Here's why engineering students should be thinking about job-hunting in January - even first years

When first-semester exams and project deadlines are looming and you’re still leaving lectures in the winter dark, working on your career plans or applying for summer internships may be the last thing on your mind.

But with the Christmas break over, there are actually some important things you can be doing to bolster your job prospects. After all, graduation may seem a long way away but any final year student knows how quickly uni days disappear.

It’s especially hard to think about getting a job when it feels like you’ve only just started uni. But many of the top engineering firms open the application process for their internships and placements – one of the main entry routes to their graduate schemes – in the autumn.

So if you’re on a BEng/three-year course you’ve got less than 12 months to figure out if that’s what you want to do and build up your CV ready for it. Scary thought, isn’t it? But don’t worry because there’s plenty you can do in the meantime.