Recruiting Process for Aerospace & Defense

To increase your chances of landing a job, it is important for you to use all of your available resources. The recruiting process has many steps including career exploration, industry & organization research, applications, networking and interviewing. The Villanova Career Center has resources including Handshake, Big Interview, Vault Career Guides and many others (including our staff) to help you along the way.

  • Common Entry Level Jobs include Systems Engineer, Aerospace Engineer, Quality Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, and Test Engineer.
  • It is difficult to pinpoint the exact recruiting/hiring timeline and process for jobs in aerospace and defense, since each employer may have a slightly different recruiting timeline. However, the largest aerospace and defense companies tend to recruit early on in the academic year for summer internships and full-time entry-level roles, so it is important to begin applying and attending events early in the fall semester for these types of opportunities.
  • Check company websites and Handshake employer pages for interviewing information & application details.
  • Search for jobs and internships on Handshake, CareerShift, company websites, Linkedin, industry and job association sites, professional associations, and through our university recruiting programs. Since Villanova is a target school for many companies, it is recommended that you search first on Handshake.
  • If interested in consulting opportunities and learning more about specific employers, visit the Best Consulting Firms for Aerospace & Defense in Vault.

Fit and Experiential Interviews:

  • Behavioral Interview Questions are a set of questions to assess whether you have the soft skills and motivation to succeed at that organization. These often include general questions about your background and why you want to work for the organization, combined with behavioral-based questions asking you to give examples of past experiences. Use the S.T.A.R. approach to structure your examples; Situation/Task that you were facing, Approach and actions you took to address the issue, Result of the actions you took. Learn more about “Developing Your Interview Stories” in Module 5 of Big Interview’s Written Curriculum.
  • Practice with the Big Interview Question Library in Question Library>By Industry and clicking on the profession.
  • Additional steps to be aware of:
    • Applicants for research jobs within aerospace/defense are sometimes asked more technical interview questions or to give a presentation of their past work. Applicants applying for software/ computer engineering or similar job functions may be asked specific technical questions and/or be asked to complete an at-home technical assessment: to help prepare, check out the Career Center’s Guide to Technical Interviews.

 The Career Center offers one-hour mock interview appointments that can be scheduled via Handshake to further develop interview skills and receive feedback. Students can also reserve interview rooms within the Employer Engagement Suite for an upcoming virtual or phone interview.