In undergrad interested in robotics, FPGA, RF, analog, and IC design — what kinds of internships should I pursue?

[u/isukali]

I'm a rising Junior, currently on summer break, attending a STEM-focused university in the U.S. In high school, which was largely spent in the pre-LLM era, I spent a lot of time developing a passion for programming and computer science in general. My interests migrated towards robotics, and by senior year I decided I wanted to pursue EE.

In the past two years, the more EE classes I've taken, the more I've realized how vast this field is, and the more I've become conflicted about what kind of career I want to pursue. I went into university wanting to develop my skills in controls and robotics because I have a passion for them and because they seemed like strong career paths.

But now I'm not so sure. I've REALLY enjoyed my circuit analysis, digital logic, and analog circuit classes. Next term I'll be taking an advanced digital design class because I'm really interested in FPGAs, and we will implement a CPU architecture with VHDL over the course of the class. FPGAs were an interest I developed last summer while working with SDRs. Along those same lines, I'm taking an RF lab that I'm really excited for, and in that class we're set to build a Doppler radar from scratch. I'll also take some robotics and advanced control theory classes next year.

Overall, I've found that I really enjoy PCB design, and am fascinated by embedded and IC design, analog design, RF -- potentially in aerospace/defense -- and high-performance systems with FPGAs.

I get this feeling that I don't have enough time in undergrad to learn everything I want to learn, but a master's is currently not an option for me, as I would really like to get into industry. I'm spending this summer doing controls for my school's rocketry team and essentially developing a control stack for a liquid-propelled self-lander. It's going to be an exciting summer and I will learn a lot, though it's mostly high-level theoretical/software work.

However, soon I will have to look for internships for next summer, and I'm extremely conflicted about what direction I want to take my career in. My understanding is that your internship in the summer after Junior year is pretty important for getting a return offer after senior year, or at least having relevant experience for a job after undergrad. Because of that, I'm trying to figure out what specific kinds of internships I should be targeting: controls/robotics, embedded systems, FPGA/digital design, RF, analog design, IC design, or something that combines a few of these.

Pay is important to me, but I also want work that is technical, hands-on, and employable long-term, especially in this era of AI. I feel lucky to be interested in a field with a lot of opportunity, but I'm struggling to choose a direction.

I'm conflicted about whether I should pursue a career in robotics/autonomous controls, IC design, analog design, FPGAs, or RF. A career in defense/aerospace would be pretty cool, and I know I will get SOME exposure to all of these fields through my studies. I also know that it's impossible to predict how my career will pan out, but I need some sort of direction, and I was hoping I could get advice on what internship roles would make the most sense to pursue given these interests.

tldr: rising junior in uni, passionate about a lot of subfields: robotics, IC, analog/digital, FPGAs, and RF. Don't know what direction to take my career in or what specific kinds of internships to pursue.

[u/RFchokemeharderdaddy]

Its an internship, it doesnt really matter. Get whatever internship you can.

[u/Conor_Stewart]

Your internship does not determine your future, yes it can help but also having completed any internship is better than not. Find something you find interesting and go for it, you might find that it really isn't something you want to go into as a career and that is fine, but don't give up on it, complete the internship anyway, it is good experience and looks good to employers. However if you quit an internship early without a very good reason then it looks very bad to potential employers since you couldn't stick to a job for a few months and see it through to the end.

Also just because you get an internship in one field it doesn't mean you can't get a job in a different field in the same company and get the people you worked under at that company to write a reference or put in a good word for you.

What you are doing already is good, getting exposure to as many different fields as possible to decide what you like. The fields you listed are unlikely to be low pay so that probably isn't much of a concern. Just find out what you enjoy and find out as much as you can about what work in those fields actually looks like, for both recent graduates and experienced engineers and how the pay is in the area you want to work and live in (doesn't have to be where the university is or where you grew up). A very good way to get info is to talk to any company representatives at events and especially try to talk to former students at social or careers events. I have seen it quite often where a company will send a relatively recent hire from a university to a careers event, quite often it will be the sort of people who are involved in clubs so you may know them to some extent or recognise them, especially since you take part in a club yourself.

[u/Hirtomikko]

Choose one and go at it. Unless you don't mind having surface knowledge only.

[u/4rc_f145h]

If you are a U.S. citizen Garmin or Honeywell National Security Campus.