You're eager to excel in aerospace engineering. What skills should you focus on during your internship?

The project must be chosen based on current and near future industry trends. Software Skills such as Arudino, Raspberry Pi, Systems Tool Kit, Ansys Workbench, Solidworks, Fusion 360, Catia, Python, C, Reinforcement Learning are a pre-requisite. Thorough knowledge on the primordial essentials of Fluid and Flight Mechanics, Structures, Propulsion, Avionics, Composites, Aerodynamics are needed. Soft skills such as effective communication, Leadership are suggested.

Aerospace engineering is spanning across many disciplines and the same is the case with education. Therefore, a cross functional internship can provide a holistic overview of the field. It will help engineers to decide the specialization that they should pursue a career in. However, it is unlikely to get a SE role at the start of career.

I agree that collaboration is crucial for success in complex projects. But beyond collaboration, it's important to be able to lead and be led. A good aerospace engineer needs to be capable of both coordinating a group and following the guidance of a leader. Emotional intelligence is also a crucial skill. Understanding your own emotions and those of others, resolving conflicts, and building healthy relationships are competencies that make a difference in any team. Any aerospace project we will deal with small to large teams and developing leadership, empathy will help us to communicate and get along with our coworkers, leading to a successful project, networking, and even geting some friends along the way.

Internships offer a unique opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world situations, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. It exposes interns to a wide range of challenges that may not be covered in a degree. Moreover, real-world problems often involve multiple factors, requiring one to analyze complex dependencies in system.