With so much uncertainty driven by the pandemic, one thing is certain: Knight Campus Graduate Internship Program students are highly competitive and prepared for industry and national lab careers.
In late September, master’s students in the materials science tracks interviewed for 9-month paid internships, a cornerstone of the program. Within 2 weeks of interviews, 98% of participating students received competitive employment offers, with an average annual compensation of $66,200.
In normal times, the program hosts a cocktail hour and dinner, followed by two days of pre-scheduled in-person interviews. However, the past two years have required a creative approach to student-partner introductions. In lieu of past tradition, the program hosted a series of Zoom informational networking sessions with interested employers from late August through early September. Hiring teams shared information about their company culture, potential job roles and responsibilities – and how their companies navigated the pandemic. Students asked questions ranging from “What are the traits you most value in an intern?” to “How does your company promote diversity, equity and inclusion?”
Virtual networking sessions allowed students to spend considerably more time learning about companies and potential internship roles - a win-win for both students and hiring teams. After networking sessions were complete, companies selected candidates for virtual interviews and students were able to continue networking with companies through e-mail.
With 45 hiring teams participating, the 57 students netted an impressive 400+ interviews. The net result - students averaged 7 to 8 interviews each.
Director of the materials science tracks, Dr. Stacey York, notes that “Students not only launch their careers through these internships, they build relationships that accelerate their careers. We’ve been helping students launch careers in science and engineering for 23 years. By transforming the educational experience and working across academic boundaries through the engagement of industry and national labs, the Graduate Internship Program is supporting the goals of the Knight Campus.”
Most materials science master’s students will begin their 9-month internships in January. Students in the Bioinformatics & Genomics track will network with program partners during the Genomics in Action conference (https://genomics.uoregon.edu/), January 26th – 28th, and interview for positions in February for internships that begin in April.
2021 materials science track students interviewed with:
- Ascend Performance Materials
- Applied Materials
- Brewer Science
- Cascade Chemistry
- Forrest Technical Coating
- HP
- HRL Labs
- Intel (two sites)
- KLA Tencor
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab
- Los Alamos National Lab
- Lockheed Martin Corporation
- Lonza
- Materials Modification
- Microchip
- MKS Instruments – ESI
- Nanohmics
- nLIGHT
- Onto Innovation
- OHSU Knight Cancer Institute CEDAR Center
- Penn State Applied Research Laboratory
- Qorvo (two sites)
- Oregon Physics
- Serán BioScience
- Thermo Fisher Scientific (two sites)
- W.R. Grace