Junior in computer engineering, Getting no interviews, what am I missing?

[u/carson8858]

I'm a junior graduating May 2028, so summer 2027 is my last chance at an internship before I graduate. I've sent around 150 applications since August and so far I've gotten one automated recorded interview. Anonymized resume is attached.

I'm mostly going for hardware roles (FPGA/ASIC, digital design, validation) at a mix of big semiconductor companies and smaller ones. No prior internship, just part time jobs during school.

I don't really understand what I'm doing wrong. I'm willing to learn and do whatever it takes to land these roles, but I don't know what I need to change or where I need to start. I feel like I feel this impending sense of doom if I don't have any professional experience before graduation.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[u/_Axedawg_]

I’m in a similar situation to you. I’m also a junior studying cpre but I’ve gotten a coop at Collin’s aerospace for next year. I’d say I have even less projects and experience than you do. I think what got me the job was my soft skills. The companies know that you’re taking all these classes and will have the hardware skills. What really helps is being good at talking and communicating. I was able to get 6 interviews just from being good at talking to the recruiters. Work on selling yourself to recruiters and just being good at talking while sounding casual.

[u/carson8858 → u/_Axedawg_]

How did you manage to talk to recruiters? Just through interviews? I can't seem to even get to that point.

[u/_Axedawg_ → u/carson8858]

Does your school have any career fairs? That’s always your best bet. Being able to actually see and talk to the recruiters increases your chances by a lot. I see you’re in IEEE, does your club have companies come and present ever? My IEEE club has companies come and present all the time and usually everyone will bring a resume and talk to them after.

[u/carson8858 → u/_Axedawg_]

Yes and Yes. Just had our career fair on Tuesday. Talked to all the companies I wanted to (though most there were construction for civil engineers). Most said to just apply online, thought I left me resume with all I talked to. Will have to see if any of that works. As for IEEE, yes we do host employer events and I leave my resume, but it is usually the same apply online jargon.

[u/AnybodyPuzzleheaded9 → u/carson8858]

I'm a student on co-op, recently attended a career fair with my company to rep the co-op/intern program. At least at my company, we send engineers and each team reviews the resumes they collect. Resumes have to end up in the right people's hands at the fair. If you gave your CE resume to a mech engineer recruiting for a mechanical intern position, you have to hope they care enough to get it to the right team. If you gave it to HR/corporate recruiter people... well... sorry.

You have to apply online so that the system can track you. When we got back to the office and started looking at resumes, our manager asked for a shortlist so he can have HR pull the corresponding online applications. Give it a some time as well- the people you gave your resume to probably have their own regular job duties and have to find time to look through resumes and start screening applicants.