Exterior Performance Development Engineer at Honda R&D Americas in Central Ohio.
The quality connections I've made here have become connections for life! I actively network and keep in touch with my stem homies from SMC. It's been helpful in my career and personal development.
Formula SAE, SHPE, SWE, and NSBE at Cal State LA. If you want to successfully land an engineering job when you graduate, you need to take steps the moment you transfer to network and get relevant experience. Joining a strong engineering team or research opportunity and a DEI program can help you get experience, network with the right people, and get your foot on the door with landing a job.
That's how I landed my 2 internships and 4 job offers while in university from 2020 to 2023.
It's a lot more business, corporate, and product development. And it's a lot less low level STEM theory, at the moment. Automotive is very fast and hands-on as a test engineer. I still use a lot of my problem solving and critical thinking skills that I picked up from university.
As an Automotive R&D Engineer at Honda, I love that I get to work with cars and see how the butter is made! I take great joy in benchmarking competitor vehicles, testing and using the cars for myself, and seeing new styling and vehicle data before it hits the market! It's fun to use my critical thinking skills to solve problems.
Be bold, be fast, be unafraid to fail. Be direct. Don't take things personally. And, unfortunately, don't be afraid to consider applying for jobs outside of Los Angeles and California if you really need to get some expereince.
FYI--internships aren't too bad because you'll be coming home right after. Be careful about the location you pick for your first job out of college. Depending on the industry and skills you pick up, you may have a hard time returning home. Companies may be eager to relocate talent to areas where nobody wants to live in because they're desparate to fill in the role. On the flip side, companies have no reason to relocate talent to areas where everybody already lvies in because the market is heavily skewed towards the employer (i.e., Los Angeles).
I think this is something everyone is going up against in Los Angeles and the job market in the country as a whole right now.
If you care about your dreams, DO NOT GIVE UP. And always network and do good work! Take care of your brand and image, and it will take you far!
Networking and do the hard work. This isn't TikTok. There's no hacks or shortcuts in life. In all seriousness, look for free textbooks, and leverage the power of prayer. And protect your health: 7-8 hours of sleep is mandatory. In hindsight, I would have had much more mental peace and better grades if I had a set schedule based of my sleep and stuck with it!
Get 7-8 hours of sleep every night, diet, exercise, pray, and keep a strict intentional calendar.
Church, Various Exercise and Rec League Sports, Work on my car, and spend time with family and friends eating good food! And sleeping--I love good sleep! It's recession friendly too, and great for dinner!