Job Hunting

Finding a job. Probably the second most stressful part of an engineering degree- right after the very demanding workload. But it’s always a good excuse to procrastinate, ‘I have to find a job anyway, so why not look now?’ – me the night before an assignment is due.

Getting work hours was such a confusing topic for me, because I didn’t have any friends who had previously done engineering and I was never specifically told about this requirement. So, the whole thing was a real blur- until one COMPSYS201 lecture, we had a guest speaker come in and talk about it in the middle of the first sem. So, if you’re like me and have no clue what all this commotion about getting a job is here’s a heads up:

“Practical Work is a core component of your BE(Hons). You're required to complete 800 hours of Practical Work and complete a formal written report. You’ll generally undertake your Practical Work throughout the summer breaks at the end of Parts II and III.”

- University of Auckland Website

From the 800 hours, half is supposed to be general hours and the other half sub-professional. So, first of all, what are GENERAL hours? Honestly, I was really unsure about this and just went and applied for jobs that most probably fell under the sub-professional category. Anything that involves working with engineers (not necessarily as an engineer) in an engineering environment where you are able to get familiar with the industry should count in your general hours. I would recommend that you try to search for something that wouldn’t require as much technical knowledge, because let’s be honest – employers don’t really want students in the first year of their specialisation. But obviously, depending on what you’ve done in your own time in terms of projects and/or research you could be totally ready to apply for an actual internship! In Part II, it would be super helpful if you had a friend or uncle or sister or just anyone you know who can help you get a job, even if it's just giving a recommendation- little things like that can go a long way!

It’s already mid-July and there are a lot of internships available around this time of the year aimed at students looking for sub-professional hours. A huge mistake I made last year when looking for a job was leaving it to the last minute. I remember doing a quick search in the inter-sem break and not finding anything relevant, so I didn’t really do much more because the summer was so far away. Around September was when I went to a WEN (Women in Engineering Network) event about summer work. This is where it all hit me. I needed a job. And I need to start looking… NOW! For any females (and males) reading this, I highly recommend signing up and attending WENs professional development events. They were SO helpful for me and helped me to get my head around the whole thing as well as prepare myself for what was coming.

SO, what kind of jobs do I apply for as a compsys student?? One of the great perks of studying compsys is the wide range of jobs you can do. You can apply for anything that ranges from software development to working with electronics. Being a compsys student, it would be ideal to be find a job where you get to deal with embedded systems - but it’s not very easy to find one here as a student, so it’s great that we have a selection of things to choose from.

Here are some websites and that I found super useful when hunting for jobs:

Summer of Tech
Joining Summer of Tech was by FAR the best decision I made in my second year of uni. Completely relying on this programme to get a job and not applying for many places outside of Summer of Tech…not a great decision. 

Summer of Tech is an internship programme for students interested in technology. After setting up a profile, you can apply for jobs with just the click of a button! There are boot camps throughout the year where you can go to and learn some useful technical skills. As you get closer to the summer, they hold events which give advice on interviews, making CVs and they even hold practice interviews! Be sure to have a chat with the people you meet at these events, they are always on the lookout for new interns and you want to make a good impression. The last event of this programme is the Meet and Greet – the most important event. This is like a huge careers expo, you need to sell yourself so that the employers will call you back for an interview!

I had a super great experience with this programme and although I didn’t end up with a job, I gained some valuable experiences and got to see different ways that companies interview candidates and really practice my professional socialising skills.

CDES
You’ve probably received heaps of emails from CDES through the uni and like me, you may not have every paid much attention to it. But they actually have some really good job listings for students looking for summer work. You can login using your uni details.

Student Job Search
This is a good place to find some general engineering work. Usually the requirements aren’t extremely technical because they are looking for students- although there are always exceptions.

Indeed, Seek, TradeMe, NxtStep, Jora and Linkedin
All of the above are good websites to check out and search through!

One thing that I found through this job hunting process is that employers are interested to see what you’ve done in your own time (related to your studies). As a compsys student, it might take a little bit of $$$ to buy something to work with-  like a microcontroller or Raspberry Pi. But if you’re really keen then I’d say it’s totally worth it! You can also find super easy tutorials almost anywhere online to make anything software related – examples could be: a CV website, simple web app, a basic game or even a mobile application! All of this can be done at home in your own time and if you’re interested in something like this, it would be a great idea and for the breaks in between semesters and it would look really cool on your CV too.

I thought it might be useful to add here some general questions that I’ve come across in interviews:

• Why do you want to work here?
• Why should we hire you?
• Why did you choose engineering?
• Why have you chosen your current specialisation?
• What are your strengths/weaknesses?
• What is something you’ve failed at?
• Have you had experience working in a team? How was it? How did you overcome any issues? (or something else team-related)
• If it is a technical interview, they may ask you to solve a problem – I’ve learnt that for questions like this, they are not so interested in the final answer but your process and how you come to a solution even if it’s not correct. Ask questions!

This post’s getting quite lengthy, so I’ll end it here. Hopefully this was somewhat useful and to anyone currently looking for practical work hours – GOOD LUCK! 🍀

-Salina 🌻