OT: Any leads on a 2019 summer internship for Chem Eng ?

[katchthis]

My son is enrolled in Schreyer at PSU. He is a freshman. So it is a little tough to get lined up with an internship as it seems like employers are preferring at least sophomore standing. They have career fair at PSU today and tomorrow. So he is going to try and get some face time at that event. He had an awesome fall semester, and was in the Blue Band. This semester he is taking 22 credits. So he isn't afraid of hard work.
If you or your company is at University Park for the fair, or you can provide any leads that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[RockyMtnLion]

Besides freshman standing your son is swimming upstream as far as engineering workplace assignments. Most companies are looking for co-ops rather than interns - the difference is they are always for pay and at least partially during the school year. This will be a challenge for your son with his Schreyer responsibilities. Make sure he checks in with the college's co-op office.

 

[NewEra 2014]

You may want to try some of the major oil and gas companies. They typically offer paid summer internships to Chem E students. He might be given a field or refinery assignment as a FR or SO, and then get an office engineering job as a JR.

However, back in the day, those summer internships were offered during the Fall career fair. But if they are interviewing in January, they may still have some openings. Good luck to him!

 

[MattTX]

You may want to try some of the major oil and gas companies. They typically offer paid summer internships to Chem E students. He might be given a field or refinery assignment as a FR or SO, and then get an office engineering job as a JR.

However, back in the day, those summer internships were offered during the Fall career fair. But if they are interviewing in January, they may still have some openings. Good luck to him!

This is true of my company and many others in oil and gas. Summer only internships can often be found posted on the company website(s) and don't need to be coordinated through the school. Be aware than many are looking for junior year type students though.

 

[katchthis]

Besides freshman standing your son is swimming upstream as far as engineering workplace assignments. Most companies are looking for co-ops rather than interns - the difference is they are always for pay and at least partially during the school year. This will be a challenge for your son with his Schreyer responsibilities. Make sure he checks in with the college's co-op office.

He's looking at FR-Soph internship, Soph-Jr internship, Junior yr Co-op, so that would give him 12 months of experience. He has been approached by Kimberly Clark about a co-op interview Thursday. It might extend him to 4 1/2 yrs to grad date. He already has all his Gen Ed and first yr science classes completed with his AP and some college classes. prior to arriving at UP. Seems like housing at PSU is kind of a bitch. Hard to get a sublet for the 2nd semester. So might have to pay for a full year lease, on a half year attendance. Just starting to look at that now. Once you are off campus, he will be in the Fall, pretty much impossible to get back on. That would have been an easy solution.

 

[katchthis]

This is true of my company and many others in oil and gas. Summer only internships can often be found posted on the company website(s) and don't need to be coordinated through the school. Be aware than many are looking for junior year type students though.

Yeah that seems to be the challenge. He might have to end up working at the research lab at PSU this summer, if nothing else comes through.

 

[katchthis]

You may want to try some of the major oil and gas companies. They typically offer paid summer internships to Chem E students. He might be given a field or refinery assignment as a FR or SO, and then get an office engineering job as a JR.

However, back in the day, those summer internships were offered during the Fall career fair. But if they are interviewing in January, they may still have some openings. Good luck to him!

This is all new to me. But it seems like the January career fair now, has some repeat attendees and some new employers present. I think there is a multi-year waiting list to be a company at PSU career fairs. It's great that there is a high level of interest in hiring PSU grads.

 

[Agoodnap]

He'll have 45 years to work after he graduates. Tell him to get a job at the beach and have some fun. Do you remember what it was like to be 19 years old?

 

[Delco Lion]

Tell him to look at International Paper and Georgia Pacific. I know they hire Summer CE interns.

 

[Fayette_LION]

My son is enrolled in Schreyer at PSU. He is a freshman. So it is a little tough to get lined up with an internship as it seems like employers are preferring at least sophomore standing. They have career fair at PSU today and tomorrow. So he is going to try and get some face time at that event. He had an awesome fall semester, and was in the Blue Band. This semester he is taking 22 credits. So he isn't afraid of hard work.
If you or your company is at University Park for the fair, or you can provide any leads that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Katchthis, don't forget your local DEP and govt offices. I hired quite a number of Chem Eng students over summers in our mining program. These were some of the best students I had and all were paid internships. Most of the jobs I had required computer skills so I could look at any major. The Chem Engs were always hard workers and got along well with people.

 

[Cold Smoke]

He'll have 45 years to work after he graduates. Tell him to get a job at the beach and have some fun. Do you remember what it was like to be 19 years old?

^^^^^this^^^^^ Plenty of time for internship later. Retired ChE professor.

 

[mrtailgate]

My son is enrolled in Schreyer at PSU. He is a freshman. So it is a little tough to get lined up with an internship as it seems like employers are preferring at least sophomore standing. They have career fair at PSU today and tomorrow. So he is going to try and get some face time at that event. He had an awesome fall semester, and was in the Blue Band. This semester he is taking 22 credits. So he isn't afraid of hard work.
If you or your company is at University Park for the fair, or you can provide any leads that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I don’t have anything for you, but congrats to the young man for his studies and outside activities at Penn State. I’m sure you are very proud of him (rightly). I hope he continues to do well and has rewarding experience both in and out of the classroom.

 

[psuro]

If he does not get a job as an internship/summer gig, he should

1) Take some more classes, just to keep moving forward
2) Get a non industry job, and do something with Engineering without borders if he can. They mostly focus on civil engineering, but at this point it would be good for him to do something positive. The scholarship program I chair at my company looks favorably on these types of charitable efforts. I would imagine it does not hurt for future job searching.
3) Ask someone in industry if he can do some technical volunteering. Something he can do just to be around engineers.

There are options if the internship/summer gig does not pan out - the key here is for him to be learn to be flexible, aggressive, thinking outside the box - the professional service sector really supports flexible and innovative thinking.

 

[southern_lion]

My son is enrolled in Schreyer at PSU. He is a freshman. So it is a little tough to get lined up with an internship as it seems like employers are preferring at least sophomore standing. They have career fair at PSU today and tomorrow. So he is going to try and get some face time at that event. He had an awesome fall semester, and was in the Blue Band. This semester he is taking 22 credits. So he isn't afraid of hard work.
If you or your company is at University Park for the fair, or you can provide any leads that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

the company I work for is all chemist and chemical engineers. We are always looking for interns for the summer. Not sure how many we have lined up for this summer, but if he's willing to live in Columbus, oh then maybe it would be of interest. The worst part is all the Buckeye fans...but I could use another PSU fan at work.

if its of interest at all email me:

southern_lion@hotmail.com

 

[BoulderFish]

My son is enrolled in Schreyer at PSU. He is a freshman. So it is a little tough to get lined up with an internship as it seems like employers are preferring at least sophomore standing. They have career fair at PSU today and tomorrow. So he is going to try and get some face time at that event. He had an awesome fall semester, and was in the Blue Band. This semester he is taking 22 credits. So he isn't afraid of hard work.
If you or your company is at University Park for the fair, or you can provide any leads that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Forget that. He should work at the golf course this summer and party his ass off. Based on what you've said here, he's going to write his ticket upon graduation with or without an internship in his field this summer. We engineers, by nature, spend our whole lives working. JMO.

 

[Raffycorn]

Yeah that seems to be the challenge. He might have to end up working at the research lab at PSU this summer, if nothing else comes through.

Tell him to just relax, work at the research lab and enjoy the underappreciated beauty known as “summer in State College.” He won’t regret it.

 

[katchthis]

the company I work for is all chemist and chemical engineers. We are always looking for interns for the summer. Not sure how many we have lined up for this summer, but if he's willing to live in Columbus, oh then maybe it would be of interest. The worst part is all the Buckeye fans...but I could use another PSU fan at work.

if its of interest at all email me:

southern_lion@hotmail.com

Just sent off the email. Thanks for any consideration given, as well as your time.

 

[katchthis]

If he does not get a job as an internship/summer gig, he should

1) Take some more classes, just to keep moving forward
2) Get a non industry job, and do something with Engineering without borders if he can. They mostly focus on civil engineering, but at this point it would be good for him to do something positive. The scholarship program I chair at my company looks favorably on these types of charitable efforts. I would imagine it does not hurt for future job searching.
3) Ask someone in industry if he can do some technical volunteering. Something he can do just to be around engineers.

There are options if the internship/summer gig does not pan out - the key here is for him to be learn to be flexible, aggressive, thinking outside the box - the professional service sector really supports flexible and innovative thinking.

If an internship does not come to fruition considering doing #3, thanks for suggesting item 1 and 2. Also thanks to all the board for their expertise and advice.

 

[katchthis]

Forget that. He should work at the golf course this summer and party his ass off. Based on what you've said here, he's going to write his ticket upon graduation with or without an internship in his field this summer. We engineers, by nature, spend our whole lives working. JMO.

Partying at the golf course is my plan for the summer. I want therapeutic distance.