UIC College of Engineering - Student Development

Preparing our students through Industry Internships and Collaboration

October 4, 2010

Industry perspective: Internships are important

Students who held internships experience a significant advantage during the post graduation job search.

• New graduates with internships are more likely to have received a job offer.

• Forty-two percent of the seniors who had internship experience and applied for a job received at least one job offer vs. only 30.7 percent of seniors without internship experience.

• The median accepted salary offer for seniors with an internship was $45,301—nearly 31 percent higher than the $34,601 median accepted salary offer to non-intern seniors.

Source: The 2010 Student Internship Survey; NACE

Salary Offers – Internship vs. No Internship

Industry perspective: Internships result in higher salaries

Source: The 2010 Student Internship Survey; NACE

The implication of internships on salary are particularly important within the engineering, computer science and general business fields.

Source: The 2010 Student Internship Survey; NACE

Industry perspective: Current internship trends

• Internships are up 2.9 percent vs. last year. While this represents a modest increase, it is a significant turnaround from 2009 when the intern hiring rate dropped by more than 20 percent.

• However, the increase in intern hiring is not even across the board with finance (-38.6 percent), engineering services (-18.9 percent), and chemical (pharmaceutical) manufacturers (-11 percent), internship opportunities down the most. Offsetting these are increases from other industries, including computer and electronics manufacturers (22.8 percent), government (40.3 percent), retail trade (15.6 percent), and miscellaneous professional services (39.3 percent).

• Similarly, intern hiring plans vary by region. Employers in the Northeast (-5.5 percent) and Midwest (-4 percent) report declines, while the Southeast (13.7 percent) and West (5.6 percent) report increases.

Overall, university undergraduate internship levels are still down in comparison to 2008 levels hitting some geographic areas and industries

particularly hard.

UIC Perspective: COE Student Internship Situation

• Fortune 500 companies generally partner with a limited set of universities within their formal internship programs

• The implication is these universities gain access to a disproportionate share of the internship opportunity

• Surveyed 2010 UIC COE seniors suggest that despite this disadvantage the average graduate has .52 internships vs. a national average of .66 for the graduating university engineering population

• With overall engineering and midwest university internships down year over year, UIC’s COE is showing a three percent increase 2010 vs. 2009

Source: UIC Student Survey, July, 2010 – Graduating Seniors

On-going UIC COE outreach to companies has resulted in a steady growth of Engineer Career Center internship postings.

52%48%

Have you worked in at least one engineering-related internship while at UIC?

YesNo

1

2

3 or more

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

If you answered YES , how many semesters did you work in an engineering related internship while at

UIC?

32%

13%37%

18%

If you answered NO to question #9, please indi-cate why you did not work in an engineering

internship while at UIC.

Not employed; too busy with classes/school/extra-curricu-lar activities

Employed, but not in an en-gineering internship and not looking for one

Employed in a non-engineer-ing related job, but was look-ing for an engineering in-ternship

Was focused on undergrad-uate research with professor

“Target One” is a goal to make all UIC COE seniors competitive via placement in at least one internship or research experience prior to

graduation.

UIC Perspective: Target One

Source: UIC Student Survey, July, 2010 – Graduating Seniors

UIC COE’s goal is to ensure that all graduating seniors have access to and engage in at least one internship or research experience during their college stay through:

• Engaging students at the underclassmen level educating them on the importance of internships, developing professional skills and interacting with companies

• Executing programs outside of recruitment fairs that extend relationships with existing Fortune 500 on and off-campus

• Working through industry partnerships to expand reach and target small, high-growth companies e.g., ITA, IMEC, Inroads

• Establishing a robust on-line strategy to capitalize on the increase in industry hiring via social media

Sophomore

Career Boot Camp (new 2010/11)

On-going Engineering Career Center outreach:• Corporate networking, information sessions and panel discussions• Individual resume and interview counseling • Engineering career center workshops (resume, interviewing, networking, professional etiquette)• Targeted daily and weekly email communications • Engineering student organization career workshop

Engineering 100

Junior

Engineering Career Prep

Day x2

UIC Perspective: Target One – Engaging students earlier

Outreach throughout the students university career

Freshman

Engineering 100

Senior

Engineering Career Prep Day

x2

Office of Career Services FT

Recruitment Services

Professional Development

Corporate Internships

Engineering Career Fair / Recruitment Services

Focus on increasing the average number of student internships through earlier engagement

Career Boot CampFall semester one day workshop designed to introduce undergraduate students to

practical, real-world exercises in professional and career skills

Agenda:

Introduction•Welcome•Goals of Career Camp

Networking 101•Elevator pitch•Written vs. verbal communication•How to build your network

Art of the Effective Resume•Format•Target your audience•Cover letter

Impactful Interviewing•How to sell yourself•Professional etiquette•Research•Mock interview and role playing

Business Etiquette•Networking

Internship Peer PanelStudent panel discussion of internships experiences and career development learnings

UIC Perspective: Target One – Engaging students earlier

Sophomore

Career Boot Camp (new 2010/11)

Engineering 100

2009 / 2010 UIC COE Engineering Career Center Student Outreach

SEPTEMBER• Individual Advising•4 Internship/Career Workshops•Engineering Career Prep Day•BMES Society Mtg •Engineering Council Mtg •AICHE Meeting •NSBE Meeting •Weekly email communication•AB Innovation Awards•UOP Info Session

OCTOBER•Individual advising•Caterpillar/SHPE Info Session •4 ENGR 100 classes( approx. •Underwriters Laboratories Tour•Maxim Integrated Products Info Session •Navy Info Session •Weekly email communication

NOVEMBER•Individual advising•Hollister BMES Info Session •SWE/WISE Info Session –DLA Piper •ITW Information Session•2 Internship/Career Workshops •Motorola Networking Workshop •Weekly email communication

DECEMBER•Individual Advising•Finals/Holiday Break•Weekly email communication

JANUARY•Individual advising•Engineering Career Prep Day •Microsoft Info Session•2 ENGR 100 classes •Siemens Building Technologies Info Session •Weekly email communication

FEBRUARY•Individual advising•Google Info Session •Caterpillar Info Session •Tau Beta Pi Workshop •UIC Engineering Career Fair/6 corporate workshops during E-Week•BioE Medical Admissions Workshop •Motorola Resume Workshop •Motorola Green Technology Talk •Weekly email communication

MARCH•Individual advising•BioE Resume Workshop •BioE Alumni Panel Discussion •Archer Daniels Midland Info Session •Weekly email communication•WISE Info Session

APRIL•Google/MERRP Info Session -Motorola Interviewing Workshop •Merrp Mock Interview •Agile Capital Info Session • Google Info Session •WMS Gaming Info Session •UIC Majors Expo

MAY•Individual advising•Finals•Weekly email communication

UIC Perspective: Target One – Expanding existing relationships

UIC COE is looking to capitalize on the growth within small companies through reach of industry partnerships.

UIC Perspective: Target One – Extending COE industry reach

Recent research suggests smaller companies, despite being more volatile, tend to consistently provide more opportunities while large companies are experiencing slow, predictable change with little increase in new jobs: • Fast growth companies (9-100 employees) expect to

increase hiring across all degree levels, with total hiring up 26%

• Small companies (101-500 employees) report hiring targets will be up more than 15% over last year. These companies will make 11 total hires per company, of which eight will be at the bachelors level

• Medium-size companies (500-3999) are dealing with serious economic challenges. Jobs continue to be lost, down 11% for total hires

• Large companies (>4000) will decrease total hiring by 3%. Large companies have shrunk their hiring significantly over the past 18 months from 114 to 66 bachelor average hires.

Source: 2009 and 2010 Recruiting Trends; Career Services and Collegiate Employment Research Institute

Example Industry Partners

UIC COE Snapshot of Spring 2010 Company Partners Abbott Argonne National Laboratory Bank of America

Baxter Healthcare Bayser Consulting Blackmore Partners LLC

Blistex Inc. Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Borg Warner

Caterpillar ComEd Cooktek

Erca Group Evans Construction Exelon

Facebook Filtran LLC Fisher Nuts

GE Transportation Google Illinois EPA

John Crane John B. Sanfilippo & Sons, Inc. Kinder Morgan

Midway Games Minneapolis Heart Institute Monsanto

Motorola Nanya Plastic Corporation Collins Engineering

Novarra NREIP PCTEL

Principal Manufacturing Schure US Cellular

Vapor Bus International Verizon VMWare

WB Games Chicago Woodward MPC Yahoo

STO Security Klein Tools Navistar

Panduit Corporation Walgreens Libera, Inc.

Comcast JP Morgan Chase Azteca Power Company

UIC Perspective: Target One – Extending COE industry reach

UIC COE is revamping it’s website and looking to better understand available on-line tools and linkages as the internship market changes.

UIC Perspective: Target One – Capitalizing on social media trends

• Traditional company campus activities are down considerably:

• 42% will reduce the number of schools they visit• 46% will reduce the number of career fairs they

attend• 36% will hold fewer on-campus interviews

• Hiring among companies using social media is projected to be up 13%. To take advantage of opportunities in the small business labor market, graduating students will have to pursue strategies beyond traditional campus recruiting methods.

• Small businesses are less likely to visit campus to interview, attend job fairs, and speak with faculty.

Source: The 2010 Student Internship Survey; NACE

• Approximately forty percent (80) of 2010 graduating seniors were not afforded an internship opportunity resulting in making them less competitive during the recruitment process.

• The ask: Hire at least one intern each semester for the 2010/11 year.

• Given the small staff, UIC COE has limited means to target companies thus need to work through industry partners with extensive reach. These organizations can be particularly effective in connecting UIC within the small business market.

• The ask: Provide the name and an introduction to industry associations that bring reach and have complementary interests with UIC COE e.g., ITA, IMEC, Inroads.

• Many of the successful connections thus far have been through Board connections. UIC COE would like to build internship opportunities in the Chemical, Bioengineering and Energy areas.

• The ask: Provide names within the COE Faculty target list of companies.

UIC Perspective: COE Advisory Board Ask