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internships

I'm currently in the process of looking for internships in the field of engineering but I keep receiving rejections in the screening stage. What do companies like Tesla look for in a resume in order to be considered?

Reply 1

Smack

Volunteer Team

Original post by losteenager15

Most well known companies are competitive to get into. What else do you have on your CV other than your degree? What have you done to develop the skills and competencies that are stated or listed in the job descriptions?

Reply 2

losteenager15

Original post by Smack

What are some other companies that would be relatively easier to get into?
im in first year so I don’t have prior internship experience per say but I do have a few virtual work experiences that I have listed on my cv, as well as some part time jobs I did.

Reply 3

ThatguyAl

Original post by losteenager15

General suggestions that I give to people asking for help with their CVs:

• Don’t send out generic CVs to every job opportunity. Tailor your CV to each application based on the company, industry, and the job requirements. Research the company, the location, their customers, the industry they are in and the products they produce. Statistically, the more jobs you apply to the higher the chances that you’ll eventually get a job, but quality of your application will eventually beat quantity. In my experience working with STEM students and helping them getting an internship or graduate job, I saw them to achieve ~20% success rate on average, i.e., with good enough application and interview performance you’ll get a job offer for every 5 jobs you apply to.

• Job hunting is essentially you trying to sell your services to a company. Even if it is an internship or a graduate role. Try to focus more on what value can you bring to the company, rather than just talking about yourself. Link your skills and abilities to something that the hiring manager may consider valuable. Having said that, for internships and graduate roles it is essential that the candidate is eager to learn and improve as these type or roles are normally tailored for supporting professional growth of the candidate.

• Remember that these days many large and mid-size companies use digital tools (ATS) to assess quality of a candidate automatically before a human even gets to read your resume. Therefore, remember to include the words and phrases that reflect the job requirements in your CV. For example, if the job opportunity mentions a requirement for Java programming language, make sure you include that in your resume regardless of the level of that skill you possess. When I was looking for graduate jobs, I added a very short (1-2 lines) summary somewhere in my resume listing all the different tools and software packages I used and skills that I acquired at Uni, for example: circuit design, C and C# programming language, MATLAB, Simulink, SolidWorks, etc.

• I suggest structuring your CV the following way:
o For intern level jobs:
 Summary
 University activities – units, projects, volunteering, etc.
 Work/volunteering experience
 Other – skills that you acquired from self-learning (IT, languages, soft skills, etc.), professional memberships, other perhaps irrelevant but potentially valuable activities. Include hobbies as well to show that you are a normal human being, also great if you have hobbies relevant to the job or your studies, for example “have several Arduino projects that I work on in my own time”.
o For graduate level jobs:
 Summary
 Work experience (assuming you have some, e.g., an engineering internship)
 University activities
 Other – as above but you may start to focus more on your skills and accomplishments here.

• Be concise. No one wants to read paragraphs of text, especially the HR and the hiring manager who have to look through dozens of CVs while also dealing with day-to-day issues at work. The less “noise” you put in your CV, the easier it is for the hiring manager to find the good stuff in your application and invite you over for an interview. Try to make it easier for them to make the hiring decision.

• Only include relevant information in your CV and things that only add value to your resume. When writing something down in your CV always ask yourself these kind of questions – "Will this guarantee me a job or not?", “Will that make me stand out or make me look like the rest?”, “Is this relevant to this particular job posting or it’s too generic?”.

• You want to emphasise your _personal_ achievements and contributions. This is how you show you are better than the rest of the candidates. It’s good to prove that you are a team player, however when talking about group activities in which you took part make sure to mention what did you do and how did that help the team achieve success.

• When telling a story or providing with examples follow STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result), or shorten it to SAR (Situation, Action, Result). For example, “When taking part in the Formula Student competition as Electrical Engineer, I found that the car driver struggled with too many things to pay attention to whilst driving (Situation), so I designed a temperature control system to automatically switch engine cooling fan On or Off (Action). This automation allowed the driver to not worry about the engine temperature and allowed them to stay focused during the race, this also improved the car’s fuel efficiency by xx% (Result).

• The summary (the short intro on the top of your cv) is probably the most important part. You need to provide with a brief summary of who you are, what you are passionate about, what kind of experience you have and what achievements makes you stand out – very concisely. Make a list of your key differentiators and briefly go through them in the summary. Treat it like a short version summary of the rest of your resume. Just like the first impression matters when meeting someone new in person, same story with this summary. If I like what I see in a candidate’s summary then I want to keep reading to see if I can get this person in for an interview, if not then I’m already leaning towards rejecting the candidate even if I keep reading through the CV. However, I may ignore the poorly written summary if the contents in the body of the CV are outstanding.

• Add quantitative measurements to your achievements and always showcase an example to every statement you make. Instead of simply stating that you are a hardworking and enthusiastic individual – bring up an example. For instance, "Volunteering in Formula student competition in my free time as an electrical engineer, improved the car's aerodynamics by analysing the cars design and performance.... etc, which reduced overall car's weight by 3%, increased car's acceleration by 5% and reduced fuel consumption by 5%. Thanks to this and the team’s efforts, our team achieved 17th place out of 100 in the UK in 2022".
Saying you are reliable, trustworthy or similar doesn’t mean much unless you bring up and example where you’ve shown that trait of yours. Imagine you are at a car dealership looking to buy a car and when asking about the car’s performance the salesman just tells you that the car is super-fast, very economic, and reliable. That all means nothing to you as you are interested to know how fast it does 0-60mph, what its mile per gallon rate is and exactly how often do you need to get it to a regular service/repair. I hope that makes sense.

• Do not included anything that may suggest that you are not the perfect candidate for the job. Did you get a not very high grade in one of your units at school/college/Uni? Don’t include that, might even completely skip any information about your school or college. 99% of the time no one cares about your past grades before Uni. Don’t sabotage yourself, only include information that will secure the job for you. Only exception to include past grades is to show that you’ve gotten top marks and distinctions, otherwise – just skip it completely.

• Speaking about grades, don’t need to show your high school or college grades if you are already studying at Uni. The fact that you are at Uni already qualifies you as a successful school/college graduate. Same as no one cares if you finished with 2:1 or a 1st degree bachelor’s if you are already on a Masters or even a Ph.D. programme. Unless you want to show off your straight A’s in school, 1st class at Uni, etc.

• Don’t stop working on your CV until you get the job. Keep constantly reviewing it and try to think what else could you do to make it look better. Even small things like change in the font or position of a text may make it easier for the tired eyes of a hiring manager to read through your resume.

Also, have a look here - https://www.gradcracker.com/search/all-disciplines/engineering-work-placements-internships

(edited 7 months ago)

Reply 4

Smack

Volunteer Team

Original post by losteenager15

What are some other companies that would be relatively easier to get into?

I'd imagine pretty much every company is easier to get into than Tesla! Are you targeting the automotive sector only?

im in first year so I don’t have prior internship experience per say but I do have a few virtual work experiences that I have listed on my cv, as well as some part time jobs I did.

Companies aren't typically interested in first year students to be honest. Most internships I came across were targeted at penultimate year students.

Reply 5

losteenager15

Original post by Smack

I'd imagine pretty much every company is easier to get into than Tesla! Are you targeting the automotive sector only?

Companies aren't typically interested in first year students to be honest. Most internships I came across were targeted at penultimate year students.

My major is in mechanical engineering but I'm open to all sectors from oil and gas to banking!

Reply 6

Smack

Volunteer Team

Original post by losteenager15

My major is in mechanical engineering but I'm open to all sectors from oil and gas to banking!

Are you studying in America?

Reply 7

losteenager15

Original post by Smack

Are you studying in America?

No I'm based in the uk

Reply 8

Smack

Volunteer Team

Original post by losteenager15

No I'm based in the uk

OK, wasn't sure as you are using Americanisms (major, resume, etc.). Presumably you aren't using them on your CV as it may lead to some confusion.

Regarding companies, Gradcrakcer is a good website to start with, though again companies advertising on there will be competitive to get into as they will be receiving lots of applications. But it does contain companies from all different sectors. You can then further research sectors you are specifically interested in to find the smaller, or less well-known companies.