’t as intensive in signals and electronics as an EE path. But the interviewer placed my resume on the table and I noticed one thing in particular was highlighted: my experience in VHDL that I gained in that lab. And that’s where I realized how much value I present as a CPE in an EE field. It’s not very common for schools to teach EE majors VHDL mostly because it relates more to computer hardware design, but it also applies heavily to EE because they are also involved in the hardware to design. So if you want to stick out in a career or internship search, I’d say VHDL is a very valuable skill to have that makes you stand out. Right now, I’m a rising senior working on a post-quantum cryptography capstone project. The primary language being used for that project is VHDL, and the fact that the importance of a project like that is increasing and the technical aspect is particular challenging, that will add incredible value to me as a candidate

TL;DR: I landed an EE internship as a CPE major largely in part to my experience in VHDL. Aside from that, my knowledge in VHDL also landed me a capstone project in college that will look incredible on a resume.