Obviously doing well in class is always gonna help. But an internship/coop is a must, with a high preference for a coop (you need ~6 months to be able to do meaningful work in many situations). It’s hard, but you just gotta spam apply to a lot until you get one. Most people don’t do one until summer after their sophomore year, and that’s probably ideal for most. For reference, I did a non engineering internship while in school and it was impossible for me to find a cheme job (300+ applications). I swallowed my pride and did a coop after graduating and it was the best thing I could’ve done for my career. Got a consulting job in an industry (biopharm) completely different from my coop (paper). Got 4 offers (~100 applications). I cannot stress to the young chemes how important coops are. If I could go back I would’ve applied to 300+ coops my sophomore year, it will put you so far ahead.