Career
Prep
Each year, around 1,000 students graduate with a degree in engineering and join a global alumni base of 28,000+. Our graduates live and work in Tennessee and across the nation and the world. Many of our graduates have risen to top positions in industry, government, and academia. An engineering degree from UT offers an excellent foundation for a successful career..
Engineering Professional Practice
All students are strongly encouraged to pursue paid co-op and/or internship placements throughout their time at UT. Both pay well and both are an essential experience for advancing your academics and accelerating your job search, starting as early as sophomore year.
Our Office of Engineering Professional Practice works with more than 200 employers actively recruiting our students each academic year. They will work one-on-one with you to find a company and paid position that matches your interests and major.
How Co-ops Work
As sophomores, students can begin to alternate full-time academic study terms at UT with full-time, paid work terms with industry or government. Typically, students will complete three co-op placements by graduation.
The benefits are countless—students overwhelmingly come back to class with a more mature, well-rounded understanding of technical concepts and the role engineers play in society.
In many instances, stipends for relocation and housing are provided in addition to competitive salary and benefits.
How Internships Work
Internships are typically shorter than co-op placements, but are still paid and provide exemplary experiences that will enhance your understanding of academic coursework and better prepare you for your chosen career.
Most companies recruit students for internship positions that take place during the summer between their junior and senior year. Like co-ops, internships through the Office of Engineering Professional Practice are paid positions.
The most valuable benefit was the experience of working in a true, 40 hr/week job and seeing what it takes to be a good employee. For me, this experience led to confidence. Just seeing how much I learned and improved over the last 10 weeks has helped me realize that I know I have what it takes to eventually be a successful chemical engineer.”
– Zoe Antonas (BS/CBE ’20)
Heath Integrated Business and Engineering Program
The Heath Integrated Business and Engineering program partners with the Haslam College of Business to pair an industry-focused curriculum with immersive, professional, co-curricular experiences to graduate leaders with a comprehensive approach to solving challenges.
Students who participate in the program can expect to learn the following skills while simultaneously working toward completing their major:
- The ability to seamlessly operate across business and engineering divisions, reducing silos
- An understanding of the framework for a successful company and the critical factors driving both engineering and business success
- Strategic and critical thinking skills that will add value for their employer from day one
- Communication skills that will allow them to lead others in implementing effective solutions and translate their vision across all levels of an organization
In short, graduates will understand the intersections between business and engineering, bringing depth and value to both fields from day one.
Senior Design
Senior design is the capstone experience for engineering students which provides Engineering Vols a comprehensive, team-oriented, design experience to apply their acquired knowledge and skills toward the solution of an actual problem faced by a community, agency, or corporation. Many of the projects allow TCE students the opportunity to work with industry partners on real-world projects that will help prepare our students for careers in engineering.
The college offers two options for students to participate in senior design projects.
- Departmental Senior Design
Students work on department-specific senior design projects which places them with teams made up of students from their own department working on a project specific to their major. - Integrated Engineering Design
Students work on a multidisciplinary team working a real-word industry project from sponsor companies.