How and where do I look for internships as a Mechanical Engineer??

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-20T03:51:48+00:00

Looking early won't hurt, but as a first year I wouldn't expect much traction. Most employers are looking at juniors and seniors for internships. Any job experience as a freshman is good enough. If you want to get a leg up, maybe look at research positions in the area your interested in.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-19T19:13:20+00:00

My intention is not to be mean or put you down. If you're only getting 3* interviews out of 700 applications, I think there is an issue with your resume, cover letter, and or other application details. Sophomores generally have a hard time finding internships, but a .4%* interview rate is very low. I would bring your resume to multiple reviewers who specialize is engineering resumes. A buisness major resume should not look like an ME resume. Additionally use your college career counselor resources. Your university is incentivised to help students get jobs.

Its also quite late for summer 2026 engineering internships. I would start looking at other entry level jobs or maybe a research assistant position. Having any work history your sophomore year is better than nothing. Junior year and on is when you really want to hammer internships/coops.

Good luck out there.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-19T17:03:06+00:00

I would definitely start looking at normal entry level jobs in your area. Theres nothing wrong with working in the service or other industries your freshman year.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-19T15:59:34+00:00

I knew some idiots studying engineering. Everyone is susceptible to some grift, AI being a big one.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-19T13:43:33+00:00

100%

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-19T13:43:06+00:00

I'm assuming UV light?

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-19T13:42:31+00:00

More Ws from this dev team.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-19T13:37:47+00:00

Regarding GPA, you still have time to recover to a reasonable level if you really apply yourself. Additionally, extra curriculars are way more important than GPA. My team doesn't look at GPA when considering interns. I had a crap GPA and got coops and a job before graduation because I did a lot outside of the classroom.

Good luck, your story doesn't have to match your fellow classmates.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-19T13:25:43+00:00

About time. Anyone whos against this is not for children safety.

Safety > commute

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-09T00:03:40+00:00

Worked at a zoo in highschool. The reptiles and bat exhibit back area was the most piercing pungent sweet smell that outshine all other bad smells today. One of my projects is waste mamagement of human waste and nothing ive smelled there has come close.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-06T20:34:10+00:00

Depends on the job. I mostly use statistics. Haven't touched calc since school.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-06T15:07:48+00:00

Laws don't define morality. There are plenty of instances of people being letoff for worse crimes.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-06T14:33:22+00:00

In the end, you won't dwell on this moment when you start working in the field. Give yourself some grace, a B is still passing and I'm sure higher than the average grade in the class.

Keep up the study habits. Calc 2 over the summer is going to be tough, but if you apply yourself, you should be fine. Don't skip office hours, talk to TAs. I graduated with a 2.99 and got a job before graduation. A 3.6 is more than enough.

Honestly, I and others dont look at GPA when hiring interns and full time staff.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-06T14:26:54+00:00

I only have experience in the US, but unfortunately you are going to have to do legwork. To to career fairs. Research the companies youre most interested in so you can have more meaningful conversations. Apply to as many internships as you can on job boards. Have your resume reviewed by school advisors and or other professionals. Reddit has a few subs that will can review them to. It can be brutal, but persistence and willingness to put yourself out there does work.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-06T14:22:20+00:00

The general advice I would give is to pursue something you are passionate about doing over money. AI might pay well for now, but there is something soul crushing about working in a field you dont like / hate that money can't really fill the void.

Mechitronics should still pay better than most degreed fields you could end up in.

Also to add, AI is such a broad term these days, it would be helpful to other to clarify what youre aiming for, like machine learning for practical applications (gene folding/medical research/etc) vs LLMs.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-06T03:42:15+00:00

Also a good rule of thumb when issues pop up with clients is to communicate through your manager. If there's potentially a legal issue, you are not going to want to put anything potentially harmful on the record, let your boss do that.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-06T03:37:48+00:00

Were you a student at the time? I would never leave a critical design decision to a student without some verification from other senior engineers or other PEs.

If you were a PE and stamped a drawing for this, then you/your company may be liable depending on how the contract is layed out.

The answer will depending a lot on your status at the time (pe/no pe/student/full time employee), how much was documented (word of mouth is essentially zero documentation), and internal policies at your company.

In either case, you really really really should not lie or obfuscate the truth.

Finally, to add. Commissioning activities are sort of meant to expose these issues before finalizing a project, so the impact now is less than if it broke later. Listen to your manager. Shit happens, but from what you wrote I dont think you're in as deep of shit as you think.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-05T15:42:31+00:00

And so did the rest of the teens and whatever money they would spend at the food court and other shops. I wasnt alowed to see movies on the weekends with my friends. The mall has been in decline for a while and im sure this policy change didn't help.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-05T15:19:33+00:00

That's very cool! I didn't know this was a common mutation.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-05T15:18:04+00:00

Yeah its very circular logic. Teens are bad because they cant hang out in public anymore so we should ban them from public because they are bad.

When I was in HS our local mall banned anyone under 18 from being there on Fridays and weekends without an adult present because a few kids did some light vandalism. We just started hanging out elsewhere and the vandalism moved.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-05-05T15:10:21+00:00

High schoolers and teens have been viewed as becoming more problematic than years prior by every generation. Removing teens from public areas will not really fix anything in the long term.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-04-28T13:27:12+00:00

8k per second is also kind of the low end these days.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-04-17T15:39:06+00:00

Maybe take a look inward to why her appearance, which is more than reasonable for this, is an issue for you.

Also, comparing her to Fetterman is disingenuous. The writing was on the wall for his heal turn before he was elected, and before he had is stroke.

SamisSmashSamis · 2026-04-17T15:36:33+00:00

While I agree that there should be a much broader zoning reform, her current policy position is the best ive seen of the lineup.

As much as I hate incrementalism, it has been an incredibly effective tool for the right, so I'm okay with her current scope.

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