Why did you want to do an internship? What interested you in the company you worked for?

Engineering companies take a risk when hiring new graduates. They do not know if you dedicated the time to understand engineering concepts or just coasted by meeting the minimum requirements. An internship lets a company take you for a test drive where your application of engineering skills can be on full display. I knew my grades didn’t tell the full story; I wanted a company to see how I worked too.

I accepted a co-op position with Skyworks Solutions and returned the following summer for an internship. The company fit my wireless systems focus area well: They design RF  semiconductors, including amplifiers and front-ends, with a focus on mobile solutions. Another draw was that Skyworks treats their interns and co-ops like new team members, rather than offshoots for side projects, so you support the same key projects as professional Design Engineers.

What did a typical day at your internship look like? What sort of projects do you work on?

My days were spent evaluating our prototype RF front-end module performance through test selection and data analysis. I also helped 

 Each evaluation required me to consider different aspects of RF performance, from out-of-band spurs to modulation degradation at different temperatures. The role of an RF Module Design Engineer is to budget their time well, queuing only the tests necessary to evaluate a change. When a test showed poor performance, it was often up to me to adjust the amplifier bias or part configuration to fix the issue.

How did your engineering skills benefit you in your internship? 

The RF industry requires deep understanding of electrical concepts such as high-frequency parasitic effects, amplifier performance, and nonlinearity. It is a role that could not be filled by any engineer but electrical, since the work is highly specialized and complex. The 5000-level RF Electronics classes taught by Phil Thompson were directly applicable to my role at Skyworks, especially the discussions about nonlinear amplifier effects and duplexer design, since my team was working on an RF front-end module at Skyworks.

What did you learn working at your internship that you didn’t learn as a student?

At Skyworks, I learned the importance of finding a niche in a team. I watched other interns flounder as they worked on what they saw as “grunt work,” running routine tests to evaluate the daily builds and moving on. My team started me in the same way, but I was given an opportunity to differentiate myself when a coworker asked for a data summary tool. I programmed the tool as requested, throwing in many convenience features I realized would be helpful during development, and my teammates loved the outcome. After a few weeks, I was known not just as the new co-op, but as a team member with unique skills who could handle projects others could not. When I returned to Skyworks the following summer, my teammates asked for updates to my tools with new ideas they’d thought of during my absence. I was able to help the team using my own unique skills, which supported both the needs of my coworkers and the future of my career.

What are you hoping/planning to do after you get your B.S.E.?

I’ll be right back at University of Iowa! I’m scheduled to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam after graduation in January 2027, and the week after, I’ll start my first semester as a graduate student. I joined the Undergraduate-to-Graduate (U2G) 4+1 program in my junior year of undergrad and maxed out my dual credits, so I’ll only need two more semesters to graduate with an Electrical and Computer Engineering MS. After Winter 2027, I hope to continue full-time at Skyworks.

How did your internship experience influence your plans for the future?

My time at Skyworks helped confirm my choice to pursue electrical engineering. The position helped me look back to see all the ways my classes had prepared me for industry, and sometimes how they hadn’t! The co-op and subsequent internship were essential for convincing me that a Master’s in electrical engineering would be the right career path for me.

What is your advice to current students on seeking and serving internships?

Start early! Many companies send out offer letters for summer internships and co-ops in fall or winter of the year before. If you wait until spring to start applying, you’re missing out on a huge number of opportunities. You should also be sure to attend every career fair. College career fairs are by far the best way for students to meet employers; they are an incredible resource you won’t be able to access after graduation. Focus on speaking to companies you actually want to work for. Talking to every booth is a quick way to waste everyone’s time.

Once you have an internship, you must apply yourself. Internships and co-ops are just interviews for a full-time position. If you commit yourself to your work and provide value to a company, your chances of receiving a full-time offer after graduation are high.