Well my first year is done at school at its now time for me to get a job for this summer. I am majoring in Mechanical Engineering and I have completed a bit over 100 credit hours (quarters) about half are from AP tests. I think I did fairly well earning a 3.80 GPA with a slightly higher major GPA. I looked up engineering firms around where I live in the phone book and I plan to go around and drop of a cover letter and a resume to the receptionist/secretary. This means that I need three things: A cover letter, a resume, and something to say so that I don’t sound like a complete dipshit.
I have a resume so that is not a problem.
As far as the cover letter goes I plan on saying something along the lines of “hey I am home for the summer I go back to school on X date and boy do I fucking rock.” To be more specific in the “boy I fucking rock” part I am not sure on how much or what I should say. I want to say that I am interested in doing pretty much anything related to engineering and hopefully my chosen field. The problem is that I know jackshit about these companies beyond the fact that they are listed under engineering in the phonebook. I know that I want to say something along the lines of I’ll call you on X day but I am not sure how long I should give the companies before I contact them. Any advice would be appreciated
I am pretty much at a loss to what I want to say when I go into the place. Beyond introducing myself and saying that I am looking for a summer job I don’t know what to say. Again any advice would be great
If I knew what to put in a cover letter I’d probably have a better resume.
I’d suggest calling the businesses and getting a name of someone to whom to address your letter. “Dear Sir or Madam” is really bad. If they won’t give you a name, what do people think about “Greetings”?
Between those three things, the resume counts for about 90% of your grade. This is always true, but especially true among entry-level positions, where every resume pretty much looks the same, and it’s critical to rise above the other fledgelings. If your resume is already great, that’s wonderful. If it’s not, I’d suggest you seek out advice (here or elsewhere) on it first.
Now, back at your actual question:
Do some research before you call the company.
Figure out what they build.
If you know the job title in advance, figure out what that sort of position does.
Plan on interviewing at double the number of places you’re currently planning on. Do the lousy ones first, and ask lots of questions about what the job does, and what the companies do. Remember what you learn in that for the next interviews.
Don’t start by talking about you or summer or fresh-out-of-school; talk about the company (see research, above). Say “I’ve heard alot about Acme corp, and I’m very interested in talking to you about potential roles there.”
Well, it may be too late already. When I’ve hired interns for the summer, it’s been closed out by April. But if it is a local place, you may get lucky.
Having a resume is fine, but after one year of college it won’t mean too much. You haven’t really learned anything about engineering yet, but you know that and they know that, so the purpose of the job, for them, is to snag you as someone they’ll want to hire. So, why are you someone they want to hire? Have you done anything special? Are you excited about the stuff they do? Do you have some skills from college, like web design maybe, that they may not have?
The only way of finding this out is to call someone and ask. Can you dig up any professional connections to engineers working in this company? Know someone who knows someone in the company? If so, pick up the phone, call him or her, and say you are a student really interested in what they do, and ask for advice. This is not a scam, you’ll get some good advice. If you’ve made a connection, then you can ask about jobs, or even if he knows someone who is looking for someone.
Don’t worry about bothering him or her - most people love to give advice and talk about their work, and, I assure you, no one does this!
you want cold calling advice. Be short and sweet. Damn it, I’m busy. If you can get through to me on the phone and catch me at my desk, don’t waste my time with long drawn out stuff. It doesn’t help with me at least.
“Hi, I’m a 2nd year engineering major looking for advice and/or a summer job. Is this a good time or is there someone else I can talk to.” [Voyager had a good suggestion]
Then have a 2 minute “elevator” pitch, but christ don’t rabbit on about your google results for 5 minutes.
Then if there are questions or interest, you can go deeper.
again, this is my 2 cents, but start with a 10 second pitch so the other end of the phone knows what’s up. Get the go ahead to explain a little bit, then explain a little bit but keep it pretty short. Then if you get questions you can go further.
Remember to ask if it’s okay to talk now for 5 minutes or when should I call back. Also are you the right person or should I talk to someone else and what’s their number.
Combine the give me some professional advice with your internship hunt ala Voyager.