Sam Phillips, Senior and Mechanical Engineering major finds great satisfaction knowing that she can use her field to impact real lives rather than merely contributing to our consumerist society, a task she was able to accomplish during her internship with Arrow Electronics.
Her job during her internship included working with a team of 15 other mechanical engineers to complete a special project. Their project, nicknamed Project Mono, was to design and build a robotic arm that would allow a former race car driver who had been paralyzed to drive a car. Over the summer, they worked with each other, corporate officials, and other teams of interns to build a prototype. Although they were responsible for the engineering behind the project, other interns from fields such as marketing and business worked on the project as well.
“I’m very proud of this internship” Sam stated and for a good reason. Not only were they responsible for creating the product, they also presented it to an audience of corporate officials. All of the teams came together at the end of the internship to present their robotic arm and convince the company to expand the project. Sam described her internship as “challenging but rewarding”, a phrase she also applied to the internship application process.
Although she felt equipped to handle the work her internship required because of her engineering classes, she described how instrumental the Career Center was to her successfully obtaining the internship as she explains “my classes at DU taught me engineering, the Career Center taught me how to get the job.”
She met with many mentors, including career counselor Rebecca Damas before her application was due and it paid off. She got the internship at Arrow Electronics and had a blast working on a project that could potentially help someone in need.
Sam’s advice for anyone finding the interview process overwhelming included getting yourself out there and making as many connections as humanly possible, as scary as that may be to the introverts out there. Making connections can happen in a variety of way and some of them can be unexpected as in Sam’s experience. The hiring manger at Arrow Electronics approached her through contacts with one of her professors and the career center.
There are many ways that a student can find an internship, and the Career Center offers many resources to aid in this process. The University Career Center provides an array of services and workshops from identifying career interests, helping students to select majors, how to search for internships and jobs and preparing for interviews. Career Advisors are always willing to help students with whatever they may need. Call 303-871-2150 to set up an appointment with your Career Advisor.
