Intense Interview Experience.

I think I had mentioned this before, but if not, I had a second round interview with a manufacturing company, Eaton, for an internship this summer. It was the best interview experience I have ever had, and it will probably remain that way for a long while. The company flew all of the potential new interns into Pittsburgh for an overnight stay at a gorgeous hotel, and paid for all of it as well! The first night consisted of dinner with the interviewers and getting to meet some of the employees who worked at the local site, and they were all incredible. I had never felt more comfortable talking to a whole bunch of that I've never met while knowing that I'm being observed as an intern candidate. After the dinner event, a couple of us interns who got to know each other a little bit ended up hanging out in one of the hotel rooms, just talking about school and engineering classes and such. It was really awesome hearing about the engineering programs and opportunities at other schools.

The next morning we had a presentation about the company that led into our one-on-one interviews with the employees. I was a little nervous for my first interview, but after a little while of talking about my resume and life experience, I felt a lot better. And with that, my second interview went by in a breeze, and I wasn't even nervous at all. It did help that my second interviewer was one of my FAVORITE employees that I had met there, and I felt like I made a great connection with him. There was a little break after that which led into lunch with the student co-ops at the facility cafeteria. They had so much to say about their experiences with their internship opportunities, what they liked and disliked about the company, etc. I thought it was really beneficial to us candidates to hear about those kinds of things through students who are more similar to us and are going through the same type of situations than the full-time employees.

After lunch, though, was the big part. When accepting our offers for the second round interviews two weeks before, we were informed that we were required to make a short presentation about our recent contribution to a project. Shouldn't be too hard right? Engineers do projects ALL THE TIME in classes and with research and other various internships. But me? I chose something much different. I presented on my engineering sorority and what I have done as a member to start a new chapter on campus. Because I am so passionate about Phi Rho, it really encouraged me to make a great presentation, and I think I did pretty well overall! I stumbled over my words a little bit, talked to fast, and forgot to mention a few minor details, but the group of interviewers I presented to seemed to be really impressed.

And they must have liked me because I was extended an offer to intern with the company this summer! I was so excited because I've never had an internship before, and I truly enjoyed the interview process as a whole. I'm currently working out all of the logistics based on my location, but I'll talk about that a little later! :]