Intern to Hire: New initiative launched to attract young talent, bring onboard civil engineers at IDOT

Intern to Hire: New initiative launched to attract young talent, bring onboard civil engineers at IDOT

A new initiative aims to attract and retain top civil engineering talent and show up-and-coming professionals that the Illinois Department of Transportation is the right place to spend their career. The new Intern to Hire program will help college interns transition to full-time employment at the agency upon graduation, creating a pipeline to help address an industrywide shortage of civil engineers.

"We're excited for young people to take advantage of this innovative program to help them move from college internship to full-time employment at IDOT, while helping us get more work out on the street more efficiently," said Illinois Transportation Secretary Gia Biagi. "IDOT also will benefit by retaining the interns we've already spent time training, allow us to build a staff that sees the department as a place to grow."

Those entering the ranks of the 1,000 civil engineers at IDOT will have the opportunity to make transformational contributions to infrastructure in Illinois, the transportation hub of the United States, as well as make an impact in their communities and hometowns.

Passed in 2019, Gov. JB Pritzker's historic, bipartisan Rebuild Illinois capital program is investing a total of $33.2 billion over six years into the state's aging transportation system. As a result, coupled with the largest infrastructure program adopted on the federal level in 2021, IDOT is completing an unprecedented amount of projects up and down the state - and civil engineers are needed to make those projects happen.

According to the American Council of Engineering Companies, 82,000 engineers and other professionals are needed across the transportation industry and beyond to help build and maintain the country's infrastructure.

With a noted rotation program that exposes new civil engineers to multiple aspects of the profession, IDOT is uniquely positioned to cross-train candidates in multiple facets of civil engineering and position them to grow and spend their careers at the agency.

"We have been very successful with previous engineering co-op programs at IDOT. The new Intern to Hire Program takes this idea to the next level," said Lora Rensing, IDOT's chief engineer and director of the Office of Highways Project Implementation. "We look forward to mentoring talented engineering students and giving them a path to become the future generation of transportation professionals and leaders at IDOT."

The Intern to Hire program is staring with 63 civil engineer openings across the state, with plans to expand the program and include other positions in the future.

To qualify for a full-time position, students must have an anticipated graduation date with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology-accredited university or college and complete an internship of at least six but no more than 60 months at IDOT. Successful candidates will transition from civil engineer intern to civil engineer trainee.

For more information on this new initiative, please contact [email protected].