This Week in Class, I Ll Be Helping Students Understand What It Will Take for Them to Get

10/26/16

Parents,

This week in class, I’ll be helping students understand what it will take for them to get the best possible job when they graduate. I have found that our students are very career focused. With a little bit of advice, they really respond. I thought you might find some of the key points from class to be of value.

Students who get the best jobs typically get offers and make their job decision in the fall semester of their senior year. Many of the seniors I teach this fall already know what they will be doing when they graduate. These students did internships with the companies that have made them job offers. In fact some companies only hire from their interns. Most of our students will have accepted a job before they graduate. Starting salaries are $60,000 - $70,000 with typically a $5,000 signing bonus.

Because the hiring process starts early in our students’ senior year, they only have three years to establish their credentials. It’s actually less than that for students who want to get an internship. This is one of the key points from class this week. I hope you will help reinforce the need for students to start now to build their credentials. So for many of our students their eventual employer will be determined in their junior year.

The credentials that our students need to get the best job are as follows:

■ GPA

■ Engineering Experience

■ Leadership Activities

■ Personal Characteristics

GPA is an issue for some companies, especially the better known ones. A 3.00 or better GPA is generally what is required. There are still very good jobs for students with lower GPA’s. In fact some of the lesser known companies often give young graduates more opportunities. I have found some companies reluctant to hire really high GPA students because they aren’t sure how they will manage challenges.

Students really need an internship or co-op experience to get the best jobs. Two internships (summers of sophomore and junior years) or a co-op experience should be the goal of every student. Campus experiences, such as working on a research project, are good, but students also need experiences in real engineering environments. I hope that you will emphasize how important internships or co-ops are. My advice to students is to do an internship wherever the opportunity is. I know that you would like them home in the summer, but coming home shouldn’t outweigh the opportunity for your student to get experience.

Companies also look for students who have shown some leadership with their campus activities. We have over 150 student organizations on campus. I can’t imagine that a student will not find at least one organization of interest. If they get involved with these organizations as freshmen, they can become leaders in their junior and senior years.

The three credentials I’ve listed above (GPA, experience, activities) are the focus of the campus interview. The final attribute, personal qualities, is evaluated on the site visit. If students do well on their campus interview, they get invited to the organizations’ location for another round of interviews. During these interviews, students will be evaluated on how good of a personal fit they are with the company. The attributes that companies are looking for typically include

■ Action Orientation

■ Attitude

■ Communication

■ Consistency

■ Continuous Learning

■ Customer Service Focus

■ Organization

■ Problem Solving

■ Team Work

■ Work Ethic

College is also a great place to develop a network. The LinkedIn website is growing in importance as a key networking site for professionals. Students are getting job interests through LinkedIn. I’ll mention this in class this week, but you could help reinforce the importance of starting now to put their profile on LinkedIn. Many students have linked to me, but others still need to do this. I probably have connections to more corporate leaders than almost anyone on LinkedIn. Most of these connections are from former students I have taught. Linking to me can be a valuable networking resource to students. You might also want to take advantage of this network. If you want to link in, please indicate you are a parent of one of my students.

I would like to make one final point. Our students will be competing with students from universities across the country in their job search. Our students do very well in this competition. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a statement something like this: “We really like WVU grads. They have the work ethic and practical skills we need. We have quit interviewing at a number of big name schools because their students have no practical engineering skills.” When a company that normally doesn’t come to WVU hires one of our students, the company will often begin to focus their recruitment on our campus.

Let me close with the story from my senior class.

Josh worked on a project management effort to ensure that the nation’s capital building will be ready for the inauguration of a new President.

Denna developed a model that helped one of the nation’s leading home delivery companies decide how to handle small packages.

Mike helped one of the premier new technology companies develop a better approach for producing orders.

Kim helped one of our military branches develop a more efficient method for procurement of materials need to defend our country.

As a group, our students contributed to organizations in ways that most people would find hard to imagine. One corporate leader described the work of one of our students as “priceless”. Try to imagine the transformation your student will go through in the next few years: from minimum wage to making significant contributions in some of America’s leading corporations.