How To Become An Industrial Engineering Internship: What It Is and Career Path

Q: Do engineer interns get paid?

Yes, engineering interns get paid. A reasonable salary for an internship depends on a variety of factors but can be anywhere from $20 to $40 an hour. There are a number of factors that should influence your desired salary for an internship, including industry, experience, and location.

Q: How do I get an engineering internship?

To get an engineering internship, you must have a good GPA, complete some upper-level courses toward your degree in engineering, and have a polished resume and cover letter. The first step is to do your research. The best place to start your internship search is with companies that are actively looking for interns. Engineering firms will typically advertise this information on their career page, job-seeking sites like indeed, or even craigslist. There are also specialized engineering internships websites.

Q: What are the best internships for engineering students?

The best internships for engineering students are at Amazon, Arcadis, and Bechtel. Internships are an important way for students to gain experience in their intended career and build their networks.

Q: What are the jobs for industrial engineers?

Industrial engineers can apply for many different kinds of jobs in healthcare or energy. They work in many positions at hospitals and research and development firms, as well as major manufacturing industries and engineering services.

Q: What qualifications do you need to be an industrial engineer?

The qualifications to become an industrial engineer include gaining a bachelor's degree. Due to this, it takes at least four years to become an industrial engineer. A career in industrial engineering requires a bachelor's degree in engineering or a similar field.

What is an industrial engineering internship and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

James Swisher,

Robert Taylor

Industrial engineers strive to create efficient manufacturing systems that combine and coordinate machines and their operators, materials, utilized energy, and information. Doing an internship in industrial engineering, you will get a chance to get a glimpse of all of this in action, paving your way to securing a juicy spot in the field.

Your duties may vary depending on the specialization of the company that takes you on. Generally speaking, you will assist in the industrial engineering department's work to improve the efficiency of production.

Regardless of the variables, you will most probably have to research existing manufacturing procedures and dissect the workflow to find its flaws and see how it could be improved. You will be involved in the design and testing of manufacturing methods, prepare equipment layouts, perform process analysis to propose ways to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and many more exciting tasks.

What general advice would you give to an industrial engineering internship?

James Swisher

Director of Continuing Education, Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers

It's truly an exciting time to be an Industrial and Systems Engineer. The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics projects demand for ISEs to grow by 10% over the next ten years, which is much faster than the rate for all occupations. Firms across a broad range of industries will continue to focus on the skills that ISEs bring to improve efficiencies, enhance quality, and lower costs. In addition, ISEs bring skills in the related fields of big data, artificial intelligence, and project management that make them extremely valuable to organizations. ISEs ability to quickly make an impact in an organization also means that their potential for promotion is very good. It's a great profession to be in.

ScoreIndustrial Engineering InternshipUS Average

Salary

3.1

Avg. Salary $39,182

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.5

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.17%

Asian 15.12%

Black or African American 4.24%

Hispanic or Latino 10.39%

Unknown 3.88%

White 66.20%

Gender

female 29.94%

male 70.06%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

7.5

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.3

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.1

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an industrial engineering internship

Explore industrial engineering internship education requirements

Most common industrial engineering internship degrees

Bachelor's

77.3 %

Master's

12.9 %

Associate

4.9 %

Start to develop specific industrial engineering internship skills

Skills	Percentages
Continuous Improvement	7.57%
Lean Manufacturing	7.39%
Process Improvement	7.25%
Data Collection	6.53%
Logistics	4.47%

Complete relevant industrial engineering internship training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New industrial engineering interns learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an industrial engineering internship based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real industrial engineering internship resumes.

Research industrial engineering internship duties and responsibilities

Lead PDCA project to reduce order sizing defects that impact customer product delivery, avoiding $230K in lose revenue.
Complete 2-D and 3-D cad drawings for weld shop fabrication.
Develop and execute sourcing plans for tooling procurement to comply with FAA regulations.
Provide remote desktop support to windows systems and local applications for Ceva internal employees.

Prepare your industrial engineering internship resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your industrial engineering internship resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an industrial engineering internship resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable industrial engineering internship resume templates

Build a professional industrial engineering internship resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your industrial engineering internship resume.