Written by: Grace Recavarren, Carnegie Mellon University Graduate 2022
Recruitment season is a stressful time for all college students. The process of gaining an internship is daunting and often unknown. Internships are the best way to expand your interests and obtain valuable experience which will help set the tone for you throughout the rest of your career. In my Junior year at Carnegie Mellon University, the Covid-19 pandemic was still greatly affecting the way companies were hiring. There were less spots for students and less of a push to bring in university talent. The hiring process was completely virtual, leaving less space for connection and sometimes even follow through.
Gaining an internship became an uphill battle, rejection after rejection and even more often, radio silence. The best advice towards mitigating these challenges has, and will always be, networking. In reaching out and forming relationships with professionals in my life, I was able to secure an internship with Frontier Water Systems, a San Diego company responsible for treatment systems which remove selenium, nitrate, and metals in both water and wastewater. Throughout this experience, I gained direction, skills, and values I could never have anticipated.
It’s important to be patient with yourself throughout this process, as your coursework can only teach you so much about the industry. There will always be a lot you don’t know. Beyond this, it is also fair to expect others to be patient with you. An internship is a great opportunity for both parties to learn from each other. You also deserve respect and patience from those you are working with. My supervisor, Daniel Miller, taught me this, as I came into the job very unaware of existing procedures and technology that everyone else had spent years learning. He was a great teacher and made very sure that I knew the ins and outs of systems even beyond my job description. Because of his patience, I learned so much more than I would have otherwise, and eventually came into responsibility where I was working as a coworker, not just as an intern. For the first couple weeks he brought me through his entire inspection process, his most important priority being attention to detail. After these few weeks, I was driving to Anaheim to work with the contractors and perform the welding and NACE inspections myself. This responsibility and independence brought me immense confidence in my abilities and led me to believe that I could truly one day be an engineer.
Your internship is for learning. You have around three months with this company to learn as much as you possibly can about how and why they do what they do. Take every opportunity to ask questions and be aware of what you don’t know. People come from all sorts of career backgrounds and have so much to teach you about fields beyond your own. Find moments to hear about peoples’ career journeys because you never know what you might learn. In asking questions, you express not only your continued interest in the position, but your commitment to the company’s cause. I gained so much insight from the Project Engineers, Project Managers, Electrical Engineers, VPs, and CEO James Peterson by taking the time to learn as much as I possibly could.
Working in an office is a nice change from typical student life. Make the most of it inside and outside of the office. In getting to know your coworkers, make it a priority to become friendly with them. They may allow you to help them with their work which will provide further learning experiences. I was gifted this opportunity when some of the Project Engineers offered for me to assist with the Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams. I’d been working on Quality Engineering the past few weeks and was only vaguely familiar with these kinds of engineering drawings. The Project Engineers took the time to familiarize me with as much of their work as possible, and it felt wonderful to be able to assist in a completely different avenue.
Find time to chat and get to know others whenever appropriate. Your coworkers are people too, and there’s never a bad time to make new friends. Helping in other areas around the office also provides opportunities to bond with your coworkers, and they will remember you that much more fondly. Honor your commitments to your work and the people around you. At the end of the day, just always try to be the reason someone smiles in the office that day. It will make the entire experience more worthwhile.
Colleges like to tell you that you’re the best and brightest, and that you’re the future. While the second part may be true, the first part will have you in for a rude awakening. You have so much to learn from the people around you, more than you could ever expect. It’s important to be transparent about your career interests and aspirations. Your coworkers are available to provide career advice, connections, and recommendations. Asking for help and advice may be the very thing which leads you to the next step of your career. It’s also important to learn how to take constructive criticism well. You will ultimately make mistakes, and learning from these professionally will be a growing experience and improve the quality of your work.
So enjoy your internship, and work hard no matter what you’re doing. The experience, skills, and relationships you gain will be invaluable. Remember that you are important and take every failure as an opportunity to grow. Make sure to go into your internship with enthusiasm, integrity, and a positive attitude.
Special thanks to Austin Meyermann for teaching me the ins and outs of successful relationships, James Peterson for showing me how to be a great leader, Daniel Miller for being the best teacher I’ve ever had, Kelly Larson for exemplifying honoring your commitments, and the rest of the crew at Frontier for letting me help in the work towards a better future.
Working for Frontier Water Systems was the most amazing summer work experience, and I will take the skills that I’ve learned into the rest of my life.
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