Engineering Career Services Office |
Resumes & Cover Letters |
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Additional Resources
Finding an on campus Undergraduate Research Position
Although some research positions are posted on the UMD undergraduate research database, most undergraduate research positions are obtained through informal channels. Here are some tips for obtaining an undergraduate research position:
- Identify a list of 2-3 faculty members who you want to do research with. If you have done well in a faculty member's course, this is an excellent place to start. Otherwise, browse faculty websites to find research you are interested in. Don't limit yourself to only CHBE faculty- materials science & engineering, bioengineering, civil & environmental engineering and chemistry/ biochemistry faculty are all great options. You may also want to consider which labs typically take a lot of undergraduate students.
- Read faculty websites and and their recently published research articles to gain a better understanding of what their group does. You will need this information to customize your application to each lab.
- Update your resume to reflect any experience you have had thus far which prepares you to do research. It is OK if you don't have any previous research experience, but you should list hands-on skills you have learned through laboratory courses if wet lab work is involved or software skills if programming/ computational modeling is involved.
- Email individual professors with your resume, unofficial transcript and a few statements about why you are interested in joining their lab. Consider this to be similar to a cover letter. It is very important to tailor your email to each lab so they know you are serious and not just sending the same email to everybody. In your email you should also include when you expect to be available (start date & number of hours per week). Most faculty members want students to commit about 10 hours per week during the semester. Make it clear that you intend to volunteer if that is the case.
- Ask them if they are taking any undergraduate student researchers and request a meeting to discuss the opportunity in person. Make sure to include your availability so that they can easily schedule a meeting.
- Thank them for their time and consideration and provide your contact information.
interview preparation
The engineering career services office provides an excellent handout for interview preparation. You can also sign up for an interview workshop or try out your skills on the interview stream video platform.
A few additional tips from my years of screening candidates at MedImmune:
A few additional tips from my years of screening candidates at MedImmune:
- Study your resume like it is a test. You should be able to talk in full technical detail about any of your previous experience, even if does not relate to the position you are applying for. Specifically you should know why and how you were investigating a particular topic or process and the physical & chemical engineering principles at play in your work and in any instruments you used for analysis. Knowing the nitty gritty details shows the employer that you were not just a pair of hands, but you actually understood what you were doing.
- You should do some research on what the company does to know what the main challenges are. Also, look at the position description and try to research any topic it mentions that you are unfamiliar with. This will show you are serious and let you ask meaningful follow up questions when the interviewer describes the project or position.
- You should be prepared to explain why you are interested in getting experience at that company and how it fits into your overall plan. "I live near the company" is generally not a good reason (even if it may be true).
- You should be prepared for behavioral type questions. Try to prepare specific examples ahead of time. Focus on times where you had to solve a problem, troubleshoot something, deal with ambiguous data, tell your supervisor you that you made a mistake, work on a team with challenging individuals, etc.
Letters of recommendation & Professional references
- Letters of recommendation and professional references are needed as part of many internship, co-op and research program applications.
- In order to obtain supportive letters of recommendation, you must develop relationships with professors through a series of positive interactions. Doing well in a class is generally not enough to obtain a strong letter of recommendation- the professor must be able to speak to your character, your engineering reasoning and your overall potential, ideally by citing specific examples.
- Asking questions in class or after class, attending faculty office hours, serving as a undergraduate teaching fellow or working as an undergraduate research assistant are all excellent ways to get to know professors better.
- Supervisors from previous internships also make excellent letter writers.
- Regardless of who you ask, provide ample time and information. (See my reference policy for an example). Having strong, detailed letters for graduate school admissions and national scholarships is even more critical, so plan for these early.