A Well-Earned Yet Charmed LifeHow one student met his future head-onby Tom Cudd For many years, Adam Brehm has been the ideal student the University of Nebraska-–Lincoln College of Engineering & Technology wants in its programs. While attending classes, Brehm has kept one goal in mind—find a career. With a mixture of real-world experience, and advanced classroom projects, this computer engineering major wanted to have more than a job—he wanted a career that would remain fulfilling for many years.
After serving as a project manager for a client’s software product, the company i2rd offered him an internship. “It allowed me to see beyond just the engineering done in class and see some of the higher level tasks, such as project plans and delegating tasks,” said Brehm. This type of work has also given Brehm the opportunity to talk about his various projects during job interviews. Not only has he had a great deal to talk about, Brehm has had many places to share his experience . He has had on-campus interviews with National Instruments, Sprint, Cerner, General Dynamics, Union Pacific, and Garmin. These interviews led to onsite interviews with Union Pacific in Omaha, Neb.; Sprint and Cerner in Kansas City, Mo.; National Instruments in Austin, Tex.; and General Dynamics in Scottsdale, Ariz. His internship experience also led to discussions about full-time employment with i2rd. In this ever-changing economy, a student has to start earning experience as soon as possible in order to rack up the kind of credentials that are necessary to get a second look from companies. “I worked in the CBA ITS Department starting my freshman year. I started as a help desk technician,” Brehm explained. “And when Kauffman first opened, I became the tech support coordinator for the building and the program.” He went on to explain how this work led to a promotion to the assistant systems manager where he helped with systems administration on various server tasks. Even with all of this great experience, it was sometimes necessary to work in an area that was not related to his future career path. “During the summer of 2001, I worked as a desktop services intern at ConAgra Foods. Although I wasn’t necessarily doing the kind of work that I wanted to do, it was valuable to see how large corporations work on different levels,” Brehm said. The position involved providing support to more than 600 computers and users. He also learned that working on that scale involved a team of six employees, other interns, and consultants. It was during the summer of 2003 that Brehm ended up working at i2rd as a product manager for a particular software application, where he was able to learn a great deal more. “I was able to do software development, as well as create marketing documents, make sales calls and work with other developers to make sure that all enhancements were complete before software releases,” Brehm said. After accumulating all of this hard work and experience, it was necessary for Brehm to be able to sell his abilities to prospective employers. Brehm, who has been developing his resume since high school, slowly started phasing out high school exploits as professional opportunities began to fill up his employment section. “Friends and family contributed to creating an aesthetically pleasing and informative resume,” Brehm added. Even with a sister-in-law who works in Human Resources, Brehm has other tactics for improving a resume. “One of the best things that I think anyone can do is to swap resumes with their peers and work together to take the best features of everyone’s resume and apply it to your own. When I did this with one of my friends, both of our resumes improved greatly as we were able to offer a different point of view,” Brehm said. He also acknowledged that he never took advantage of Career Services because he thought that an engineering resume would have to look different than other majors. Once a resume gets that vaunted interview, it is important to know what type of interview a prospective employee is heading into. “A big thing to realize is that even though you may be interviewing for a technical position, most companies are not going to be asking you technical questions, especially during the first interview with the company. Behavioral questions have become the norm, and people need to understand that and prepare accordingly,” Brehm said. He went on to say that feeling comfortable is probably the most important part of the interview process, but comfort can only be learned with practice. Once past the campus interview, many students often mutter, “And this is why I got into engineering in the first place.” Onsite interviews for Brehm included flight and hotel accommodations as well as having lunches and dinners in upscale restaurants paid for, all while being ushered around by a current employee (and usually UNL graduate) who shows new recruits the sights, attractions, and even apartment complexes. Even the locations he drove to reimbursed traveling expenses and supplied a hotel room for the night before the interview. In some of the warmer locales, Brehm was able to hit the links in the middle of November. Even with the possible distractions that an on-site interview had to offer, they still turned out quite positive. “I had three official job offers—one from Union Pacific in their IT Audit Department, one from Cerner as a software engineer, and one from National Instruments as an applications engineer in their Engineering Leadership Program,” said Brehm. “I accepted the position from National Instruments and will start June 7.” Deciding which offer to accept took serious consideration. In addition to the position and its requirements, factors such as location and career advancement can be vital when deciding where to work.
Brehm noticed that many companies are starting to recover from previous recruiting cuts. He had to make sure that his last semester at UNL was less rigorous, but with a senior design project taking place during the same time as many interviews, Brehm knew he needed an early start. After a stressful period of searching and uncertainty, the light is extremely bright at the end of the tunnel. “I’m really happy that I had my position lined up before the semester began but now the anticipation is killing me. It’s really exciting to think about how the years of hard work are about to pay off with a job that I think will enjoy a lot, not to mention that I’m looking forward to having a nice salary,” said Brehm. “I arranged my semesters so that I would have a pretty easy last semester and the time and space to find a job. I would suggest that you take a very light semester when you are planning to find a job. It would be especially helpful to keep your Fridays completely open as Fridays are typically used as onsite interview days,” said. As long as a prospective worker knows what lies ahead in an interview, they can be prepared as well. “If you had a really good internship, pick a project you worked on during the internship to discuss. Most employers want to know that you can think on your feet and you can speak about your experiences. The technical skills are assumed,” Brehm clarified. Adam Brehm has shown that with effort put into creating a resume, preparing for interviews and gaining the right experience, any College of Engineering & Technology student can land that big job they’ve worked for. |
“The biggest thing it came down to was the job description and what my career goals are. I’ve always seen myself involved in engineering, but on a higher level. The NI position will allow me to utilize and enhance my skills on the business side of engineering right away,” Brehm said. “Another very important thing I was looking for was corporate culture and work atmosphere. The ELP program at NI is comprised solely of individuals three years or less from graduation so it’s a very young atmosphere. You’re not just stuck in a tiny cubicle, you share a very large work space with other engineers.”