Recruiting for Engineering
The Recruiting Timeline
Mechanical and Engineering
ME/EE recruiting is typically done on a rolling basis, one season before the internship/opportunity. For a summer internship, recruiting is done in winter; for a fall internship, recruiting is done late spring/summer; for a spring internship, recruiting is done in the fall. Summer internships usually open applications mid-fall and are open until February. For engineering startups, recruiting is done far later, typically from January to May, with bulk hiring done in March/May. Startups will even hire students a few weeks before their start dates.
Bioengineering
Biomedical Engineering firms recruit on a similar timeline to ME/EE. Certain firms can be on an earlier timeline (applications closing mid fall), but it depends on the company.
Environmental
The recruiting timeline is fairly late: applications open up late December/January, and opportunities aren’t locked down until later in April/May. Government internships are fairly slow, are you won’t hear back for a while.
The Recruitment Process
Submit a resume/cover letter.
Your resume should include technical projects (internships/work experience, school projects, school clubs, research, etc.) and technical skills (hardware, software programs, etc.). A cover letter should be supplemental and distinctive from your resume. In addition to expressing why you want to work at the company/position, you should also explain new aspects of various projects/technical skills.
SpaceX recruiter says they refer to a cover letter when they want more information from the resume regarding specific projects/research/etc.
Behavioral Interview
pretty standard, just be prepared to answer some stock questions + talk about yourself. Be genuine!
Technical Interview
Mechanical/Electrical Engineering recruitment typically involves one or more technical interviews, whereas Bioengineering/Environmental Science and Engineering recruitment usually does not unless applying for an ME/EE role within the company. If the latter two industries do want to get a sense of your technical skills, recruiters may ask you to submit some work (lab report).
Engineering technical interviews are very different from SWE interviews, since each company does it differently and there isn’t an aggregated source for all the technical questions. Huge variety in the kind of questions asked, since it covers a fairly wide group of fields (mechanics, thermodynamics, circuits, etc.). Here are three standard parts/types of a technical interview:
Fundamental physics/engineering principles: solid mechanics and statics, material properties, thermodynamics.
Ex: if you have a ball that’s hollow/solid at the top of a hill, which one reaches bottom of hill first; describe the stress graph of two different materials; what is elastic/plastic; what are the three methods of thermal transfer; what’s an RLC circuit.
These are all questions you should know from classes.
Some interviewers like to throw curveball questions.
Ex: five different ways to double the deflection of a cantilever beam (formula may have four variables but you need creativity to come up with a fifth way).
You definitely need to prepare for these. Check Glassdoor/Google for interview questions that previous interviewees got asked at the company. Ask your recruiter for a detailed job title (not “engineering intern”, rather “embedded firmware engineer”). Look up that job title on LinkedIn to find a job description from other people who have worked at that company. See what technical skills they used during their time at the company, and study those technical skills to prepare for the interview.
Intern at SpaceX/Waymo made a cheat sheet of fundamentals they learned from classes.
Intern at Boeing/Tesla made a cheat sheet for many engineering classes they completed at Harvard. Prior to interviewing for XX position, they would review the classes that were most relevant to that position.
Project: take home or during the interview.
Ex: redesign a toaster, simulate a power graph for xxx, etc.
Intern at Boeing/Tesla highly recommends citing any sources used during take home projects. If you don’t, you run the risk of being drilled in a later interview about a topic you don’t know well.
Technical questions about past experiences: describe a project you worked on.
Ex: why did you pick xx material, why did you choose four instead of six wheels, how did you decide on the tire material, etc.
Additional Tips
Be proactive, you don't have to just work with Harvard people. Grow a network through Linkedin, and don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for advice/help! You can also use the Harvard Alumni directory to directly reach out to Alumni working at companies you are interested in.
Intern at Boeing got their internship through someone in their scholarship network. They later successfully interned at Tesla after switching Tesla recruiters through a Harvard alumni.
Have hands-on experience in a project. Companies care less about grades/GPA and more about dedication to a project.
Bioengineering student says a common feeling is not feeling as prepared as other engineers with hardware skills, since bioengineers don’t learn CAD/hard programming in core classes. To remedy this, they were active about trying to find and shape their own personal project - useful to gaining those technical skills, and also good to put on a resume.
For Environmental Science and Engineering, students say that professors are very open to students - even freshmen - joining a research team.
An intern at Boeing/Tesla highly recommends doing personal projects, and thoroughly documenting them with photos on a personal website. Harvard is incredibly supportive of personal projects: the active learning lab staff is always happy to help, you can use free materials from the active learning lab (sheet metal, 3d filament, etc.), and Harvard even has a NECTAR grant available to fund personal projects.
Take a gap semester or Co-op. Some engineering students do this to either have an extended internship experience, or try out two different career options and companies. Since many engineering internships work on a naturally longer basis (longer onboarding, extended wait for materials to be bought, iteration and design process is naturally slower, etc.), some students take a gap semester to have a thorough internship opportunity. Others prefer to take a gap semester just to gain more career experience by working at more companies.
Intern at SpaceX/Waymo took their junior spring semester off to explore the aerospace industry (spring) and autonomous driving field (summer).
Intern at Tesla took their junior spring semester off to have an extended internship at Tesla exploring two different teams.
Utilize MIT! We are next to one of the best engineering colleges in the world. Take advantage of the professors, labs, and classes offered at MIT - reach out to upperclassmen to see what MIT courses they recommend, cold email professors/PIs working on interesting projects, etc.
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