I was in the oil & gas industry for 2 years (first degree in mechanical engineering) and then quit after working FT and schooling PT for about 1.5 yrs to start a SWE internship. As of now, I only have 6 courses remaining and just got a return offer for a FT SWE position from my internship employer. I think I applied to approximately 60 internship/FT SWE positions before accepting a 2021 summer internship. Although I was very much entry level in oil & gas, during my application period, I did not limit myself to applying to positions that were relatable to my professional experience. I think that would be a huge constraint but if you do find relatable positions then obviously there’s a better chance of you getting it.

During my internship phone call, my interviewer brought up a LoRa project which they were exploring that consisted of low power devices that could transmit pipeline data over long distances. Neat—I worked with pipelines and could now add some personal input. Although I didn’t get to work on or hear about the LoRa project during my internship (I was on a different engineering team—this company has over 60,000 employees worldwide), I think my professional experience was the main driver for me getting that opportunity.