Intership Search

Hey guys. Like many of you guys in Engineering (or Business), I had a harder time than our citizen and permanent resident peers in finding an internship. There are some companies that, without investigating our situation, flat out told students with DACA approval to come back when they have permanent residency.

I wanted to start this thread to get the discussion going about our experiences with this. Which companies rejected you because of DACA? Did they take the time to investigate your situation in depth? Where did you ultimately end up accepting an internship that accepted you with your EAD?

This really has nothing to do with the questions you posted but some of my USC friend's are also having a hard time finding internships because of lack of experience and networking. Perhaps this is something many of us documented or undocumented have to work on.

I received offers from GE, and UTC but ended up being rejected because of DACA. Fianlly, I got an internship with Verizon Wireless.

Do not listen to msaccountant is not always about lack of experience and networking, it is all about your GPA and how good your social skills are. Trust me.

I think both Chyno and Msaccountant are right. If you are still a student, you obviously lack experience. Therefore, they look into your GPA in order to consider you. Once you have the interview, whether or not you are hired will be depend on how good you are able to communicate with the human resources personnel and the engineers/economists that will interview you as well as how you answer their questions. Nevertheless, in these hard times, your GPA is not enough in order to stand out. You also need to have some experience as well as some contacts within your industry. When I started applying, I also went to leave my resume and cover letter to some companies around my area in person. And as you guessed it, I didn't have any luck. Last week, a friend of the family told me that her neighbor was the office manager of an engineering company and that she might be able to help me get in. I talked to her and I asked her the name of the company. Guess what, I had already gone to apply to that company but she told me that if you weren't referred by an employee of the company, they wouldn't even consider you, even if you had great qualitifications. So having contacts definitely help!

After you graduate, your GPA will not be enough. You'll need to have some experience and have a great network within your industry as well as great interpersonal skills. For example, I graduated with an overall 3.92 GPA, and my engineering GPA was 4.0. I was very active within the student associations related to my major, and I haven't been able to find a paying job. I'm currently an unpaid engineering intern so that I can get some experience. They only did a background check and asked me for my SSN and driver's license. They never asked me if I was a citizen or if I had a work permit since I am not being paid. In these hard times, new graduates compete with many engineers who have many years of experience and who were laid off. Who do you think they are going to hire, a new fresh graduate who doesn't have an idea of what he/she is doing and whom will cost money to the company in training, or an engineer who knows the ins and outs of the industry?

I have had several discussions with the Director of Public Works about this matter, and I've come to the above conclusion. Anyways, maybe that only applies to civil engineers. What's your major? In addition, I have found several companies that require you to be a citizen in order to have a clearance, or ask you for the PERMANENT right to work in the US, or want to relocate you outside of the US . I don't even bother to apply for those positions.

I apologize if I went off topic. Good luck in your internship search!

What this thread needs is Swim19's opinion.

I have been to many interviews with big companies just for the experience of knowing how to interview. Unfortunately, experience means a lot. However, i must disagree with some of the posts. Social skills usually means more than GPA, DEPENDING ON YOUR MAJOR. I have a friend who has a GPA of 3.12 and she got an internship over other candidates with GPA's of 4.00. Again, it all depends on what you are majoring and how well you get along with others.

Hmm I think it does change a bit depending on the field. I am studying Computer Science at UCB and have a decent GPA, ~3.4. I started applying to internships during January and was rejected by 2 companies because of DACA. Fortunately, I was able to find a few companies that took the time to research DACA. I received 3 offers, took an awesome internship in SF.

For the Software Engineering field I think the biggest issue is that they are unaware of what DACA really is and some assume that you will need sponsorship in the future. I have rarely seen a Software Engineering position that requires citizenship or permanent residency.

In any case, I am sure you will find something! Check out networking events and stuff like that on your campus, those kinds of things are really useful.

That is awesome to hear, congrats! I was in the middle of interviewing for several companies when I ran into your post about losing an internship because of DACA. I was super worried because yours was the only related post I could find and no one that replied to your post seemed to be having any luck, which is why I decided to start this thread after obtaining and accepting an offer. I think it'll be good for others in our situation to be able to see that it's just a matter of applying to several companies and finding out which ones are okay with DACA and also making sure that the companies are educated about it.

I think it's true that GPA and good social skills are important, but I also think there might be other factors. For me, a decent GPA was important in getting interview opportunities, but side programming projects/research/start up experience was also pretty important in getting my foot in the door. During interviews, social skills were really important, but so was my knowledge of the material related to the field. At least for software engineering and electrical engineering positions, interviews are composed of a lot of technical questions.

Ultimately I think it's a combination of GPA, knowledge of relevant material, and social skills, but this is true for anyone. For those of us with DACA, we may encounter a few extra bumps along the way with companies that are not happy hiring people with EADs.

For students like me that are applying to software engineering positions, the kind of experience that is important is side projects and things like that, particularly to get your foot in the door. Knowledge of relevant material is equally important during an interview, where they ask about your projects but also ask a lot of technical questions. What is your major and what was the format of your interviews?

In my opinion, if you want a job you need to get it while you are in College. Take advantage of what your college offers and take it.

I got 3 internships within a month with a 2.3 GPA and NO EAD. I already started working at one, going to start working at the other two in the summer. It can be done, you just have to be determined and you have to hustle.