Shannon Chu

Shannon Chu (M.Eng., 2000)
Project Engineer
EPRIsolutions

I applied for a few jobs on-line through the usual websites like monster.com and I didn't even get an interview. I was able to get my job here at EPRIsolutions via referral from another Berkeley grad. I think most technical jobs here at EPRI and EPRIsolutions are given to people who have an internal referral.

In my current job I have the opportunity to interact with a lot of different organizations in the industry including people who work for utilities with corporate offices that handle chemistry, materials, and INPO issues for several nuclear plants, people who work for individual nuclear plants, and people who work for vendors and engineering consulting firms. The most proactive organizations as far as hiring and training new graduates (especially undergrad degrees) appear to be the vendors and consultants. I know Westinghouse in particular has a proactive approach to hiring and retaining new grads.

      My job involves a lot of project management, budget tracking, reviewing other people's work, coordinating and distributing information, and very little technical work. Jobs with a vendor or consultant would definitely be more technical, some of them would involve a lot of travel to industry meetings and to different plants.