Internships

UConn Engineering Career Fair 2024

SAVE THE DATE!

For the annual…
UConn Engineering Career Fair!

Monday, March 4th & Tuesday, March 5th, 2024
11 am to 3pm
UConn Storrs campus, Student Union, 3rd Floor

Looking for a job after graduation? An internship? A co-op? Then this once-per-calendar-year Engineering ONLY fair is the place for you.

Bring plenty of resumes! Need help updating your resume? Preparing for the fair? Contact Theo Menounos, Assistant Director, Career Coaching & Counseling I Center for Career Development | College of Engineering at BetterAskTheo@uconn.edu. You can also visit this page to find career help.

Professional Attire required!

NOTE – if at all possible, we ask that you leave your backpack in your car, room, or home!

Questions? Contact engr-careerfair@uconn.edu. Feel free to save the flyer for this event.

Manufacturer ConneCTion College Student Internship and Job Fair

MANUFACTURER CONNECTION FAIR 2024

Wednesday, March 27, 2024
1:30pm-3:00pm
Floor of the Capitol
210 Capitol Ave, Hartford

Calling all CT college students! Are you looking to get a foot in the door with Connecticut’s most prolific manufacturers? We are thrilled to invite you to come to the CT State Capitol on March 27th to meet with 40+ top manufacturing employers! They are looking for eager and enthusiastic students from all over the state for open positions and summer internships! We’ve been joined in the past by Sikorsky, Hanwha Aerospace, GeneralDynamics Electric Boat, and more!

Register here! Each student must register individually.
https://www.housedems.ct.gov/mcf

Email Julianna.Goldfluss@cga.ct.gov if you have any questions!

Flyer promoting Manufacturer Connection Fair 2024.

SME Career Events

SME Logo

SME will be hosting a few upcoming career events — check out the information below to learn more! Open to all students. You do not need to be an SME member to attend.

  • Thursday, February 1: Career Fair 360 – Maximizing Virtual Success. 2-3 p.m. ET. REGISTER NOW.
    • 1 hour
    • The 2024 job market demands a new level of readiness, and virtual career fairs are at the forefront of this revolution. Join us for our latest webinar, ‘Career Fair 360: Maximizing Virtual Success,’ designed to empower job seekers gearing up for the SME/WiM Joint Virtual Career Fair on February 8, 2024.
  • Wednesday, February 7: SME Career Cafe: Personal Brand – Stand Out in the Crowd. 2-2:30 p.m. ET. REGISTER NOW. 
    • 30 minutes
    • Gain invaluable insights at SME Career Cafe on February 7, where we delve into the art of Personal Branding: Standing Out in the Crowd. This empowering session will provide expert advice on key topics from authenticity to crisis management in personal branding. Personal branding is an important part of enhancing career prospects and helping you navigate your identity in the professional world.
  • Thursday, February 8: SME & WiM Joint Virtual Career Fair. 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. ET. REGISTER NOW.
    • From 10 am to 2 pm – drop in and out when convenient for you.
    • This is a great opportunity for students to speak to recruiters, give out their resume, see what companies are hiring, and see what opportunities are readily available.

For students interested in becoming a member of SME, see this flyer for details.

UConn Fall Career Fairs

Are you looking for a job, internship or co-op opportunity? Make sure you to attend the UConn Storrs Fall Career Fairs! There are plenty of job, internship and co-op opportunities as well as the chance to network with employers.

All-University Fair
Tuesday, September 19
11:00am-3:00pm
Gampel Pavilion

STEM FAIR
Wednesday, September 20
11:00am-3:00pm
Gampel Pavilion

The fairs are open to students of all years on all campuses, and students from all majors are encouraged to attend. With over 200 employers excited to meet UConn students, they don’t want to miss this opportunity to network and engage with employers!

Students can register for the fairs and view attending employers on Handshake.
For more information, contact: Center for Career Development at 860-486-3013

MEM and OPIM Partner on Supply Chain Case Competition

Supply Chain Competition UConn

Last month, Management and Engineering for Manufacturing and Operations and Information Management partnered with Unilever to bring students a Supply Chain Case Competition. Eleven teams of three students each competed to develop a plan to resolve a mock supply chain issue for Unilever’s brand Lipton and their green tea product.

Students were given a challenge with some background information, and two weeks to develop a comprehensive plan to solve the problem. In this case, the problem was procuring an organic green tea from a new supplier in Vietnam as the first organic green tea in the Lipton product range, and operating in line with the company’s guiding principles of safety, quality and operating efficiency. Students were also given Unilever company values of improving health and well-being, reducing environmental impact, and enhancing livelihoods, as well as references to the company’s sustainable living goals. The plans they suggested had to factor in these sometimes competing goals as they prepared and presented their strategy. Data on supply chain and sourcing, green tea facts, as well as product consumption and demand were also given to the teams to take into consideration.

Teams made their presentations in front of a panel of judges including faculty from the School of Business, the School of Engineering, and Unilever supply chain representatives. After their presentations, the judges were able to ask them questions to further clarify and challenge the students’ ideas.

Luca Mastrogiacomo, junior and a Management Engineering for Manufacturing major, says he really appreciated the opportunity to see how supply chain problems look in real world settings. “It showed why supply chain is important because of how interconnected it is with all areas of a business and how a supplier relationship is so much more than just transactional,” he said. “It was very fulfilling to me to be able to actually apply what I’ve been learning in class to a real business problem.”

The case competition served as part of the Supply Chain Management course taught by Dr. Craig Calvert. Students in the supply chain course were required to participate and provide a report following it for the class, while additional students joined from other engineering and business school majors because they were eager to showcase their critical business skills and win coveted scholarships associated with the first, second and third place winning teams.

The breadth of majors found among team members was also beneficial. Students said they found extra value in working with other students on a team beyond their own major. “It was fun because I was able to do it with some of my friends from the supply chain class,” said Paige Lombardi, Management and Engineering for Manufacturing senior, “…since Chloe is an MIS major and Liz and I are MEM majors, we were able to see how the two different majors interpreted the case differently. The case study was beneficial to me because it allowed me to use the knowledge from my internship experience as well as what I have learned in my supply chain class with Professor Calvert this semester and apply it to a real-world case study.”

Top Three Teams

  • First place was awarded to Team Blue, a team consisting of Cara Tran, Biomedical Engineering senior; Prabhas KC, Economics senior; and Alexander Kim, Finance senior.
  • Second place was award to team Supply Chain Reign including Elizabeth Downey, MEM senior; Paige Lombardi, MEM senior; and Chloe Sainsbury, MIS senior.
  • Third place was awarded to Andrew Warshavsky, MIS senior; Luca Mastrogiacomo, MEM senior; and Jacob Patterson, MEM senior.

 

Allison Pfahler: Tips for Internship Success

We love hearing about our MEM student’s internship experiences and we love even more when we can share new openings with them. Last September Allison Pfahler received an email from MEM, along with the rest of MEM students, with details of a new internship opportunity at Niagara Bottling. This summer, she spent her summer working there as a manufacturing intern.

Niagara Bottling is a leading beverage manufacturer in the U.S., supplying major retailers across the nation.

When Allison saw the email from the MEM office, she knew she wanted to apply quickly because it aligned so well with her interests that she had developed in the MEM program. Soon, she found herself touring the plant and interviewing as a finalist for the position, and she knew it would be great fit.

“The people at Niagara are a large part of what makes the internship so special,” Allison said. “Everyone from the managers to the production operators were eager to meet the interns and help in any way they could. The plant was always a welcoming environment that encouraged asking questions and jumping in wherever you were interested.”

Allison went on to explain that after shadowing team members in each department, she was given the opportunity to choose which projects she wanted to work on for the summer.

“I picked up a project in the warehouse and was able to start it from the initial steps and implement it with the team in my last week,” she said. “Everyone helped me get the resources I needed to complete the project and taught me everything I needed to know.”

Throughout the summer, the company provided interns with resources to be successful such as professional development seminars and mentors at the plants. Allison was paired with an MEM alumnus who was able to give her advice on different projects and connect her with people and information that she needed to be successful throughout the summer.

Allison offers three key pieces of advice for future MEM interns, no matter where they intern.

  1. Ask questions – asking questions helped her understand the process better and led her to be more successful in what she was working on.
  2. Be available – being available and flexible put her in a position to be able to be used whenever needed
  3. Be flexible – in a fast paced environment such as Niagara, being flexible and jumping into situations where help was needed was the best way to learn

MEM Junior Prepares for Grad School as a McNair Scholar

Each year, highly motivated UConn undergraduate students can participate in two opportunities within a special program, called The McNair Scholars Program. This program prepares students for graduate studies in science, technology, engineering and math. One program is a fall semester research apprenticeship for students to apply for during their 1st or 2nd year and participate the following fall, and the other is a lengthier program for 2nd and 3rd year students to apply for to evolve into independent researchers and be immersed, year-round, in graduate school preparation including a 2 month fully-funded summer component.

As part of UConn’s TRIO programs, both McNair opportunities are open to low-income, first-generation college students or those from populations underrepresented in STEM graduate fields who are seeking to pursue a graduate degree, such as M.S. or Ph.D.

Interested students apply to the program at two different parts of the year; for 1st and 2nd year students interested in the apprenticeship, applications are due each February, and for 2nd and 3rd year students interested in the robust, full McNair Scholar experience, applications are due each October.  When they are accepted, the McNair Scholars are paired with faculty mentors for academic enrichment, research, and internships.

Joshua Hoang, UConn MEM Class of 2023 was accepted as a McNair Fellow apprentice for this fall and is currently working on a research project with Dr. Calvert in the School of Business.

“I heard about it through an email and wanted some kind of experience [to start on] that summer,” Hoang said. “I hadn’t gotten an internship and had heard getting research experience could be good as well.” While at first Hoang was just trying to strengthen his resume, he found he really learned a lot, gained some important research experience and is now considering graduate school.

“This program is really geared to prepare students for graduate school, or to help students decide if grad school might be a fit for them,” he said. “I hadn’t really considered grad school before, but I definitely am considering it now.”

Hoang is working with Dr. Craig Calvert on a project to model the supply chain of cobalt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Cobalt from there is used in cell phones and electric cars, so if we didn’t have cobalt there would be a lot of things we would not have that we use every day,” Hoang explained.

He went on to explain that he has been learning a little Monte Carlo simulation, as well as some Python on the side, due to the coding elements and the nature of the research. He also said he had the chance to do a little bit of analytics and apply some of what he has learned in classes.

McNair Scholars and Fellows also participate in workshops and seminars led by Program Coordinator, Dr. Renee Gilberti, McNair alumni, and graduate students to also have as additional mentors, and conferences designed to help them secure admission to doctoral programs and obtain financial resources for graduate study.

“The biggest takeaway for me, was having the chance to learn how to write a scientific paper, like a research paper, how to format it… I had no experience at all going into this, and it was overwhelming at first, but [Dr. Calvert] walked me through it,” Hoang said. During the course the McNair Fellow apprentices take together for the fall semester, the students also learn step-by-step how to build a research paper, become critical thinkers, seek summer internships, and about applying to be McNair Scholars.

Hoang recommends this program to anyone considering grad school even a little bit. While it is an unpaid, one-semester commitment as an apprentice, students have the option to reapply for a longer duration as a Scholar and gain even more experience and training to be a competitive grad school applicant.

“Beyond the research, it was great to also just be able to ask Dr. Calvert questions about my career and education. He really goes out of his way to be helpful, and I am sure all the mentors are that way.”

Should You Apply?

If you are among the first generation in your family to attend a 4-year college AND meet the low-income guidelines on the application chart based on your family size (regardless of your racial or ethnic identity), and/or self-identify as an underrepresented racial or ethnic group as listed on the application, you are eligible for McNair opportunities.

This fall 2021 semester, the McNair program is recruiting 2nd and 3rd year students wanting to pursue undergraduate research in a STEM discipline who are curious to learn more about graduate school preparation and career options to be a McNair Scholars.

Benefits of the program include conducting research during the academic semesters with an optional, fully-funded summer program under the guidance of a faculty mentor; opportunities to present and publish; assistance with the graduate school application process; professional conferences; workshops and courses to prepare students for graduate study, and a close mentoring experience with the McNair Scholars Program Coordinator and a faculty advisor.

Applications must be submitted by Thursday, October 14 before 12 noon, and two recommendations are due by October 21.

To apply, applicants should click on the SCHOLAR button on the linked application, and then also promptly email Dr. Renee at renee.gilberti@uconn.edu to state your intention to apply and coordinate a virtual interview session. Note, if you are a 1st or 2nd year student, applications for the fall 2022 semester STEM McNair apprenticeship will open in January 2022. For more information, contact Dr. Renee Gilberti.

Apply

 

Landing an Internship on the Production Floor – Archana Velathaupillai Shares Her Experience

Getting an internship is something every MEM student thinks about at some point during their undergraduate career. It can help you gain professional experience, apply concepts you’ve learned and develop professional connections that can help you navigate your future career options. Archana Velathaupillai, MEM junior, had the opportunity to work for 12 weeks as a Manufacturing Engineering Intern with Otis Elevator at their manufacturing plant in Florence, South Carolina.

Archana Velathaupillai on the Production Floor at Otis
Archana Velathaupillai performing an internal ISO 9001 audit at Otis Elevator’s plant in South Carolina.

“This was a really unique internship because most of the time interns don’t get to really work on the production floor, but this internship gave me that chance,” Archana said.

Archana had the chance to work in operations on the production floor at Otis where she did time studies on production lines, 5S implementation on the production floor, improved standard work procedures, conducted internal ISO 9001 audits on specific production lines and participated on continuous improvement initiatives. She also spent time observing and seeing how the concepts she has learned in classes at UConn are applied in a real world setting. She enjoyed getting to talk to people in various areas within the manufacturing operation, including supply chain, engineering, and operations which helped her expand her network and career exposure, as she refined her ideas of jobs she would and would not enjoy in her future.

“At first I wasn’t really comfortable, but as time went on, I got better at networking and scheduled appointments in other areas,” Archana said. “As a result, I was able to expand my network, get more familiar with other areas and really refine what kinds of jobs I might want. I learned there were some roles that didn’t suit me and others I may want to try to gain experience in during a future internship.”

Archana says she landed this internship in the traditional way. She attended career fairs, had her resume reviewed by the Center for Career Development, and took advantage of mock interviews. At a career fair, she met and talked with the recruiter from Otis and made sure she maintained contact afterward.