How do I sell myself?

Big Dookie

Yes, I'm talking about selling sexual favors for money.

Okay, not really. Here's the thing, I have this interview in the morning for a summer co-op position. This company is about to start construction on a pretty huge project in my area, and they want a student for an engineering co-op position to last through the summer full-time, and probably part-time through the fall and spring as well. It's a great opportunity, would work very well with my school schedule, and would give some excellent experience to put on my resume when I graduate next year.

Here's the problem: My major is Electrical Engineering, but this company is basically a natural gas company. They're going to be building a new salt dome storage facility here, so ideally they are looking for either civil or mechanical engineers. When I talked to the company rep a couple of weeks ago though, he did say they were also considering EEs before I even told him that was my major.

I WANT this co-op, badly. However, I feel like I will need to say just the right things and really sell myself in the interview to this company in order for them to choose me over any ME or CEs that may be interviewing tomorrow. So my question is, if you were the interviewer, what could someone like me do or say to make me stand above the others? My resume is pretty good, and I feel like my school qualifications and extra-curricular stuff is top-notch, so am mainly wondering what I could actually do while in the interview to make them really want me.

Any suggestions?

Cylarana

what company is it? Curiousity; my father is in the oil and natural gas business.

lifeincognito

Engineering is solving equations, and each field is just a different set of equations.

Talk up your ability to problem solve and work hard. Give them examples about how dedicated you are to your current major and course work. They are going to hire the person who will work the hardest for the company. Chances are high they'll teach you what they want you to know anyway and your lack of background knowledge shouldn't be holding you back.

At least that is what I would look for in hiring an engineer.

Zsetrek

There are two sides to every job application - position-specific skills, and general skills. If you don't have exactly the right skills for the specific position, then highlight A) those skills you have that are immediately transferable to the specific position (I'm guessing there's a bit of bleed-over between engineering disciplines), and those skills that would make you a good employee more generally (ie, leadership skills, research skills, etc, etc).

Blake T

lifeincognito wrote: »

Engineering is solving equations, and each field is just a different set of equations.

Talk up your ability to problem solve and work hard. Give them examples about how dedicated you are to your current major and course work. They are going to hire the person who will work the hardest for the company. Chances are high they'll teach you what they want you to know anyway and your lack of background knowledge shouldn't be holding you back.

At least that is what I would look for in hiring an engineer.

Luckily you aren't hiring an engineer, sorry that is horrible advice.

If they are looking for EE along with civ and mech they aren't after you for your design knowledge they are after your Project lead skills, I mean they are constructing something, people have already designed it. By the sounds of it you would be part of the electrical construction project, I mean it may be a gas plant but this shit is still run off power you know?

Chances are they will question you on your project lead skills, questions on how say in a group project at uni whether you took lead, if there was a problem with a group how did you solve it stuff like that. You may not even be quized in terms of your knowledge but they may look at your grades and question some of your lower scores.

Big Dookie

Cylarana wrote: »

what company is it? Curiousity; my father is in the oil and natural gas business.

AGL Resources. It's basically the parent company of Atlanta Gas & Light (that was the original company obviously), but now has expanded quite a bit. If you live on the East Coast there's a pretty good chance you get your gas from one of their companies. They're building a new salt-dome storage facility in this area that will eventually hook up to a major pipeline about thirty miles from here, and the project is basically starting at the beginning of the summer and will last for a few years.

Anyway, thanks for the advice so far guys, this is actually really helping quite a bit.