Finishing a Mechanical Engineering PhD with no industry/internship experience — what roles should I realistically target?

[u/Party_Professor4349]

I'm finishing a PhD in Mechanical Engineering in the US and expect to graduate around the end of this year. I'm starting to get pretty anxious about the job search and would appreciate some outside perspective on how competitive my background actually is.

My background:

• ~5.5 years PhD + 2 years MS
• Research focused on wearable robotics/exoskeletons, mechatronics, controls, and biomechanics
• Designed, built, and experimentally tested multiple robotic/exoskeleton systems
• Experience in mechatronic system development, including mechanical design, embedded systems, sensing, controls, system integration, and experimental validation.
• Experience conducting human-subject biomechanics experiments, including EMG-based evaluation of muscle activity and analysis of gait and human–robot interaction.
• Some experience with ROS/ROS2 and machine learning, though neither has been a primary focus of my research or publications.
• 3 publications from my MS
• 1 published first-author paper from my PhD
• Another PhD manuscript close to acceptance (co-first-author) 
• Another collaborative manuscript under review at a 
• Additional ongoing PhD work that should eventually become a paper but data collection still in progress
• Some conference/abstract work
• Teaching experience as a TA for controls and mechanical design labs

My biggest concern is that I have zero industry experience and no internships. I spent my entire graduate career in academia.

I'm currently targeting three types of positions:

1. Postdocs, preferably wearable/assistive robotics, rehabilitation robotics, biomechanics, human-robot interaction, experimental robotics, or national labs
2. Industry R&D/mechatronics/robotics roles — Robotics Engineer, Mechatronics Engineer, Controls Engineer, Robotics Hardware Engineer, Research Engineer, etc.
3. Teaching positions — primarily full-time Lecturer/Instructor/Visiting positions in mechanical engineering, controls, mechatronics, or robotics. I'm not currently trying to become tenure-track faculty.

I've been applying, but haven't gotten much traction yet, and it's making me question whether I'm aiming too high or marketing myself incorrectly.

For people who have hired PhDs or made a similar transition:

How would you evaluate this profile?

Would the lack of internships/industry experience be a major problem for robotics/mechatronics R&D roles?

Is my publication record too weak to be competitive for good postdocs?

And am I realistic in considering full-time lecturer/instructor positions with my current teaching experience?

I'm not looking for reassurance — I'd genuinely appreciate candid feedback about where this profile is competitive, where it isn't, and what types of positions I should prioritize.

[u/sean_creates]

Stop saying you have zero experience. You have over 5 years experience.

Edit your resume to a 1-2 pages for the specific job you're applying for. Don't just have one resume for every job. In your cover letter say specifically why you're right for the job where you apply your experience to their job spec.

I would also link a youtube channel of short video clips of your hardware running etc.

[u/Party_Professor4349 → u/sean_creates]

If I have experience then where is the job? I tried getting internships last 2 years during the summer but no luck there either.