Welcome to Design Launchers.

We've created this page to provide you with additional information regarding an opportunity to join our team as an entry level intern.

Minimum Requirements:

This internship opportunity is open to Mechanical Engineering students that are Sophomores, Juniors, or Seniors with at least 1.5 to 2 years remaining before graduation and requires a minimum GPA of 3.0. Please note that this internship opportunity is only available to Mechanical Engineering students and we will not be able to review or consider applications from Aerospace Engineering or other majors.

About Design Launchers

Please take some time to explore our website to learn more about our company and the help that we offer to inventors and companies of all sizes. We recommend starting with the About Us page.

Does the About Us page read like a description of yourself? If so, we want to hear from you.

At Design Launchers, we generally only work on projects that are to some degree mechanical or electro-mechanical in nature; devices, machines, tools, gadgets, widgets, or products with some function or form that makes it useful to the world in some way. From time to time there are exceptions with respect to a project being mechanical or electro-mechanical, but to give you an idea of what's typical, here's a short list of just some of the industries and applications we've had the opportunity to help create new products in: medical device/instrument & orthopedic implants, athletic training equipment, theme park applications, weapon accessories, military equipment, virtual reality simulation hardware, boating products, fashion accessories, construction tools, cell phone cases, fishing products, oil & gas hardware, electronics housings, consumer products of all kinds, and more.

about the internship

An internship with Design Launchers is not about getting coffee for the boss, mindless busy work, or making copies for the senior engineers. All of our product design team members, interns included, work on Product Development Projects, the prototyping machines, and generally work on things to improve the company operations as a whole. We create, test, and build new products at Design Launchers... and you'll have hands on experience doing just that. We start from just simple ideas and sketches and then move into CAD design software. We then test our designs using 3D Printing, CNC Machining, and many other prototyping and manufacturing processes, and finally, when the design work is complete, we help our customers through the production of thousands of units with our network of manufacturing companies that offer mass production technologies to put finished products into the hands of the end consumer.

That's the job description in a nut shell.

We are looking for students with at least 1.5 to 2 years remaining before graduation because we spend a significant amount of time investing in the training of our mechanical engineering interns with the goal of full time employment at the end of the internship.

We don't offer a "summer internship" for our engineers... we offer the first step in a career.

the interview process

Because we want to only hire the right people, we have a somewhat long interview process. How long does the process take? However long that it takes to find the right people. Our interview process can be viewed as being broken up into three phases (Interviewing, CAD Training, and Internship Offer):

Phase 1: Interviewing

The first phase is pretty much a standard interview. This phase starts with the typical interview process you'd expect with bi-directional Q&A sessions starting with calls and then moving on to face to face interviews. The duration of this phase will entirely depend on the number of applicants. At the end of this phase we'll narrow the field down to a hand full of candidates that we'll invite into the second phase.

Phase 2: CAD Training Sessions

"Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

- Thomas Edison

The second phase entails beginning with training in SolidWorks CAD software. Every student we’ve ever interviewed, even those who are SolidWorks certified, hasn’t had the necessary level of CAD software skills to jump right in and start working on projects right out of the gate so a class is needed to get someone ready to start a job like ours.

So at this stage you are still not an employee and won't yet be working on design projects for customers. Instead we will focus on teaching you to 3D model with speed and to use proper 3D CAD modeling techniques for various objects & assemblies so you can effectively work on projects as an intern, if hired. We say “if hired” because this period is designed to get to know you, how you work, and how you learn. This phase entails evening classes one to two times per week of SolidWorks training sessions for about 5 weeks. The number of weeks required will entirely depend on your effort in practicing and learning SolidWorks outside of the training sessions.

Once you're up to speed in SolidWorks and have proven to be up to the tasks ahead, we will then offer an internship opportunity. We want to see you move into the internship as soon as possible so practice, practice, practice. Based on our ongoing assessments during this second phase, we'll narrow the field further during this process until we've ultimately filled the open internship position(s).

It is important to note, there is no expectation that you come to the table already knowing 3D CAD modeling or that you have any prior engineering internship experience. Experience is a plus, but zero 3D CAD modeling experience is perfectly ok. We will train you to be an expert, that's our job. It is far more important to us to find the right kind of individual for the long haul than someone who knows a little CAD right now.

a note about Build Experience…

However, it is an absolute must-have requirement that our internship applicants have prior build experience. By having prior “build experience,” we mean as a student interested in mechanical engineering you definitely should have built several things by now on your own, outside of assigned school projects, both while in high school and college. Being a mechanical engineer is much more than being book smart. Being good at math does not make a great mechanical engineer. A great mechanical engineer will have a natural mechanical inclination and a high level of interest in building and tinkering with things.

We’re looking for students who can demonstrate an on-going propensity for designing and building things by being able to discuss a series of examples of the things they’ve built.

The things themselves don’t need to be extravagant, large scale, or extremely complex… just that you’re designing and building things because it’s something you naturally enjoy doing. Here are some actual examples, some are simple and some are complex, that our interns have built on their own outside of their school work prior to working at Design Launchers:

Keychains
Balsa wood airplane from scratch
Gardening tables
Skateboard ramps
Arduino controlled door dead bolt actuator
Arduino driven mini-backhoe articulating robot arm
Wall mounted keychain holder
Electric furnace to melt and cast Aluminum parts
Home liquor bar with multiple compartments (of course at 21 years old)
Quadcopter
A mini medieval trebuchet
US-First Robotics competition robots
A guitar from scratch
Re-built car/motorcycle engines
Rolling marker board frame
Radio controlled boat from scratch
Dorm room elevated bed lofts
Punching bag stand
Baby gate for pets
Bike repair rack
Model rockets

Phase 3: Internship Offer

Once hired as an intern, we will begin with likely around 10 paid hours per week and ramp up to more hours per week as you become more self-sufficient in your work. Our more experienced interns nearing graduation will generally work between 25 to 30 hours during the school semesters and work at or near full time when school is not in session. Understanding you are in school, we are very flexible with work schedules but we keep relatively normal office hours, Monday through Friday.

Things you will learn about as a Design Launchers intern:

Expert level CAD design skills and advanced features in SolidWorks
Detailed knowledge of every major 3D Printing process in use today
Detailed part design for injection molding, CNC machining, laser cutting, etc.
Part design and prototype testing methods
The company's processes and project workflow
Outlook email software
Organization & prioritization techniques
Professional customer service
Design & Prototyping project management, sales, and quoting
Design for various manufacturing processes' constraints.
Introduction to Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T) for 2D prints (“blue prints”)
Vendor management
Job costing & profitability analysis

If the opportunity to join the Design Launchers team sounds like something you'd like to learn more about, please complete the contact form below:

Your Contact Information

Name

First Name

Last Name

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Email Address

Address

If your resume already includes your address, you can skip completing the address fields.

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City

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School Information

Degree Program

Please note that this internship opportunity is only available to Mechanical Engineering majors. Aerospace and other majors unfortunately will not be reviewed or considered.

School You Are Currently Attending

Grade Level (i.e. Sophomore, Junior, Senior)

Current GPA

Please note that applicants must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 to be considered for the internship position.

Expected Graduation Date (Month & Year)

3D Printer Experience

Please tell us what 3D Printers you own or regularly use.

Anything You've Built, Tinkered With, or Created (excluding school projects)

This is the most important field on this application. We pay more attention to this field than any other when determining who to schedule interviews with. Be thorough and descriptive. Please do not list any school projects. Everyone has to do the same assigned school projects, so we are only interested in things you've done outside of your schoolwork projects. Whether simple or complex, we'd like to see a series of builds (i.e. more than just one or two) that serve to demonstrate an on-going propensity for designing, building, and working on things. Treat this field as if it's your first interview.

Favorite Course So Far? Why?

Individual Information

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How Would Your Friends Describe You?

Why Did You Choose Engineering?

Past Work Experience

Please list a brief summary of your past work experience (including retail, sales, and food service positions). If you have already submitted a resume through HandShake please note that here and you won't have to repeat the information again here. If you would like to expand upon any work experience on your resume, please feel free to here.

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