By: Emily Joyce, 2022-23 SCS Advising Leader

As a student attending a top university such as the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, we are already competitive applicants when applying for jobs. However, your degree doesn’t mean everything when going through the interview and hiring process with a company. To shine and put yourself in the best position to be hired, it is important to highlight your experience as well as the skills that you have that many other applicants don’t. As Chemistry and Chemical Engineering majors, there are many different ways we can prepare ourselves to do this.

No matter what your major is, it is always important to be proficient in Excel. At times during classes, I felt overwhelmed as no one had ever sat down and taught me all the Excel shortcuts and how to use Excel as someone truly proficient. For a while, I would solve problems the long way in Excel just to be able to get a solution, however, this can only work for so long. To increase my level of expertise and make myself a better student, I watched a LinkedIn learning class on Excel. This helped tremendously, not only for classes where I used Excel but additionally for when I had an internship where Excel was a daily necessity.

Another tool I recently learned which is especially helpful for Chemical Engineering majors is becoming proficient in AutoCAD. Although I had taken CS101 and used a few design software in different classes, I had never been taught how to use AutoCAD or even been in a situation before where I needed to use it. However, once beginning an internship in Process Engineering, I quickly learned AutoCAD is the industry standard for designing plant processes. Quickly needing to adapt and start becoming an AutoCAD pro, I yet again utilized LinkedIn learning to teach myself AutoCAD. LinkedIn learning is such a great tool for teaching yourself software since usually they provide practice files so that you can follow along with the lessons they are teaching in your files.

Additionally, for all industries, coding is becoming more and more prevalent every year. Although Chemical Engineers are required to take CS101, I think it is important for all majors to take at least one Computer Science course, and if there is room in your schedule to take as many as you can. One of my regrets is only taking CS101 and not pushing myself further through Computer Science courses. Computer Science is so important as many employers will view you as a top candidate if you are good at coding and working with software since it is such a big aspect in many industries.

Overall, it never hurts to take extra steps in your learning to put yourself in the best position to impress an employer, and just to make yourself a more knowledgeable student and scientist in general!