What the job market holds for Penn State seniors
April might be one of the busiest months at Penn State as the school welcomes campus tours, prospective students and prepares to bid seniors farewell. From the Beaver Stadium to the Nittany Lion Shrine, seniors in Penn State’s signature blue gowns stroll across the University Park campus as their graduation approaches.
At the “We Are” sculpture at the corner of Curtin Road and University Drive, a group of seniors posed in front of the piece while their friends stood back and held their jackets. The girls, all dressed in white under their gowns, were smiling for the photo as they positioned themselves around one male classmate standing in the center.
“1… 2… 3…, 1… 2… 3…,” the photographer counted.
The group, with the brightest smiles, switched up their poses after each count while chatting away. Parents and high school students took turns walking by the group and smiled along.
As the 2021–2022 school year comes to an end, Penn State seniors look forward to their next chapter in life with different career opportunities from various big-name employers. Three graduating students from the class of 2022 shared feelings and expectations as they take the next step toward their professional careers.
First-gen Vietnamese-American takes on Lockheed Martin
Jefferson Bui, who is joining Lockheed Martin as a software engineer in Forth Worth, Texas, said it’s an “exciting but also a very scary feeling” to be away from his home in Philadelphia. Bui (senior-computer engineering) said he will write code and do unit testing for the American military and aircraft in his future job.
“Lockheed is a pretty old company because they’re the defense contractor for the U.S.,” Bui said. “But as for expectations, I’m not really too sure considering this is my first actual job. But I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”
Bui believed Penn State classes are “pretty useful” as they have helped strengthen his portfolio since he never got an engineering-related internship before.
“My job specifically isn’t focused on computer engineering so it was more on the computer science side, not the electrical engineering side. Which is totally fine because that’s what computer engineering is supposed to be,” he said. “It’s supposed to be both majors.”
Bui’s capstone project team member Chen Shen said under Bui’s guidance as their team lead, the team did well with Ultra Wide Band (UWB), which is a short-range wireless communication protocol for distance sensing.
“I think we did a good job because none of us in the team was familiar with this technology, UWB. And we do a lot of learning, a lot of research and we got it to work at the end,” Shen (senior-electrical engineering) said.
As for Bui, Shen thought he “did a really good job” in terms of making sure everyone is on track, doing their part and turning work in on time.
“[Bui] is really hardworking,” Shen said. “When he comes to work, he’s really serious about it.”
Before he landed a job at Lockheed Martin, Bui’s parents were “stressing about it” because he didn’t have an internship going into his last semester. However, Bui maintained his optimism and advised students to do the same.
“I’d say don’t worry too much about it… because eventually, you will find the job. It may not be the one that you like, but you move on,” Bui said. “There’s always going to be a job out there for someone to take as long as you’re dedicated to your work and focus on the skills that you’d like to improve.”
Telecom student marshall is “the perfect fit” for Disney
College for Michael Smedley seems anything but relaxing. A senior double-majoring in theatrical sound design and telecommunications with minors in music technology and business law, Smedley recently confirmed he will be joining Disney Live Entertainment, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Imagineering, as an audio systems design intern.
“I work with the audio team… to bring everything from shows and parades to attractions, to resorts, to cruise lion shows… to anything that makes noise, essentially on a Disney property we’re responsible for,” Smedley said.
A month ago, at the United States Institute for Technical Theatre in Baltimore, Smedley said a Penn State alum helped him talk with Disney Senior Sound Designer Clint Clark before officially sending over his application.
“When I walked over to him, I said, ‘Hey Clint, my name is Michael. Sam Donatella sent me over to say hi to you’,” Smedley said. “And we talked for like two and a half minutes. The average time I think people were getting with Disney was between 30 and 45 seconds.”
Smedley, who is legally blind, said he chose Disney because of “their attention to full immersion with all five senses,” as seen on the hang-gliding Soarin’ ride at Disney Parks.
“[The ride] is not only a massive 50-foot IMAX screen that you’re flying over, but it’s also the wind, the soundtrack, the smell of orange trees,” Smedley said. “To me, it’s just this full immersive world that they’re building.”
A couple of years ago, at Council Rock High School South in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Smedley and Amanda Strong got elected to serve on the student council. Now they’re in a capstone class together and are graduating in May.
“He is definitely one of the hardest-working kids I know,” Strong (senior-telecommunications) said. “He’s so passionate about his work, whatever he’s doing, he gets it done.”
Strong said that Smedley is “the perfect fit” for his upcoming position at Disney.
“He doesn’t let anything get in his way of what he’s doing. He knows what he’s doing and wants to do. And he helps other people in the process of getting his work done,” she said.
As Smedley wraps up his last semester at Penn State, he expressed gratitude for the connections he made along his college journey, deeming his professors “really good at what they do.”
“My greatest resources here [at Penn State] have been professors who have connected me to alums because professors either have the connections or they know someone who graduated as they’ve been here for a long time,” Smedley said. “They either know the answer themselves or they will put you in touch with the right people.”
Future mechanical engineer’s journey at Boeing: from intern to a full-time position
A Schreyers scholar and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Luna Morales recently finished her thesis on creating turbulence using speakers and characterizing turbulent flow.
Morales (senior-mechanical engineering), who will be joining Boeing as a systems engineer, said her thesis is “a big component” in landing her job offer.
“I think saying you not just completed a thesis, but working in a research lab shows that you have teamwork skills, analytical skills, technical writing skills… is in a way similar to how you would work as with co-workers in a real job,” Morales said. “I think companies really like to see that because it shows that at least to some degree you have experience working with other groups.”
Morales said her responsibilities at Boeing include meeting customer needs and seeing if products meet certification. Even though having worked as a Boeing intern in the past, Morales said it’s “a different feel.”
“[My previous internship] was working with cement mills and construction versus this [upcoming position] is more [with] larger product design, like helicopters,” she said. “If you have a good experience as an intern, it’s more likely that you will get a return offer.”
Morales said that she thought Penn State has well equipped her for this opportunity by offering research experience that exposes students to the job search and job expectations.
“They have really good programs, like mentorship [and] career counseling for mechanical engineers,” Morales said. “The mechanical engineering building Reber has a lot of resources in the basement… so you can do 3D printing projects and talk with advisors.”
Tina Pham, Morales’ fellow executive member of the Sigma Omicron Pi sorority, said that Morales is “one of the smartest people” she has ever known.
“Within our sorority, we have collaborated together many times for many events. Luna is extremely hardworking, intelligent, dedicated, and well-spoken,” Pham (senior-management information systems) said.
From a professional standpoint, Pham said Morales is “extremely professional” and she looks up to her a lot.
“She knows what to say and when to say it,” Pham said. “She carries herself very well.”
For students struggling to find a job, Morales said to “sell yourself well.”
“Know your resources and continue to apply and selling yourself are really big things for the job,” Morales said. “Always keep applying… because you never know what the answer will be.”
