So you want to score an internship/new grad job, but the competition just overwhelms you, and for good reason! The competition is insane. Not only are you competing with other students in your program, but you are also competing with students in other universities, children of employees of a company, internal referrals, and the list goes on and on and on. In spite of that, rest assured you’ll get that coveted job.
“How?”, you ask. You need an edge, and I am here to give you that edge! But don’t you dare click off on me right now.
Pre Interview
I constantly get the same stream of questions on my LinkedIn DM’s, mainly from students and new grads. Questions like:
- What do companies look for in interns/new grads with no prior experience?
- What can I do to make myself stand out from the crowd?
- Why do companies list all these ridiculous requirements on entry-level jobs?
These folks are right. Companies list impossible requirements. You need experience to get the job, but…you need a job to get that experience. It boggles the mind and defies logic. I completely understand!
Well, I am here to tell you. Pay no attention to that.
Let me rephrase. Don’t pay all of your attention to that. Does that make sense?
So, the reason for this ridiculous list is, companies look for ideal candidates, which do not exist unless you have someone with 5–10 years of experience vying for an entry-level job, which is not the case 99% of the time.
Other times, these requirements are either poorly communicated by the manager, the manager doesn’t know what they’re looking for, or they’re written up by an HR person who doesn’t know what the manager wants. There you go, the dirty secret.
My advice? Apply anyway. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
You’ve Got an Interview! Woohoo!
Way to go! You’ve got an interview. Congratulations. Here are a few things that companies are really looking for in interns and new grads (no I’m not talking about the generic ones, like putting job description keywords on your resume, or keeping your resume to one page. That’s a given, man!)
I’ll be focusing on aspects candidates don’t pay attention to that much, but that count heavily towards the job interview process.
Research the company’s products
Everyone tells you to research the company as much as you can, and demonstrate that knowledge to them, right? Well, I say it helps more if you research the products they’re working on. It’s even more beneficial if you know what product or service that particular branch is working on. It just helps you stand out more!
Think about it. If you are an interviewer, would you be more impressed with someone who’s spewing facts about the company, or would you be more impressed with someone who knows what you as the interviewer or your coworkers, are working on?
Let me demonstrate with 2 answers to the question: what do you know about the company?
- “Evil Corp. was founded in 1969. You have 10 divisions in 10 countries and…”.
- “Golly Mr.Knoph, I’d love to work on the 777X or the A350, and I find Environmental Control Systems so interesting!”
In case you didn’t know, I work on Environmental Control Systems on the Boeing 777X and Airbus A350. If I were interviewing a candidate and they used option 2? Bonus points! Love at first sight, game over, just take the job already!
When it comes to option 1, companies have heard this spiel loads of times already. It’s boring!
Willingness to learn and overall enthusiasm
I know this sounds vague, but let me explain. The company knows it can’t expect the world from students, or new grads. Students usually do not have refinement in the required skills, compared to their more experienced colleagues. This begs the question: How do you convince them to hire you?
What they really demand from you, is energy, excitement, positivity, and enthusiasm. See, your experienced colleagues are jaded. They’ve been beaten to a pulp by deadlines, re-work, all-day meetings, design reviews, dodging layoffs, increased responsibilities after those layoffs without an increase in pay, etc. Someone has to pick up projects left behind, right?
So, what they demand from you, is an awesome attitude! You need to bring excitement to the table. You need to show them that you’ll be the happiest person in the building when you start this job. You are responsible for the team’s morale, in addition to learning anything and everything about the job.
Post your projects and portfolios online
Companies want to see what you’ve been doing besides school and binging The Office.
Needless to say, post your projects, university or otherwise, on your LinkedIn profile (did I mention how important LinkedIn is?), Github page, your personal website, whatever else comes to mind.
For example, say you apply to a Robotics or Biotech company and you’ve posted a personal circuit board project on your website. That signals (good dad joke? No?) to them that you’re spending your own time honing your skills, and working on something you’re passionate about. That translates into you having fun working at the company, learning the nuts and bolts (I can go on with these puns) with enthusiasm, and hopefully coming back after graduation, bringing a fresh perspective to the table.
Bonus points if you bring your portfolio or personal project to the interview as a show and tell. That’ll leave a mark on their brains!
I hope you found these insights helpful, and they’ll help you score that coveted entry-level job (pending a signed contract granting me access to 50% of your income, of course).
Please share this with more people, it may end up helping them as well! Well, since you need that edge, maybe don’t share it with your friends.
But then you’ll be a terrible friend!
You know what? Your call.
