How to get into engineering design teams??
I'm going into my third-year of mechanical eng in the fall and I still haven't joined any design team, and I really really want to. (I'm actually going into my fourth year because it took me two years to complete my first year)
I'm gonna be honest and say that I'm really intimidated by the design teams. In the beginning of my second year I tried joining the Rocketry club and I went to a few meetings and I honestly had no idea what was going on and had no idea how to contribute so I kinda gave up on that. Then in the fall of third year I applied to be an apprentice for the Formula Racing team and I got rejected ... and looking back my resume was definitely ass cheeks but I still felt pretty defeated because I put a lot of effort into my application.
I'm going into my fourth-year and I've got co-op applications coming up and honestly feeling so cooked ... I haven't done any activities outside of school and my resume is looking so sad rn. I don't think anyone is going to hire me for co-op. And it's all my fault for not doing any club work or doing any personal projects but I honestly don't know what to do cause I'm taking 2 courses in spring, 2 courses in summer and then 6 courses in fall and 6 in winter. Idk how to manage any extracurricular project while still being focused on school. And idk how to incorporate myself into a design team because whenever I tried, I had no idea what was going on and it felt like everyone there was operating on a different wavelength and I didn't what I should be doing or what I should be learning in order to understand what they were talking about.
In the summer I'm gonna take an introductory matlab course alongside my two classes and make some mini projects based on what I learn from it but I don't really have anything else planned for myself. Does anyone have any advice for someone like me? I just want to be able to contribute and be someone that these teams can rely on to achieve their goals, but whenever I show up I feel so lost