Getting an Internship and Where to go From There

by Josh Strelow ’19

During the summer after my second class year I was fortunate enough to get a 3-month internship with the company International Paper. I’ll be honest, as an electrical engineering student I was not really interested in working for a company who made paper and paper products, at least not at first. A large part of how I got the internship in the first place is because my father has worked for the company for quite a few years. He heard they were looking for electrical engineers so he set up a phone interview for me and had them look at my resume. As I had more and more contact with the company, I realized that I had a good chance at getting an internship with them. Eventually, I had an interview at their site in Franklin, VA with one of their electrical engineers and I started to see the potential for working there. During my interview, the electrical engineer I was with explained that everything mechanical must run on electricity. I began to understand that when looking for internships I shouldn’t limit my search to only opportunities that I initial think are attractive. Any experience is good experience and chances are you can use your major in almost any internship in some way.

After getting an offer for an internship, accepting, and starting my internship, I was placed in the electrical reliability department. Due to only being an intern, what I started off working on wasn’t very close to electrical engineering, but as the internship went on I began to work on much more interesting projects like one involving electrical power distribution for the entire site. After just about three months of hard work and good pay, I presented a project I worked on throughout my internship that could turn a profit of about 1.5 million dollars for the company after about three years. All the while making a whole new group of good friends.

During the last week of my internship, I was extended a verbal offer for a job upon my graduation in May 2019. A couple weeks later, I received a written offer for a job in the mail. If I was to accept the job I would go back to the same department and continue some of the projects I worked on during the summer. Not only would I be going back to work with the friends I made, but I would be starting off at $72,000 a year and receive a sign-on bonus of $7000. So accepting this offer was a pretty easy choice to make with the addition of pay advancements every year.

Looking back at my experience I can think of a few things to remember when looking for internships and jobs upon graduation.

• Keep an open mind and look at every possible option when searching for internships.
• Be polite and courteous when speaking to any potential employer, even if you don’t get the job or internship they may recommend you to other employers.
• Put a real effort into whatever job you are doing, especially if you’re getting paid for it, your boss/supervisor will notice.
• Always look for opportunities, you never know what may come up.
• If you are extended an offer for an internship or job, don’t immediately accept it but don’t let it slide. Its better safe than sorry but you should it may not be the only offer to come.
• Most importantly, have a good attitude. Employers will pick up on it and people you work with will enjoy working with you.