ECE I nternshi ps
ECE doubles internship How work experience gives fresh graduates the competitive edge
EQUIPPED TO SUCCEED: “I found that the team at Ericsson was committed to trainingup competencies to ensure I did meaningful work for them,” says ECE student William Kutarna. “They have a really good system there.”
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long with steadily increasing numbers of Queen’s students choosing to enter Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) after first year, there’s rising interest among organizations to offer them internship opportunities. The Queen’s Undergraduate Internship Program (QUIP) offers the chance for 12- or 16-month paid positions to students after second or third year. This year there are 45 ECE students on internships at 33 organizations. That’s an almost two-fold increase in placements from the program over last year. “I think definitely the large number of ECE internships has to do with the calibre of jobs that are available,” says fourth-year computer engineering student Brandon Liebman. “I’m in software, and you can see the effects of your work on a system almost immediately. It’s easier for a company to give what seems like a high-calibre position to an intern because we can make meaningful contributions more or
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THE COMPLETE ENGINEER
less right away. They gave me a project and said, ‘go.’” Liebman is back at Queen’s after working 16 months at AMD in Markham. He worked with a team on drivers for AMD graphics hardware in high-
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“Priority one: find something that you want to do,” says Liebman. “Priority two: have it enrich your academic experience.”
end Apple computers. Along with the technical work, he got the chance to learn what it’s like to work with a professional team, interact with AMD’s clients, and even to travel to Cupertino, California, for a few weeks to work at
Apple headquarters. Not only did he gain valuable work experience, but his internship earned him a job at AMD in California when he’s done his studies in May. “It was luck and good timing,” he says. “But I’ve heard that a lot of people have found jobs through connections they made during their internships.” And that’s the biggest advantage to doing an internship: fresh graduates have industry connections and a year or more of work experience on their resumes. It gives them references and a working track record that can only help get them established in their careers. But the trade-off is the risk that students may end up in jobs they find unfulfilling or, by postponing their studies, that they miss graduating with others in their year. “You have a year crest on your jacket so you want to graduate with that year, or you don’t want to miss Sci Formal or all those social reasons,” says fourth-year Computer Engineering student William
