Several posters have asked about the best way to find employment with a particular company. The answer has many parts but it begins with having a long time horizon. The first thing you need to do is make a name for yourself. You need to get your name out there by writing for trade journals and other publications. Letters to the editor are a good start. Second go to and participate in technical conferences. Seek out and interact with people who work for the target company, and by all means try the "front door" as others have suggested.

 

Several posters have asked about the best way to find employment with a particular company. The answer has many parts but it begins with having a long time horizon. The first thing you need to do is make a name for yourself. You need to get your name out there by writing for trade journals and other publications. Letters to the editor are a good start. Second go to and participate in technical conferences. Seek out and interact with people who work for the target company, and by all means try the "front door" as others have suggested.

Good post @Papabravo, I don't disagree with anything you are saying. I want to also contribute to the thread.

"Seek out and interact with people who work for the target company..." Yes, yes and yes. In fact, as a fundamental step, find out what the people who have jobs that you want, really, truly,actually do - day in and day out. This can sometimes be a dream-crusher or it can be absolutely inspiring. You will need to ask yourself - can I see myself doing that in this place?

Realize a difference between school and work. For school, you (the student or someone/something supporting the student) pay to attend with the idea being that you will in return for money receive "education". For work, you are doing something in exchange (at least in terms of extrinsic reinforcement) for money. The principle there is that your work will make more money for the company that is coming up with the money to pay you.

This last point may seem obvious, but I can tell you that over the years I have seen and heard many people whose behavior indicated that they did not seem to grasp the concept. I don't mean some philosophical and capitalistic concept, I mean the simple concept of being able to answer the question "what can you do for the company?" And, again, see the first point above.

In this regard, seek out, low-paying or even volunteer fellowships, assistantships, internships and the like. These are situations where you are, by design and structure, low man on the totem pole. In exchange, you get to see inside the machine. If you perform well, you also get to tap into the knowledge base of those who successfully have the job that you want. If you are really good, you will have added to your network and opened up some opportunities.

I (and many others) can go on and on about this issue and it is an important one. I'll stop here and let others add to it if they like, except to make
one more point / observation.

I have been very fortunate to have had more than a handful of young, bright, honest, hard-working, "millennials" work for me. I was constantly amazed by their dedication, resolve and focus. It is particularly gratifying to see them move on and be successful.

I noticed one common characteristic....once they earned my trust and achieved exceptional performance, I would do something that made every one of them uncomfortable...The point would come where I would say, alright, on this issue, I say YOU figure it out - YOU come up with the answer and I will support it and if it's a flop, YOU bear the consequences. I could usually hear the "gulp" and, in truth, I was till operating an invisible safety net, but I hope you get my point....learn what responsibility really means.

 

I can't believe how many people simply want to be electrical engineers, how many people went to school (or are going to school) to become engineers, and they have no tools, no projects no curiosity to take something apart, figure out how it works or simply identify components inside and read the datasheets and make some assumptions of how the various blocks work. They simply want to "become" an engineer. Engineering obviously takes a certain foundation of knowledge and a decent memory but it also takes curiosity, inspiration, patience, persistence, ability to research, design, create and solve problems. Mostly, it takes curiosity, practice and motivation.

 

Find a "Dutch Uncle". This will be a friend and a mentor who can guide you in the right direction and keep you from running down blind alleys. You will do things for him or her with nothing more than a thank you in return. They will do things of value to you that you cannot put a price on. I owe my success to those marvelous people.