part time job for electronics engineer student

Hi guys

Just wondering what kind of part time is available for year 1 electronics engineering students? (if any) I mean something related to my degree.

Do companies would hire students?

Or should I wait until my graduation, and do some project during school and prepare for job hunting later.

Thanks

I was working part time as a power supply designer and quality control inspector in my second year of college. I must admit it was luck (and years of experience as a hobbyist) that landed me that job.

Seek and you might get lucky.

Edit: I spent a year in the parts department before I was allowed to use a pencil and a calculator.
(Thanks to WBahn for bringing this up.)

There are a number of possibilities to explore. With only 1yr of education, you are unlikely to have much skill or experience to be directly useful (unless you bring other experience, such as a hobbyist, to the table). But that doesn't mean you can't inquire around at companies looking for someone willing to give you a non-technical (or an unskilled technical) position with the understanding that you want to get as much of an exposure to the technical side of the house as you can. For instance, you might start out working in stock control for an electronics company where your initial primary job is stocking electronic components. You can learn a lot of useful information by paying attention in a job like that, not to mention the opportunities to interact with the technical staff.

One very good option to consider for next year is to explore a Co-op experience. This normally takes the form of a seven month full-time experience where you take a semester off school and work that semester and the adjacent summer. Just be sure that when you interview with the company, you ask whether you will actually receive a meaningful technical experience that will let you use your existing education and learn real-world engineering. Some companies seem to think that co-op students make good gofers and nothing more. Others are fabulous opportunities. I was one of the fortunate ones. I actually did three co-op terms with NIST (one after I graduated before starting grad school) and while there will always be some scut work (and I had surprisingly little), by the time my first two terms were over I had designed, fabricated, and tested two measurement systems used in superconductor research, got a lot of experience working with cryogenic systems and 10+ tesla superconducting magnets. In the process, I gained an enormous amount of knowledge and skills that I was able to apply to my coursework and that got me a job as a lab assistant in my department where the prof that hired me basically said, "We have a 7T magnet sitting on a shelf downstairs and a dewar sitting over in the corner. Make me a functioning magnet system capable of taking critical current measurements in high-Tc superconductors. Here is the materials and equipment budget we have." He then left me alone to make this thing happen. Part of it became my senior design project.

On the flip side, I had a friend that got the co-op position I had originally wanted at, shall we say, a large aerospace firm, and was making more than twice what I was being paid. But he ended up being a gofer, learned almost nothing, and didn't go back for a second term. Me, on the other hand, not only went back for a second and third term, but did two free-lance contracts designing enhancements to their measurement systems while I was in grad school.

Hard to get hired because they know you are leaving when you graduate.

I think I installed car stereos.

bountyhunter said:

Hard to get hired because they know you are leaving when you graduate.

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Some employers will look at it that way, but many others will consider it a low cost way of evaluating potential people they want to hire upon graduation. An intern or co-op student generally makes very little and gets absolutely no benefits.

The smartest thing anyone can do is get a job first and let the company pay for your college. It happens all the time.. Many companies offer education reimbursement. Take advantage of it..

Of course a study was just published showing people in "engineering fields" that don't have a degree actually make more than those with a degree..

Check with your university and various departments. Many have summer programs that employ students to help out in various research projects.

I was one of the lucky ones and this helped me launch my full time career.

You could always lie about your experience level to get a technical job. That's what my coworker did, and now I have the joy of teaching him the job that he's already supposed to know, while making the same amount of money as him. Worked out great for him, he makes good money and gets free training.

WBahn said:

There are a number of possibilities to explore. ..

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Thanks for sharing WBahn, that's very useful information to me