Applying for summer internships

[teathyme]

Ds is first year civil engineering and spoke to a lecturer about the possibility of applying for summer internships.
Do you email and literally just ask for an internship? Or what else should you say? Attach a CV?
Any advice welcome, thanks.

He's an adult. He should ask the department. Not you.

Have a look on Indeed or Linked In. They are advertising civil engineering internships on both currently. They are all different, some want you to fill in their forms and take their tests and others was a CV and cover letter (and may even say what questions they want covered in the cover letter).

His University careers office should be able to help.

@worstofbothworlds he did ask his department, all they said was to make sure his SPAG was good.
Thank you for the constructive replies, will get him to check LinkedIn and Indeed.

does anyone know if they tend to start as soon as uni is finished? I would like to pay for DS to come with us on holiday for 2 weeks but as I work in a school we only have a short window of opportunity when he may be available if he’s doing a summer internship. He is at Cambridge doing engineering, and reckons they are usually about 10-12 weeks.

He should look on his university careers service site - they often have a board with opportunities that companies post. The Careers Service should also be able to help with CV tips etc. graduate employment is a hot topic for universities, so there’s usually great resources available through careers/employability services.

He should also look out for any careers fairs taking place on campus - good way to meet people from different companies and understand what opportunities they have.

It’s also worth noting that lots of big companies take interns in their penultimate year of university, and opportunities can be more limited for first years. So he shouldn’t be disheartened if he doesn’t secure one for this summer, especially if he’s doing a 4 year MEng. That being said, he may well find shorter internships/placements available with some companies and it’s a great way to try and explore different industries.

As someone who takes part in assessments for our graduate/internship programme at a FTSE100 (including engineering/technical roles), I would encourage him to spend time building out the non academic part of his CV too. Often graduates get asked competency based questions (‘tell me about a time you did X’), and it’s great if they can talk about part time jobs, societies they’ve been involved in etc beyond their coursework.

It’s not unusual for internships to start promptly at term end, especially for Oxbridge /
other universities where exams run later. Some companies may offer more flexibility on start dates, others want interns to join together as much as possible.

Our interns tend to start early - mid June for 10-12 weeks and finish up usually no later than 1st week of September. I know cases where we’ve had an intern start later (e.g coming back from a year abroad / other reasons), so not fixed in stone but it might be dependent on where he secures an internship and how flexible they are.

For large firms he should look on their website for internship information. Siemens for instance have a very formal process for applying that needs to be followed. Otherwise, he needs to write and say why he's applying to that company, what he is interested in etc.

Ds also doing Civil Engineering. When he enquired about summer internships he was told that it’s hard to get them after one year, they tend to go to students further along their course. In any case, Covid arrived when he was still in 1st year so nothing happened that summer. But there is no harm in applying. However, equally it might be a good opportunity to do something different the summer after 1st year, they will be doing engineering for long enough!

My Ds managed to get a month’s work with a local company in the summer after second year, he found that himself (well I spotted the opportunity!)

Is your Ds doing a placement year? Ds did one last year & they have promised him a job for next summer. It’s possibly the easiest way to get a foot in the door…

@teathyme
There are lots of small to mid sized civil
and structural engineering consultancies that will offer work shadowing in first year. If the student is keen, it can progress to more in subsequent years. Big names are always mentioned but the uk has a very strong consultancy sector for civil and structural engineering. My DH’s consultancy has offices around the uk. So suggest to DS that you Google consultancies in your area and start contacting them. Some with have HR staff and others will be more ad hoc. Get him to start ringing around and ask for work shadowing possibilities.

DH spent all his summers (years ago!) with the civil engineers at the local council.(Highways, environmental engineering and drainage) This work might be sub-contracted now (and it’s not Ove Arup!) but ask who to. Any experience and showing an interest is good. As there is a shortage of engineers, people should be helpful.

My DS is doing a 4 year course in Chemical Engineering. He's now in his final year.

He found it difficult to obtain an internship in his 2nd summer holiday as firms prefer penultimate year students as it's part of their recruitment for the graduate jobs they will have for the following year when the students graduate.

So it may be 1 year too early for your DS but there is no harm in trying. My DS did find actually find an internship for his 2nd year but not until the June of that year. For his 3rd year summer holiday his internship was confirmed in the previous November.

@ItsReallyOnlyMe
Any work or volunteering is useful in y1 vacation and subsequently. It doesn’t have to be engineering. Also firms should pay expenses for internees. Otherwise if they exclude poorer students and then choose from internees who can afford not to work for wages, they are not recruiting fairly .

@TizerorFizz I agree that work in summer Year 1 as also important - my DS did this too but it wasn't relevant to the question. I was referring to the organised 'summer roles for students' that so many professional company's operate for summer internships.

Both my DS's internships were actually outside of engineering (they were in Finance), the second one of which paid him a ridiculous amount of money (as in very generous, rather than too low).

@ItsReallyOnlyMe
That’s grsat. However not all Dc can get wonderfully paid internships. Internships in engineering is what the question was about. Not DC who take up engineering degrees snd then get internships in something else. Usually with better paid jobs at the end. As loads do.

@TizerorFizz My responses are exactly the same for any student internships whether engineering or not - which is why I didn't refer to this in my first response.

@ItsReallyOnlyMe
The OP was surely referring to civil engineering. It’s sensible to say your DS wasn’t looking for engineering internships. They are not the same! At all. At least be honest about what internships they got. Obviously engineers can abandon engineering as many do. This means there’s such a shortage of engineers.

Ds is in year 2, he has applied for next summer but for the field his degree is in. He looked at ones based in our home city so he can live at home whilst attending. I think he just googled and it brought up job websites. His is an 8 week internship for one of them. He found that lots of them want at least 2nd year students, he couldn't get anything last summer.

As for the whole he's an adult, so what? Adults often reach out for help just like a lot of people on MN as a whole, asking for advice or opinions. You are not a fully formed, self sufficient, independent functioning adult just because you turn 18.

@TizerorFizz Actually I disagree.

The OP was asking a general question and internships and I quote "Do you email and literally just ask for an internship? Or what else should you say? Attach a CV? "

I replied, as did at least one other person that these are not generally offered in the first year. My DS did try to apply for internships in engineering in the equivalent of this year (for him) and was told it was too early - they only offer these in the penultimate year.

@ItsReallyOnlyMe
Except for civil engineering in a smaller consultancy they might say come in snd see us. For many young engineers its important to move away from the word internship. They might offer with shadowing and other sessions with engineers. All are useful. My DHs company has always been pleased to see students taking an interest. Especially business motivated ones. The first sentence says Dc is doing civil engineering. So in his first year it’s sensible to reach out to civil engineering consultancies or even contractors.

@TizerorFizz I don't disagree with you at all on your last point - that is entirely sensible.

I also stand by my all own previous comments which for some reason you appear to have a problem with.

@ItsReallyOnlyMe
Only because you didn’t say you’r DSs didn’t apply for engineering internships! Any old internship paying €€€€ in France (they are presumably bi lingual too) isn’t the same at all. Your DS might not be interested in being engineers but others are and implying all internships are the same doesn’t make sense for all sectors of employment. At least DH rims a consultancy so we have some knowledge of the employment of civil and structural engineers. People who want to be engineers!

Maybe op could clarify what her DS actually wants?

Also what use is an internship in say, finance, to someone who actually wants to fo engineering? Not one posting knows much about civil engineering.

@TizerorFizz Your first comment to me was "Any work or volunteering is useful in y1 vacation and subsequently. It doesn’t have to be engineering." Perhaps you should review your own answers before criticising anyone else's.

Of course, if nothing else materializes. .

They vary.
DDs first year one was a good 12 weeks (long enough they had to give the interns a week's paid holiday within the time); she managed a week away with us after but that wasn't till September. Her second year one was 8 weeks IIRC (and the third but that was 2020 and done while stuck at home). I seem to remember her talking about what her friends were doing, pretty sure they didn't all do 10-12 weeks (some didn't do internships in the first summer at all).