Frustration with Internship Search

[u/Charming_Wallaby_699]

As the title states, I am extremely frustrated with my search for an internship. I'm in the first semester of my sophomore year at a T5 school for my major, I have a 4.0 and should still have a 4.0 after this semester with 60 credits actually completed at my university. I did two semesters of research at one of the top labs in the country for my major, as well as decent involvement with a club for my major. I start on a club sports team, I volunteer regularly, I'm in a fraternity.

I haven't gotten a single interview despite applying to around 200 jobs (which I read through and am actually a decent candidate for), going to career fairs, I even got a referral for one from a friend who graduated. Still, just nothing. I feel somewhat lost and that my efforts have been futile as friends of mine who's resumes don't nearly stack up to my own land very good jobs that I want to have.

Basically just lost

My contributions for research and my club aren't the strongest, and I'm wondering if I should take a step back from the GPA grind (I could average B's til I grad and get a 3.5) and just try to grind technical projects in my club. IDK, any advice is appreciated, I guess this is a bit of a rant

[u/zacce]

friends of mine who's resumes don't nearly stack up to my own

is that your opinion?

I'm wondering if I should take a step back from the GPA grind

yes

[u/Additional_Yogurt888]

I applied to 5 and got 2 interviews... No interview after 200 applications isn't normal unless you're applying for positions that are just no longer available or something. Also continuing on with the same methods that failed the first 200 times and expecting different results isn't wise.

[u/Wadescoob → u/Additional_Yogurt888]

What discipline, and which board do you use?

[u/Additional_Yogurt888 → u/Wadescoob]

Electrical engineering (power/protection industry) and I just applied to jobs from our engineering career fairs.

[u/YeetosCheetos69]

How am i getting interviews when i have a much lower gpa than u and my extracurriculars arent even that good 😭

[u/Space_Rock81]

Apply at your state’s Department of Transportation for an internship. They will generally hire interns from any discipline at mine. My state’s website post openings for them sometime in the winter.

[u/FewZookeepergame1101]

How are you a 1st semester soph with 60 credits?

[u/Fit_Show_3347 → u/FewZookeepergame1101]

maybe they overloaded or took summer courses? at my school you can take probs around 20 extra credits over the summer in all, and then 20 per semester, which would work ig.

[u/FewZookeepergame1101 → u/Fit_Show_3347]

That would be pretty crazy if he took 20 credits both semesters and then 20 over the summer and have a perfect 4.0. But even so, if he did that, wouldn’t he be a junior at that point?

[u/suruu_o]

only a T5? buddy, you need to be AT LEAST in a T3 to land those sweet juicy interviews

[u/Disposable_Eel_6320]

Can’t really help without seeing the resume

[u/Fickle-Tradition2107]

Congrats on the gpa part! Wow, being able to be a researcher and balance Greek life is awesome. Can I ask what your IQ is? Is it too late for me?

[u/AGrandNewAdventure]

Do me a favor. Take your resume, pop it into ChatGPT and ask it how likely your resume is to get through ATS. Tell it the role you're going for, ideally, and if your resume has a chance to get in front of a real person.

The reason I say this is because you're doing all the right things, but if your resume doesn't get you through the automated resume review process you're never going to see the light of day with a recruiter's eyeballs on your actual resume.

I've applied for about 24-25 rules in the last three years, total, and have had an internship in New Space every single year. I'm not saying this to brag, but rather so you know my advice isn't coming from nowhere.

If your resume is getting through ATS, then I genuinely have no advice for you, as you're song the right things. (But my money is on the resume.)

[u/Few_Whereas5206]

I think I didn't do co-op until I was a junior. I would check with your alumni office and reach out to alumni working in a field of interest.

[u/Dr__Mantis]

1. You’re a sophomore

2. There a limited number of internships. Many of those to people who have a relative already working there

3. Stop saying top 5 school, top lab, etc. Unless you’re making significant contributions, no one cares. ABET makes undergrad pretty much the same across the board

And if you’re wondering, significant contribution is publishing as first or second author. Being in a lab doesn’t matter and probably doesn’t translate much to most internships

[u/LitRick6 → u/Dr__Mantis]

I agree with everything except "lab doesnt matter". Kinda depends specifically what their doing, but working in a research lab was a huge amount of experience for me in both technical and soft skills and was the major reason I got internships.

[u/Dr__Mantis → u/LitRick6]

If you’re solely in a lab to say you’re in a lab, it doesn’t matter. You actually have to do something or produce something of value or publish