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Engineering Clubs: How to Join and Succeed.
In an earlier article, we discussed 4 focuses for your engineering freshman year to prepare yourself for an internship best. One of these focuses was joining and participating in an engineering club. This article will give you the information you need to join and participate in an engineering club while getting the most out of the experience.
Key Club Features
- Engineering project focused (Using engineering to create/do something every year)
- Has good participation from knowledgeable upperclassmen preferably in your engineering discipline
- The club itself actually interests you and you want to learn about the projects they have
Engineering Project-Focused:
We’ll go into more detail about the key club features listed above. Engineering project-focused means that the club is focused on an engineering topic and is learning about that topic with projects. Some examples include: Rocketry teams, Baja/Formula car teams, robotics teams, steel bridge teams, etc. A rocketry team is interested in aerospace and the physics/design behind rockets. They learn about that topic by building and flying rockets at competitions. A Baja/Formula car team is interested in the physics/design/mechanics of how cars work. They learn about this topic by designing cars to be raced in competitions. A robotics team is interested in the operations/controls/designs of robots. They learn about this topic by building robots and competing in robotics competitions. These characteristics are important because they create an environment that successfully combines class principles (the theory behind engineering) with practical real-world examples that better represent the engineering that happens at companies.
Participation from Upperclassmen
Participation from upperclassmen engineering students in the club is important for pretty simple reasons. The goal of joining one of these clubs is to learn real-world engineering skills that you can talk about and use in an internship. Who do you learn these skills from? The upperclassmen in the club. Most clubs have upperclassmen as leaders and mentors for the newer members and are happy to spend the time to teach useful skills that the team needs. These are the people you are looking for. So, when joining a club make sure that they have upperclassmen, preferably in your engineering discipline, that can teach you skills and lessons they’ve learned in their time as a student.
Choosing a club that interests you
Don’t join a club that doesn’t pique your interest at least a little bit. If you dislike the work of the club, you won’t participate fully and/or get the most out of the experience. This especially applies to choosing a club because you think it would be “best” for your resume. Sure, companies would like to see interest in their industry, so a club related to that industry is helpful, but if that club is not doing interesting work none of that matters. It is best to focus on clubs that interest you and appear to be doing actual work that interests you.
Those three features already set you up to succeed in the engineering club you choose to join. Now we’ll give tips to succeed in your time with the club.
Now that You Have Joined A Club:
Get Involved
It’s as simple as it sounds, get involved. Go to meetings, network with other members, take on projects, etc. The goal of joining the club isn’t to list it on your resume simply as “Club Member Rocketry Club”. The goal is to list it and be able to describe the projects and key takeaways you had from being a member of said club. Wit almost everything on your resume, it’s about how you can talk about it in an interview. Getting involved and being active puts you in the best position to be able to talk successfully about all you accomplished.
Get Certifications
Most clubs have tools or a machine shop that they use to manufacture their designs. If your club has these types of tools, get trained on them. Some schools have certification programs for each machine to be able to use them. If these are offered, do them. If not, your program likely still has tools but doesn’t require certifications. If this is the case try to work on projects that get you involved with these tools so that you have experience with them. This allows you to be able to talk about manufacturing and tool operation in an interview process.
Thanks for reading our article. Now you have the information to be a great club member and get great experience. Feel free to read our next articles about the other freshman-year objectives to set yourself up for an internship.