[Andy Baker]

While a sophmore at the University of Evansville, I landed a great co-op job with GE Plastics. An HR manager from GE hired about 6 engineers from my school and we all worked there until we graduated. Getting that co-op job was easy, as I prepared a resume and showed up for the interview. Little did I know it would be nothing like landing a full-time position.

My senior year was 1991, and as Jeff Pahl mentioned above, it was a terrible time to find engineering jobs. GE had 25 co-ops graduating and they only offered positions to 3 (this is not normal). Corporate recruiters would come to campus, have 30-40 candidates for jobs with only 1 opening. Many of us sent countless resumes out. I think I sent out over 100, even 20-30 to Australia. (I did get one letter back from Down Under, insulting me for not knowing that they were even in a deeper recession than the US was at the time).

While times were not good, the placement office at UE still wanted to help and made a good suggestion: they gave me an alumni directory and told me to call alumni who work in positions similar to my degree. So, I took this book of names, occupations, and contact information and started highlighting people to call. After many, many days of calling suprised UE grads, I finally found a guy who had an opening in his department here at Delphi (Delco Electronics at the time). My boldness and good timing got me the opportunity to get an interview, while my co-op experience at GE combined with decent grades at UE helped me to land the job. I interviewed with 3 engineering managers, 2 fellow engineers, and even 2 UAW skilled tradesman (how I get along with these guys depend on how well I do my job). The guy I originally called still works in the same department, 14 years later, as do I.

Good thread, John.

Andy B.