Student in Industry Day Event Best Practices
Event Description
The Student in Industry event places mechanical engineering students, from local college and university student sections, with a working mechanical engineer (HOST) at a local company for half a day. The student shadows the engineer to experience a typical work day. As an option, a dinner meeting is held that same evening to allow all participants to meet and compare their experiences. We always have a key note speaker for the dinner. We try to bring in a speaker who presents on a topic relevant to the students starting their careers in mechanical engineering.
Who Participates
The local senior section organizes the event. The local student section(s) participate by spreading the word within the student body. We do not limit participation to ASME student members but encourage all mechanical engineering students to participate. The ASME Student Section Faculty Advisor plays a key role by letting the other faculty members know of the event. This is important so that other faculty do not schedule critical class functions such as quizzes, exams, etc. on that day. Students will not participate if they feel that they can not miss classes that day. Local companies participate by supporting their employee's time to coordinate and plan activities for the students.
Event Scheduling
Our Student Section Coordinator, on the senior section executive team, organizes the event. We plan the event at the beginning of the calendar year to coincide with The National Engineering Week activities in February. We assign matches, host with student(s) two weeks prior to the scheduled event.
Event Planning
The Student Section coordinator posts an invitation to participate on the local section Homepage. The coordinator also sends flyers to the student section chair for posting on bulletin boards. The local senior section chairman also issues a member email via the ASME list server with an invitation to participate. All ASME members and student members receive the email thru the list server. The coordinator also sends a separate invitation to the student members via the ASME student section list server. This invitation asks the student to identify 3 top industry or local company preferences to visit. The coordinator also compiles responses from local senior members (hosts) who commit to participating. The coordinator then matches student preferences with available host members. Each individual student is notified with contact information of their assigned host engineer. The host engineers are also supplied with the assigned student and their contact information. At that point we leave it to the individuals to contact each other about location, time, contact information, etc. The host plans activities for the time that the student(s) are present. Some larger companies' host several students and plan plant tours, presentations, and allow the students to spend time in departments that they are specifically interested in experiencing. Smaller companies may only have one engineer who shows the student around their company. Host companies may provide lunches/snacks for the students and use that time to invite personnel that the students may have met or will meet during their visit. This encourages awareness of the organization as well as helps in answering any questions that the students may have about the company/career paths etc. If a dinner meeting is planned for that evening, and there are participant costs associated with attending the dinner, we ask the host engineers to cover the cost of the student portion of the dinner event.
Event Participant Benefits
Local mechanical engineering students get exposure to everyday work of a professional engineer. Local companies get to meet mechanical engineering students in person. These "meetings" generally lead to internship opportunities or potential new graduate hires.
Our Success Story
The ASME Colorado Section supports five local Student Sections. For the past several years we have had 30 + students participate with at least a dozen local companies large and small. We receive feedback that there are always a few internships and interviews offered to participating students.