Int*rnsh*ps & Selecting Specs: Killing Two Birds with One Stone EARLY & EASILY 😉

~HEY PART 1s!~

Opps, I’m sorry – I didn’t mean to scare you with those rather large…and fRiGhtEniNg…words in the title, especially on the first blog of the year 😃😅! But, I have a rather urgent matter to discuss with you. Rather than introducing each specialisation and telling you exactly what BME is right off the bat in our first post, I thought that I would highlight to you another (& potentially extremely valuable opportunity) that you can harness with what is happening around you right now. What if I told you that there was a way to help you decide what to pick and get a head start on bagging an int*rnsh*p for next year?

If you’ve already read through this or are short on time (aren’t we all lmao), then feel free to go to the relevant sections below:

Ok, let’s get into today’s topic:

Or as we say in Part II…

Now, whilst you might be internally screaming “ALREADY? I haven’t even got a spec yet!! Shouldn’t I be thinking about that first?? How am I supposed to land an int*rnsh*p? AHHHH–“, hear me out.

It’s all well and good to just pick what you want if you have a clear idea. But for 90% of us, simply “choosing” a specialisation “that you have to live with for the rest of your life” can feel so overwhelming, especially if you don’t even know what engineering industries do or what you actually even like! There often a huge fear of making the “wrong” choice.

BUT Knowing what is out there in the market though research and n*tw*rking early on means that you can make informed choices now about your specialisations and career paths rather than going off of a romanticised idea (or even worse, not really caring at all).

If you learn about what engineering jobs actually look like in the “real world”, you will get a much clearer and more motivating image of career paths that you can actively start working towards. And if you learn about industries through n*tw*rking, you will form invaluable connections directly into industries and specific companies (aka potential for internships/mentoring…).

But, why does networking make it more likely for a company to hire me?

What do you reckon that employers subconsciously look for first? Technical skills? Nope. Communication? Actually nah, not even close.

It’s whether they cantrust you.

They are putting an investment into hiring YOU rather than ^{eveeeeeeryone else out there} applying for the same job. Why? Because they know you, or they trust in someone else’s judgment of you. So in becoming a trustworthy name through either familiarity or through the screening process, you actually convince them that you are less risky to the company than other canadidates (some who may even be more technologically advanced than you) and that you have strong potential for a high return.

That’s why n*tw*rking actually comes down to how you market yourself: If you can persuade firms that you are a good fit and can be trusted to deliver, then you’ve got that j*b in the bag!

Promoting YOU

Ok, I get it. For the typical engineering student, this situation looks simply (aHaHha) *terrifying*. But here’s the secret: that’s a very good thing. The fact that the majority of students in your cohort would potentially avoid this situation actually puts you in a stand out position if you can learn how to connect with people well.

This is a skill that comes with practise. I know it can seem scary if you’re not naturally inclined to be super-duper sociable (especially if those people you’re trying to be impressionable with have the literal power to give you a j*b!), but there is good news! Connecting is a skill that can be learnt. Here are a few little tricks for building up your social skills for networking:

1. When you first meet someone, the most important thing is to come off with agood energyrepresentative of the mood that you want to convey. If you’re at an expo for instance, you want to be engaged, interested and positive. The easiest way to do this is to give yourself “20 seconds of confidence” – just start talking and creating a strong first impression with that energy for just 20 seconds, and you’ll find that you feel more confident and that the overall interaction goes much better ❤️.
2. One of the best ways to practise going up to new people is through joining Clubs or social events. Pro Tip: Go to the ones that do not have many people you know especially. In situations like these, there is no net negative with testing out your communication skills (as long as you are a decent human being lmao) – either the interactions go well and you learn/make a friend, or they go badly and you never have to talk to those people again 🤷 – that’s the same as career expos. So at the end of the day, you may as well shoot your shot 🙌!

Now that I know how to market myself, how do I actually form connections?

The BEST way to form connections isn’t through those cold, desperate emails begging for an internship in September of your third year of engineering. As touched upon above, it’s through developing meaningful, human connections with people. I’ll give you an example of exactly how you can form friendly and true connections with people that are advantageous and pleasent to the both of you through my recipe for how to deal with expos:

Career Expos are your New Best Friends: This is the EASIEST way to connect with people. They are right there and open to connecting with you, so you may as well take advantage of that. Make an effort to go to as many as you can now – engineering, science, business – at UoA or AUT – you name it. You’d be surprised how many engineering connections you can make in the span of 5 minutes each. When you get to an expo, follow this checklist:

• Stage 1: The Walk 🚶. Spend some time first wandering around the stores and figuring out what’s your strongest “line of attack” first – what most likely aligns with your degree and with your interests. Remember if you want to get more information on a company before approaching, you can always search them.

• Stage 2: The Approaching Stage. This is the hardest part. When they have a moment to talk and meet your eye, be immediately *energetic* and *engaged* both vocally and physically – like you’re meeting an old friend. Remember that you’re trying to make a lasting impression and you want to make them feel good 🥰 (everyone likes to feel good and it won’t hurt your cause). Introduce yourself and what you do, and ask them about their company and their experience. The more you get them to talk (which can be done by asking them insightful questions to fill the time) quite often the stronger you will connect with them as long as you keep an energetic, curious and positive demeanour. And hey! If it doesn’t go well, YOU DON’T EVER NEED TO TALK TO THEM AGAIN.
  
• Stage 3: Securing the Connection. This is one of the most important stages. Once you feel like the conversation is wrapping up (aka when you can’t think of any more engaging questions but the energy is still high 🙌), ask to connect with them on LinkedIn in case you have more questions about the company (such as the hiring process) and/or their experience (which ever one you liked the sound of more). Make sure that you do it then and there and make a note of their name somewhere so that you can search them up later (sounds creepy as, but I promise you, doing this is good 💀).

• Stage 4: Maintaining the Connection! That evening or the next day, go through the list of people that you connected with and send them a short message to thank them for their time and their explanations if you connected well. Confirm with them again if it is ok to connect if you have any questions. And, seriously, do connect with them again if you have any questions. If you’re three months down the line and want to know about e.g. what technical skills you can focus on developing through personal projects, don’t be afraid to ask! They are your friend now :)!

What are some other ways to make connections into industries? 🤝

1. Google Maps. I’m actually not kidding with this one. There are a few key places around Auckland (and other cities too) which are central “Engineering Hubs”. If you know of a company in one of these areas, then you probably know the location of a bunch of others that you don’t know about yet! Spend some time looking around on Google Maps, and record the list of companies in the same area to look into later…You can either save this research to connect with people at expos, or you can write into them before internship season expressing interest in their company and inquiring to see around their office! xx
2. Sign up to events that companies are running or helping to sponsor (hint: check out what clubs are promoting at UoA!). By doing this, you will directly be exposing yourself to people from companies or firms, and you’ll easily be able to learn more about what they do. Many people often don’t view these as n*tw*rk*ng events as well, so it’ll give you a leg up in terms of making an impression (remember to follow the steps above for connecting!).

By doing one or a few of these things, not only will you make some valuable connections with people in the industry who you can ask for guidance, mentorship and possibly internship opportunities later on, but you can also have some wonderful social interactions with people that make you feel happier and more confident in your own abilities too! 🌟🤗

You might be thinking “Ok, that’s good (and damn scary) and all, but I still don’t know what I want to go into! So..”

As a first year, how do I find out what I like and therefore what industries should I target?

Well, you can find this naturally by starting to research industries and connect them as discussed upon – you’ll start to get a feel for what kind of jobs you like the sound of more.

Once you decide on what kind of jobs you like the sound of, you can start talking to people within the university about what specs can help to get you there.

Here are some things that I did as a first year to help to understand my degree more once I had done a bit of sniffing around:

• Club N*tw*rk*ng. As a first year, this one’s rather important – not just from an industry perspective, but from a social perspective and for getting advice about your future years. The amount of conversations that I had with 3rd-4th years last year 😮‍💨 – they were so amazingly helpful with helping me to picking my spec, and I’m wonderful friends with quite a few of them now. Honestly, this mostly was able to happen because I joined some pretty amazing clubs (REVUE AHH!!! 🎭💃) and meet some beautiful people to connect with. Find a club with something that you’re genuinely interested in so that it makes it easier to connect, and talk to the older years! I bet you that they will be happy to help you out <3.

1. Literally reaching out to lecturers. I had a meeting with one of the senior Mechatronics lecturers last year, which was actually quite foundational in developing my understanding of BME (Biomedical Engineering) vs Tron (Mechatronics) and how much they interlink. Doing this also has the added bonus of showing dedicated commitment to your studies, which helps you to forms a relationship with people that you will work with early on! You can find the details for the heads of each departments here.

So…how should I choose my spec?

Instead of thinking about choosing your spec the “traditional way” of B), where you choose what you want to go into after you select your specalisation, start to think about it more like A).

After all, you want to love what’s out there first to lay the foundation so that you know what you want to pick. In fact, your diagram should really look more like this:

And the part in yellow is really for you, and only you, to figure out. I can’t tell you what you like, but I can say that with your first year courses and with doing research now, you will start to figure out what you do and don’t like and where your values are centred (e.g. do you like job stability, high income, helping people, working for Lockhead Martin…to each their own 💀.

But as you can tell through this entire process, connections and conversations are arguably some of the most important tools. They can help you to research what is out there (through connections outside of the university) and to understand what your specialisation choices can look like (through connections within the university).

And as a bonus? These connections are likely to help you to score an int*rnsh*p or a j*b later on that you’re actually interested in much easier and quicker ways than everyone else.

That’s all from us right now! If you have any topics that you’d like to see covered, feel free to comment below! And remember to stick around for Basil and I to explain more about BME and studying engineering at UoA!

Remember to keep growing 🌱!

– Basil & Iz <3