How to break into the self-driving industry after college, according to 10 rising stars in the field

Doing internships and participating in clubs while in university is necessary for solidifying your interests and choosing what kind of work environment appeals to you, Phillips said. To gain traction in the autonomous-vehicle industry, you must be prepared before you come to work. Using internships and clubs to hone skills and build leadership experience among a group of like-minded peers is what helped him discover his passion for working in small teams on hard problems that affect the world.

Staying determined and hardworking are only pieces of the puzzle, Lodhi said. Doing research to figure out what you want to focus on in the field paves an easier path to keep up that drive and effort.

Arora touted the importance of digging into the AV space through taking courses and working on projects before entering the field. That gave her the opportunity to work with real sets of public AV data before taking a full-time job. 

Study things that go beyond engineering for a more diverse skill set, Kuvelker said. The time he spent in business classes in undergrad, and as a business-school TA, gave him experience and perspective he wouldn't have gained in his engineering coursework.

In a sea of networking opportunities, class projects, and internships, Kothbauer said that being intentional with which opportunities you seek is important. Carry that intentionality through, into even the details of your projects as well.

Internships are a surefire way to get a head start, but when landing one is hard, Chu said, you're not out of luck. If a classmate or project partner secures an internship, ask them about what they're learning.

Tang said gaining a sense of what kind of field of robotics you'd like to work in early on is paramount. So is taking fundamentals learned in classes and connecting them to big-picture robotics issues.

Find something you're good at and use it as leverage. Yehoshua, who didn't do a lot of proactive career preparation as an undergrad, created the infrastructure team at Waymo.

It's important to compound taking courses with getting your hands dirty. Ideas cannot be turned into reality without rigorous engineering and a willingness to dig deep into the details, Yang said. 

Focus on honing specific skills and knowledge, and develop hard skills. But don't underestimate the need for soft skills as well. For the teams of hundreds of engineers who work on AV tech, their tasks are closely related to each other, and learning to collaborate is crucial to their progress. Follow the news of other fields of technology as well, Rykov said.