The Internship Experience
Posted on February 24, 2014 by Jessica Callinan
I am a firm believer that an internship is one of the best ways to solidify your decision to become an engineer. It gives you invaluable experience and shows you what your degree can do. You get exposure to a plethora of different people, learn what a full time environment is like, and get to work hands on with super cool projects. One of the best things about it is you get to see what you learn at school and put it into action. It's no longer just a homework problem, its a set of equations governing a real moving part on a system that you get to interact with. The design process comes to life, and rather then working in student teams, you're working with a company wide team towards a common goal.
When I was offered my first internship, I was overwhelmed with excitement and with nerves. Half of me was ecstatic about getting really world experience to add to my resume, while the other half was worried I’d be making copies and going on office coffee runs. The experience I actually got was completely different.
When I was offered my first internship, I was overwhelmed with excitement and with nerves. Half of me was ecstatic about getting really world experience to add to my resume, while the other half was worried I’d be making copies and going on office coffee runs. The experience I actually got was completely different.
I interned with the same company, General Dynamics Electric
Boat, for two summers, each summer working in a different department. Both
summers I learned quite a bit and really got a well-rounded feel for what I wanted
to when I graduated college.
My first summer I spent a lot of time in the office running calculations, listening in on meetings, and helping my team wherever needed. I was treated as not just the intern but as a crucial link to the team, going through all the necessary training and advising that any new hire would receive. I got the opportunity to go see the shop, the shipyard, and different parts of the company that really helped me get a feel for what was going on.
The second summer was a lot different. I was placed in a new, much more corporate location. I received exposure to many more people, departments, and projects. My two mentors worked in different departments and constantly had me integrating into new projects. I was thrown into existing work, developed new procedures, and spearheaded an entire project on my own, creating a tool that the company still uses. In this sense, I was treated as a past employee eager to take on as much as possible, and I did exactly that. I went to supervisors and managers asking if I could take on more work. I introduced a software that our team had never used that made our design process run significantly quicker. I was able to go and present my findings at an integrated team meeting with our counterparts at another company. I was never sitting bored at my desk, I was active and making connections the entire time. I was immediately able to apply what I learned in the classroom to my work. I even emailed my professors and thanked them for preparing me so well.
Interning made me excited to go back to school and learn more so that I could apply it in the future. It also made the future and full time jobs seems a lot less scary. The real world turned from a boring vortex of desk work to an exhilarating and challenging career almost overnight. For me, staying at the same company worked really well. But the great thing about interning is that you don't have to stay in one place, you can change it up every summer. You can even take a semester off and intern during the school year. Interning gives you a chance to basically test drive a job, and if you like it enough, you go back and commit to that job. Most companies are far more likely to extend a full time offer once you've interned with them, because they know how you work. They've spent the past 3+ months evaluating you and seeing how you work, and if you've impressed them they'll want you back for good.
Overall, any internship experience is a positive one. Even if its not in your major field of study or not doing exactly what you want to do, it's experience. That experience prepares you in some way for the next internship or job you take!
My first summer I spent a lot of time in the office running calculations, listening in on meetings, and helping my team wherever needed. I was treated as not just the intern but as a crucial link to the team, going through all the necessary training and advising that any new hire would receive. I got the opportunity to go see the shop, the shipyard, and different parts of the company that really helped me get a feel for what was going on.
The second summer was a lot different. I was placed in a new, much more corporate location. I received exposure to many more people, departments, and projects. My two mentors worked in different departments and constantly had me integrating into new projects. I was thrown into existing work, developed new procedures, and spearheaded an entire project on my own, creating a tool that the company still uses. In this sense, I was treated as a past employee eager to take on as much as possible, and I did exactly that. I went to supervisors and managers asking if I could take on more work. I introduced a software that our team had never used that made our design process run significantly quicker. I was able to go and present my findings at an integrated team meeting with our counterparts at another company. I was never sitting bored at my desk, I was active and making connections the entire time. I was immediately able to apply what I learned in the classroom to my work. I even emailed my professors and thanked them for preparing me so well.
Interning made me excited to go back to school and learn more so that I could apply it in the future. It also made the future and full time jobs seems a lot less scary. The real world turned from a boring vortex of desk work to an exhilarating and challenging career almost overnight. For me, staying at the same company worked really well. But the great thing about interning is that you don't have to stay in one place, you can change it up every summer. You can even take a semester off and intern during the school year. Interning gives you a chance to basically test drive a job, and if you like it enough, you go back and commit to that job. Most companies are far more likely to extend a full time offer once you've interned with them, because they know how you work. They've spent the past 3+ months evaluating you and seeing how you work, and if you've impressed them they'll want you back for good.
Overall, any internship experience is a positive one. Even if its not in your major field of study or not doing exactly what you want to do, it's experience. That experience prepares you in some way for the next internship or job you take!
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