Engineering and Technology
What's the timeline like for getting a full-time job?
Timeline 1: GENERALLY SPEAKING
Often, engineering and technology students begin their job search during the fall of the senior year of college. Very generally speaking, Companies who have the capabilities to hire large numbers of new graduates will usually begin screening resumes in September and October, often granting interviews between October and January to fill full-time positions in the upcoming year. When we say "large comapnies", we mean those that have a defined recruitment process (The most common ones that come to Duke can be found on the Career Fair page-- they tend to be more recognizable names such as Microsoft, Eaton, Skanska, Google, Cisco and Medtronic to name a few). A good way to see if a company is engaged in such a recruitment schedule is to check out your eRecruiting page and search for companies by name and checking their "interview schedules" and "job openings".
Timeline 2: COMPANY-UNIQUE
Now, having said that, this structured timeline is not applicable to all companies, especially those who regional and local , as well as those generally smaller in size or more specialized in their services/products. So with these types of companies, hiring for full-time positions can be done anytime from the beginning of the school year all the way into summer. The best way to tackle the hiring process with companies that don't fall under the above mentioned recruitment window is to begin to network at the beginning of the school year so as to keep yourself in the company's radar so when a hiring opportunity arises-- say in May 2009, right before you graduate, you will have already established a relationship with the company so getting your "foot in the door" will be easier and more efficient.
What's the timeline like for getting an internship?
Timeline Overview:
With internships, the general trend is that students begin to look for internships as sophomores and juniors, hoping to land something for the summer that will pump-up their resume to expand their career repertoire for whatever that "next step" is after graduation (be it getting a full-time job, going to graduate school, working abroad, etc). However, in recent years, there has been a growing trend for First-Year students to begin searching for internships-- needless to say, internships are great and there are certainly various types of internships to fit your needs.
Often, engineering and technology students begin their internship search a little before winter break. Very generally speaking, Companies who have the capabilities to hire large numbers of students will usually begin screening resumes in December and January, often granting interviews between January and March to fill full-time positions in the summer. When we say "large comapnies", we mean those that have a defined recruitment process (The most common ones that come to Duke can be found on the Career Fair page-- they tend to be more recognizable names such as Microsoft, Eaton, Skanska, Google, Cisco and Medtronic to name a few). A good way to see if a company is engaged in such a recruitment schedule is to check out your eRecruiting page and search for companies by name and checking their "interview schedules" and "job openings".
*Note however, in the recent few years, there has been a noticeable trend that certain companies will actually begin their internship recruitment process around the same time as their full-time hire recruitment process to secure candidates for both earlier. What does this mean for you? If you are seriously looking to land an internship, it may not be a bad idea to check out the Career Fair in the Fall, as well as the one in the Spring to make yourself aware of all that is happening with internship recruitment for the company you want to work for.
A sample of some companies that come to recruit Duke students:
A sample of employers who recruit engineers, physical science, and technology range from engineering firms, technology companies, and consulting organizations. Some of the companies you will find at the career fair, TechConnect, on-campus recruiting, information sessions, and other events include the following (this is not an exhaustive list):
Appian
Accenture
Advanced Bionics BD
Bovis Lend Lease
Bloomberg CDM
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Cisco
Clark Construction
Cree
General Motors
Google
Guidant Corp.
Harris Corp.
IBM
Infosys Technologies Ltd
Lexmark
Lutron Electronics
Medtronic
Microsoft
NASA
Norfolk Southern
Northrop Grumman
Opsware
Parsons
Qualcomm
Redhat
Skanska
St. Jude Medical Center
Styker Corp.
UBS
To find a complete list of the companies that recruit at Duke, check out our eRecruiting website-- better yet, come in for an appointment and talk to a career advisor about what your interests are so we can more expediently identify companies of interest for you! Scroll to the bottom to see how to make an appointment.
Major events you should know about -whether applying to full-time or internships:
August -Senior Kickoff, an event that gears up seniors for the job search process!
September -Employers begin to come to campus for information sessions (read: very good networking opportunities and often times, delicious food and lots of great information distributed!)
September -TechConnect, an event held by Pratt School of Engineering, Duke's Computer Science department and the Career Center to bring students and employers together, specifically for engineering and technology fields! A DEFINITE MUST!
September -Career Fair in the Bryan Center! Multiple levels! More than 100 companies present!
September -Mock interviews being conducted to help you prep for your interviews!
BELOW ARE A FEW SNEAK-PEAKS
into a day in the life of 2 Dukies in a full-time and internship roles:
A day in the life of a full-time employee:
Program Manager at Microsoft (Feature PM, Release Manager, Community PM)
Clustering and High Availability team, Windows Server
Symon Perriman
Trinity ‘07
BS: Computer Science, Economics. Certificate: Film, Video, Digital Studies
8 to 10am – Arrive at work, catch up on email from overseas and see what happened overnight. See if our most recent collection of code (our “build”) compiled successfully, and if it didn’t, figure out why and inform the appropriate people
10am – Team meeting to discuss the status of our project and review bugs
11am – Meeting or conference call with internal partners, customers or venders, learn about how they use our product and how we could improve it
12pm – Lunch with the team, a mentor, a fellow employee visiting from a branch office or a customer
1pm – Meeting with senior management of Windows Server to discuss the status of our project and the larger Windows Server project release
2pm – Work on designing new features and enhancing existing features with developers and testers on my team and amongst other teams
5pm – Play Frisbee or football in one of the Microsoft sport leagues or go to the gym or driving range
7pm – Go home and have dinner, relax with the TV or Xbox
9pm – Catch up on email and any random tasks, check our overnight build has been started
Day in the life of an intern:
Of a Software Development Engineer in Test
Intern at Microsoft
10am – Get into the office and check and respond to emails.
10:30am – Regress and close product bugs that are reported as “fixed” by developers.
11:30 am – Lunch in cafeteria of office or local restaurant.
12:30pm – Meeting with manager to discuss current project status and any issues.
1pm – Work independently on project to write test code for testing a specific feature of the product.
3pm – Meet with developer and Program Manager of the feature to discuss design/implementation issues.
3:30pm – Meet with other interns on the team to get 2 for 1 pastries in the cafeteria.
4pm – Continue working independently on writing test code.
7pm – Write bug reports for the bugs found during the day.
8pm – Leave the office.
Web Resources
General: Web resources spanning across multiple disciplines
- Engineering Job Site
- American Council of Engineering Companies
Target organizations nationwide by region, name, or organization’s function in the field of engineering. - Engineering Central
- Engineering Jobs
- Engineering News-Record Top Ranked Firms
- Graduating Engineer & Computer Careers Online
- Job-Hunt.org
A super list of the Web's Best Job Search Resources - Job Search for Engineers
Job postings and job search information for a variety of engineering fields. - NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates
- "Planning a Career in Biomedical Engineering"
Biomedical Engineering Society, 1999 - Progressive Engineer
- Sloan Career Cornerstone Center
A non-profit resource center for those exploring career paths in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Biomedical Engineering
- Bio-Link
- Biomedical Engineering Society
- Bioview
Job listings for the growing pharmaceutical, biotechnology and life science fields. - The Whitaker Foundation:
BME @ a Glance
Chemistry
- American Chemical Society Job Bank
Cen-chemjobs.org is provided by the American Chemical Society. It includes the classifieds from Chemical Engineering News, and has a career center, advanced career tools, etc. - American Chemical Society
- Chemjobs.net
Chemistry job board for a world wide search. - Science Careers
The comprehensive recruitment site of the journal Science, offering job listings, career advice, and more. All services on ScienceCareers.org are available free of charge to job seekers.
Civil Engineering
- American Academy of Environmental Engineers
- American Society of Civil Engineers Career Development
- CEE Undergraduate Professional Development
Computer Science and Information Technology
- Association for Computing Machinery ACM Job Center Job board, career exploration information, a diversity section, tips on how to enroll in continuing education, and more.
- Careermarketplace.com Search for jobs in a number of IT-related areas such as systems analyst, project manager, software developer, and more.
- Computer Jobs This site offers computer jobs in many areas from networking to technical sales to database systems.
- Computing Research Openings for Computer Scientists, Computer Engineers, and Computer Researchers.
- Dice Search thousands of job openings, and access additional web resources to support your search.
- ITCareers
- Sciencejobs
- Softwarejobs.com Computer, technology jobs in the areas of infrastructure, coding and database management & development are featured. Career tips, tools & resources are also available.
- Tech-Centric.net
Electrical Engineering
- Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
- IEEE Question & Answer page: Archives
- IEEE’s Virtual Museum
Math
- American Mathematical Society
This section of the AMS website includes employment and career info - also for non academic positions. - Be an Actuary
- Careers and Employment Resources for Students in Mathematics
- Careers in Statistics
- SIAM
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics professional opportunity postings.
Mechanical
Physics
International Students
International opportunities, either for Americans working abroad, or for international students in the United States, can be found here.
Print Resources
Available in the Career Center Resource Room, 106 Page Building. The following is a sample of rseources available, not a comprehensive list.
Books
- Careers for Chemists by Fred Owens by Roger Uhler & Corinne A. Marasco 1997
- Computer Science Resumes and Job-Finding Guide by Phil Bartlett 2005
- Great Jobs for Computer Science Majors by Jan Goldberg 2003
- Great Jobs for Engineering Majors by Geraldine Garner 2002
- Guide to Nontraditional Careers in Science by Karen Yound Kreeger 1998
- Job Opportunities in Engineering & Computer Science by Petersons 1999
- Opportunities in Engineering Careers by Nicholas Basta 2003
- Real-Resumes for Engineering Jobs by Anne McKinney 2004
- Resumes for Engineering Careers (includes sample cover letters) 3rd Edition by The Editors of McGraw-Hill 2006
- Resumes for High-Tech Careers (with sample cover letters) by The Editors of VGM Career Horizons 1998
Magazines
- job postings: Full & Part-time Opportunities for University and College Students
- Minority Engineer: The Career Magazine for Entry-Level and Professional Engineers
- The Black Collegian: The Career & Self-Development Magazine for African-American Students
- USBE Information Technology-US Black Engineer
- Woman Engineer: The Career Magazine for Entry-Level and Professional Women
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Engineering and Technology advisor at the Career Center! To make an appointment: call 919 660 1050, appointments are made at least 24 hours in advance.
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