The time of graduation is rapidly approaching, so this summer will be my last summer in which to find an internship that could lead to employment. I first visited the VCU's Engineering and Business Career Center and was highly disappointed to discover that the title of that office is somewhat of a misnomer. In fact, the Career Services Office merely helps you with your resume and then directs you to a website. The school is nice enough to provide a password for what would otherwise be a pay-service site. I'm glad I did not pay for that garbage because half the internship links are filled, over, dead or misidentified as engineering.
The next avenue I ventured down was to contact professors for advice. Just to be clear, professors do research and have very little idea of how to find an actual job. After that fruitless endeavor, I started asking friends and family. This seems to have been the best option.
The Atlanta family has found several interesting leads for me, my dad has sent an email to my brother's godfather (an engineer in Salt Lake City and dad's best friend since childhood), and I could always go back to NASA (a friend here in Williamsburg brought the LARSS program to my attention last year.)
Some may wonder, "why not just go back to NASA?" The answer is I'm not really sure what NASA is all about anymore. I'm not sure people really want NASA. I direct you to this news story. At any rate, the free market folks are very excited at the prospect of letting private companies take the lead on manned space-flight; however, I would suggest that if there was immediate revenue in such a venture, we would already have McDonald's on the moon. Private companies already do all the engineering, so I would have to go get a job with Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman anyway. Of course, with the Constellation program cut, and no other plan for returning the US to space, the private firms won't be working on this stuff either.
So, there you have it. I'm looking anywhere and everywhere for internships. Ford, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, and friends and family all have my resume. Hopefully I'll find something really great this summer.
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