1. Skip to content

Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Engineering

They are talking about this topic: Experience & Credentials

 

Your Selection:


The quotes below are about this issue:
Internships and other forms of practical experience are highly sought after in new hires.

Employer Quote Region
"A comment to me was, 'Well, I've talked to some electrical engineers, but they've never been exposed to anything like three-phase motor or any of those kinds of things coming out of their school.' I don't know how valid that comment is, but that comment was made. So, there is somewhat of a disconnect, I think." Metro
"One thing that has been different with the candidates that we're seeing currently versus four or five years ago is the number of internships that they are doing. I think it is less. They tend to have less practical experience. They can have a very good GPA but no internship. Some of them have good excuses, but then you have this person that has four internships every summer, and it is the same economy and he or she is still able to be that. So, we still try to find people with that kind of practical experience, but we also understand that it doesn't always happen. If they were able to have a research opportunity through school or they were able to do something outside of schoolwork...but I think the economy had an impact on the availability of those internships." Metro
"They are given some more leadership opportunities through these design projects, and I think that is an area where—here at our company—we're looking not only for the technical skills, but also the people skills, and then leadership. Many people need to be able to lead projects, so the opportunity for leadership skills in either project teams in school or some extracurricular organizations is important for us." Metro
"I think what looks really great is an outstanding academic record, some nice practical experience, and training in the areas that we're working in. It is sort of simple really. Yeah, practical experience. I think the internships are great, or if they manage to get some work experience somewhere along the line that has to do with the work that we're doing. That is excellent." Metro
"We do look for people that have had internships potentially with large companies, and maybe have traveled. We also get to choose from international students. Students that have those skills and understand other cultures are a great asset to us." Metro
"One change that we see in our engineering program—I don't know if anyone is familiar with how they approach the engineering training other than just coursework—there is some coursework, but it is very project-based. And we just recently hired a December 2011 grad out of the first class, and we've got two more coming from the May 2012 class in mechanical. I really like that they had practical experience on these projects, and a number of these projects were with our existing clients. Those folks haven't started working yet, so I can't report back as to how effective they are, but that was very appealing, at least in my group, to see engineers who have basically operated as consultants through their courses. They've worked on about four pretty major projects where they had to go in and listen, see what the problem was to the client, come back to a team, and solve the problem. And they were multi-discipline teams. They needed some electrical and some mechanical, and then produce a product for them." Metro
"Maybe not the whole program being project-based courses, but having those opportunities for students to have some real-life experiences." Metro