Disclaimer: The advice I’m about to offer is drawn from my own experiences, please take with a grain of salt and do what works for you! Please also keep in mind this is from the viewpoint of an Engineering Physics/Systems Engineering student who is looking for a job in engineering.

Lately I feel like my LinkedIn feed is filled with reports of companies doing layoffs and people begging for work as many graduate without a job offer. How can one increase their chances at a job both before and after graduation?

• Hands-on Experience
  • Get involved with as many projects and other hands-on experiences as you can! These are where you REALLY learn practical skills, and they look amazing on your resume. Walk around to the labs on campus, find one that looks cool, and contact whoever you can. Or, join a technical club (don’t be afraid to venture outside your comfort zone/major) like Baja SAE, robotics, rocketry, etc.
• Network constantly
  • NEVER pass up an opportunity to network, even if the person/type of people don’t seem interesting now, it never hurts to know people for mentorships, later reference, etc.
  • Join clubs/societies that help with this (SWE, AIAA, IEEE, etc.)
  • Attend career fairs, talk to recruiters, ask for a business card, and then follow up and add them on LinkedIn!
  • Search on LinkedIn for people in interesting jobs/teams/companies that you like (bonus points if they are alumni), and then message them. “Hey! I saw that you work on __; I am also an ERAU alum and really interested in that type of work. How do you like your team? What type of components do you work on?”, etc.
• Resume Work
  • Keep your resume up to date. I like having one big ongoing resume that I add to, and then trimming it down for specific applications.
  • Career Services is great, but also have people in industry look at it. Here is where you networking comes in! Find people you know in the field or even former classmates/colleagues that are now in industry that can look at your resume. They will know the most up to date things that their company and other companies are looking for in a practical resume
• Applications
  • Apply, and keep applying. Sometimes, companies will reject you simply because they didn’t have the budget for that specific application or even because no one saw your resume when they were circulated around the company. Don’t lose hope! Apply again and to a bunch of different job titles; it’s worth it!