Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but my post on indeed was not answered. Here is my question: I'm a recent graduate in Aerospace Engineering and I'm wondering how to get into L-3. All of their entry level positions ask for a previous Co-op or Internship, I'm wondering is that a hard requirement? Should I stop wasting my time applying there if they don't let people without that requirement in? Thank you in advance!
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Are you female? Are you a Software Engineer, Computer Engineer, Computer Scientist, or Hardware Engineer? They don't want those sorts. They have rid themselves of almost all female engineers in the past few years through layoffs, firings, and good old hostile-environment. And after ridding themselves of so many females, they want to convert one of the two woman's bathrooms on the 3rd floor to a mens bathroom (just change the sign).
Upper management will also a credit new grad with the work done by Senior members (behind the back of the person who actually did the work) if they like the new grad and want him to look good.
I'd kindly suggest you look for an internship elsewhere. L-3 is full of nepotism, cronyism, sadomasochism, Bolshevism, pessimism, cynicism, and old-man-ism. You're better off finding a nice tech company in the valley.
As a new Grad, if they like you, you can get some special passes. If you completely fail on one of your first projects in your first couple years of employement. It is okay. They will not hold it against you. If you can not succeed at the next project that is supposed to take X months, then they will give you another X more months (at least) to try.
You should know that there is a "New Grad fantasy" by management (among other fantasies). Hopefully, you can fulfill it. If you can, it will be great for you. The fantasy that has been voiced by some members of management goes something like "I would like to fire the whole group and replace them all with new college grads." Or "I would like to fire half of them and give the rest poor scores during their yearly evaluation." If you can be that savior grad and fullfill the fantasies, it will be truly great. If you cannot, in short time you will just be another one of the poor slobs in the group. They are always looking for someone to fire. But as "new hope", it likely will not be you.
If I'm not mistaken, all have missed the mark. This "kid" is a college graduate (probably since May 2014), and an internship is therefore no longer an option. He/she is inquiring whether the lack of such experience during their time in college will affect their prospects for full-time employment here.
A sophomore- or junior - year co-op or internship is pretty important, and definitely provides an advantage for grads in this industry. However, a full-time job is dramatically different from an internship, and if you've got the goods, you should still have no problem at making the full-time thing work. Don't hesitate to apply, and have some confidence regardless of your history, as people are perceptive to that.
Be prepared for people to be sour about their long-term gig, no matter where you look, as this site attests to. When you haven't bothered to prep a resume for 30+ years, it's easy to fall into the entitlement trap. Be smarter about it and instead of bitching to no end when conditions change, arm yourself with an updated resume and a list of your accomplishments, and simply say "I'm out." Don't be cynical.
Go ahead and apply for an internship. As an intern, you are cheap and L-3 has no commitment to you. This makes you more attractive to hire to L-3 at this time than potential new full-time employees.
Guys, let's be constructive here - we have a kid listening. I still think that we can offer you a good experience during summer, if you are lucky, you may get to work on some cool stuff. We used interns in a QA (testing) capacity mostly, not sure how much you can learn that way, but it'll give you exposure to corporate culture and you might easier figure out what you WANT and DO NOT WANT to do as you graduate. Anyhow, go pursue any internship, it'll pay off and anything is better than sitting at home and doing nothing. We are going through layoffs right now and culturally things are changing for the worse, so you will find a lot of disgruntled people on this site. Do not get me wrong, they are disgruntled for a reason, but your are at a different point in your career and L-3 is still a reputable company on any resume. Again, it'll all depend where they put you and what you do while you are interning here - if I remember correctly our Internship process is a 10 week long thing, so not much time to learn anything, but, it's all about exposure, acquiring vocabulary, meeting people and figuring out what options and opportunities are out there. Good luck in school and with your internship search.
It's not that competition is tough, it's more they don't know if they are hiring or firing, they have more than enough work, but since no one does their job or takes responsibility for ANYTHING nothing happens with the resumes sent in. You probably are just wasting your time if you do not family members already at L-3 in management positions.
go ahead and apply, make THEM say no. Don't take yourself out of the running! As you are probably finding out, competition is tough out there.
There are some executive level jobs open. Just apply for one of those.
If I remember correctly, you HAVE to be in school to get an internship, you might want to shoot an email to HR to confirm. Here is the contact info: recruiting.admin@L-3com.com (phone 801-594-2025)