Finding Aerospace and Aviation Internships in a Post-pandemic World
For university students and undergraduates who are jumping into the world of aviation and aerospace, an internship is often a big part of being ready to start a career in the field. The good thing about aerospace and aviation is that they’re so vast and long-term oriented that the career opportunities in them will be there for those determined to find them. This is regardless of subfield within aviation, be it engineering, manufacturing, planning, and expansion, or another area.
Finding Aviation Internships
We here at Beacon compiled a list of ways you can not only identify whether the aerospace or aviation industry is the right career path for you, but ways you can get an internship with industry leaders who can provide invaluable insight into the work, career options, and projects.
The Importance of Experience
Most aerospace and aviation students are already very entrenched in the world of studying and academic work. This work in and of itself can seem time-consuming and challenging, but it sets the stage for the real-world experience of an internship, which creates a powerful and impressive image for future employers.
Pandemic Effects on Air Travel Hiring
Before even looking at the challenges of landing an aerospace internship, it helps to look at the current industry landscape (and the landscape we will see in the next couple of years), especially the concern of how COVID has affected hiring and prospects for the future.
As you know, the aerospace and aviation industries have suffered an unusually long downturn in hiring as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as it’s significantly affected all of our plans in the past year, the industries have had to adapt and discover new ways to continue innovating and growing. While at a glance, it might seem as though the industry is suffering and that it might be time to look at new industries to find internships for professional success, we recommend that students still consider and decide if indeed aviation is for the long-term. If it is, persistence is key. Note that there is a world of opportunity living in the aerospace industry, and it’s ripe for the taking for qualified students who want to make a good impression.
The Long-Term Orientation of the Aviation Industry
An important fact to remember about the aerospace and aviation industries is that they are very long-term oriented. Most businesses we interact with on a day-to-day basis are very focused on short-term goals, or immediate plans, as they should be in the B2C world. Aviation, however, is a much longer game. As you know, the planes and equipment designed and developed in these industries usually take years to perfect and then remain in service for decades after the fact. This means that the projects conceived this year won’t even enter the full phase of development, testing, and real research until much later.
What this translates to when it comes to hiring and internship opportunities, is that the industries are always going to be looking for fresh minds and driven students who want to make a difference. These innovations are not for those who have short-term goals in mind, These are for those who are looking far down the road and seeing what the true accomplishments can be. This doesn’t mean hiring isn’t affected (it certainly is), but there’s a natural limit to this.
Aligning the Industry With Your Strengths
The approach, then, becomes looking at the steps you have to take as a student to decide where you should focus your efforts in this process. Understanding what type of goals you have, and what type of aptitude you have for very engineering-heavy work is important in the internship-seeking process.
Looking at your academic performance and how well you adapt and evolve within your courses is a leading indicator of how successful your internship will be.
Look at your performance within mathematics-heavy courses, physics, engineering, and other science-based specialties, and see if they are your strong suits. Those with high performance not only when it comes to grades but also in terms of inventive thinking and intuitive understanding of the work are those who will find success in the world of aerospace.
The Two Big Reasons Internships Matter
After determining if an aerospace internship is a valuable investment for your future career, the question becomes, why is such a labor-intensive goal valuable for your future career? When it comes down to it, there are two major reasons why internships carry such a big weight in the world of professional development and sustained careers. Both have to do with dedication and a demonstrated ability to go above and beyond the demands of traditional career paths.
Real-World Experience
Compared to classroom work, internships build a great deal of value, both tangible and intangible.
From the tangible perspective, you have actual, actionable experience with hands-on mentorship coming from people working in the industry. This will give you a perfect idea of what works in the industry will be like, and how you can expect to put your classroom work to use. It’s hours on-site, and hours of meaningful work, that create students who will be leaders in any industry.
The Signal to Employers
From the intangible perspective, internships impact how your future employers will see you when they look at your resume. A resume full of extensive classwork is impressive to a certain extent and absolutely necessary to be seen, but it only shows a certain amount of initiative and drive. Internships show a true desire to do real work and work with real people. It goes above and beyond and paints a very good picture for future employers.
The Best Approach for Current Students
The Value of Internships in Any Industry
First and foremost, the best approach for those seeking gainful careers upon graduation is to look for an internship opportunity in any industry. Regardless if you’re seeking employment specifically within the aerospace or aviation industry, or if you simply examined your skillset and determined a different career path is more suitable for your expertise, there’s rarely a scenario where an internship won’t improve your standing among the competition.
The good news is, even for those who decided to take a different path away from aviation, there is a world of internship opportunities and resources available to help you land a position with a strong mentor who can give you valuable insight into your future career.
Identify New Internships Based on Experience
It helps to “reverse engineer” your search for internships and start from the beginning, looking at the experience already on your resume and looking at what the next logical step would be. Seeing a story unfolding across your resume as you continue your journey through academia will help you see where the next challenge should take you.
For example, if you see that you had a very successful academic project and presentation on the engineering and success of recent aviation innovations, this would be the perfect experience to leverage in applying to firms who are looking for an intern in their engineering department. It’s not only that the project was successful from an academic perspective – it shows outside-the-box thinking and anticipates a long-term goal.
Consider Beacon
The Beacon Fellowship has an extensive array of options for students who are seeking valuable internships in the aviation and aerospace industries. Our programs – which follow a management consulting model and have students from engineering, business, and other fields – allow students to study abroad in an internship setting in several fields, and aviation is one of Beacon’s biggest strengths. One example is our Airbus internship, where undergraduate students from several U.S. universities worked inside of Airbus’ Madrid facilities in a project with their team, full-time, during an academic break. Although Beacon programs are not paid internships, they are a way to both study abroad and obtain an aviation internship (regardless of whether your background is in engineering, business, or any other aviation-related field).
Contact Beacon regarding elite aviation internships
If you found these tips helpful and would like to explore more about The Beacon Fellowship, contact us today for more information on how to advance your career.