Career Exploration
Students often share with us that while they’re interested in studying engineering, they’re unsure which majors and careers are the best fit for them. We’re here to help. Our goal is to provide you with the facts and resources you need to research engineering disciplines and gain an understanding of typical career paths of engineers within your chosen major/field.
Career Descriptions | UVA Alums in LinkedIn | Major Night Recordings |
Other Ways to explore engineering career fields:
►TOP UVA ENGINEERING EMPLOYERS AND JOB TITLES - Job titles and employers by major
►VIRGINIA ALUMNI MENTORING (VAM) PROGRAM: Find a UVA alum to be a coach, leader, advisor, teacher, guide, and friend
►FIRST DESTINATIONS REPORTS: Review statistics for where UVA engineering students intern and work after they graduate
►ENGINEERING ALUMNI STORIES ON THE BLOG: Read real stories from UVA Engineering alums who highlight their career journey
The better you know yourself, the better you'll be at identifying internships and jobs that will be a good fit for you. Here are ways to do a little research on yourself!
- PATHWAYU - Identify education and career pathways that fit you and make the most sense for your unique interests and values
- WEB - BASED SELF ASSESSMENTS
- ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS with a career advisor
- CAREER COMMUNITIES
As an engineer, you may be interested in careers in sustainability, technology, education, business, public service, health care, the arts, and more. CAREER COMMUNITIES provide you with specific, tailored resources through weekly office hours, emails with handpicked jobs and internships, and employer and alumni programs.
Connect with CAREER COMMUNITIES in Handshake in the career interests section. Once you've logged into Handshake, click your personal icon with your initials in the upper right hand corner and select Career Interests from the menu. Select as many as you would like!
Externships are short-term job shadowing opportunities that allow you to gain insight into a career of interest. Most externships last one day to a week, providing you valuable exposure to a professional field without the longer committment of an internship.
Each spring, our team partners with employers to offer a School of Engineering Extern Program. Through this program, employers invite students to shadow in their organizations for one or more days during Spring Break. We will share the application here when it becomes available in the spring semester.
For over 40 years, the UVA INTERNSHIP PLACEMENT PROGRAM (IPP) has connected students with quality professional internships. The IPP team matches you with a customized internship placement based on the best opportunities for your interests, skills, and goals. We will help you develop your skills and knowledge through a Professional Development Workshop and provide ongoing support in all aspects of your internship experience. All internship sites are pre-qualified to meet UVA standards and guidelines established for internships by the Department of Labor FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT.
UVA SCHOLARS LAB EVENTS - Located on the 3rd floor of Clemons Library, the Scholars Lab provides workshops on a range of topics from building web site to app building, to arduino and raspberry pi basics to data collection.
FORGE - Forge is a local non-profit school that prepares students with the modern skills they need to make an impact in the world. Over 1,000 students each year learn things like design, marketing, and data science through fun, engaging, community-driven projects. Through our programs, projects, and community, we strive to empower students to realize their own potential while creating opportunities for them to make an impact for good.
PARKER DEWEY MICROINTERNSHIPS - Microinternships are short term, paid projects that allow you to gain experience and try out new skills without a huge time committment or prior experience. Join the Parker Dewey LinkedIn group: HERE
MADISON HOUSE - Organizes service programs to address the needs of the community as well as the educational and personal growth objectives of students
LEARNING IN ACTION - Provides UVA students a pathway to public service during their time at the University of Virginia, and is designed to connect students, faculty, and community partners to social entrepreneurship, community engagement, and co-curricular service opportunities
VOLUNTEER MATCH - Thousands of volunteer, job and internship opportunities with non-profit organizations across the world
DEVELOP FOR GOOD - Get matched with a non-profit looking for students with technical expertise to help with their technical projects
CODE FOR CHARLOTTESVILLE - Work with the local community on data driven projects that have a positive impact on the Charlottesville community
UVA has a wide range of CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS that can help you explore your interest areas and gain real resume-worthy experience. The UVA Engineering Student Council has a page of ENGINEERING SPECIFIC CLUBS and the CS Department maintains a list of CS RELATED CLUBS. New clubs are added each year! Not seeing a club that interests you? Start your own!