Discussion Thread

  • 1.  Giving Interns Meaningful Experience

    Posted 02-27-2023 12:12 PM

    There seem to be a lot of different opinions on what an internship SHOULD be. To some people, it is as hands-off as shadowing someone and seeing what different people at a company do day-to-day. To others, it is essentially the same thing as receiving full-time entry-level work. Some of this is driven by the needs and resources of each company, but some is also due to the level of responsibility that people in charge of the intern are willing to take on. <o:p></o:p>

    <o:p> </o:p>

    In my own experience with interns, we typically have them for 6 months at a time. In the work that I do, this is enough time to train them as we would with entry level staff. A lot of the work is data analysis in Excel, GIS, and R. These are all programs that I believe are worth their time to learn, even if many of the tasks are fairly simple. <o:p></o:p>

    <o:p> </o:p>

    Aside from learning software-specific skills, I also try to make sure that they understand the big picture. This includes the reason we are working on the tasks we have, how they contribute to the project at large, and how each other person on the team also contributes, using the intern’s work as part of the whole project. This also involves attending meetings and being included on project-related emails. <o:p></o:p>

    <o:p> </o:p>

    By the time the intern completes their tenue with us, my goal is for them to have developed a few new skills to bring elsewhere (or bring back), and to have seen what it is like to work on one type of water/environmental project. This is at the city/municipal level in an environment comprised of civil servants and supported by additional consulting staff. <o:p></o:p>

    <o:p> </o:p>

    If you were to take an intern, how would you approach it to give them meaningful experience?<o:p></o:p>



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    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
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  • 2.  RE: Giving Interns Meaningful Experience

    Posted 17 days ago

    This is a refreshing perspective. Very different from past experiences I have had and seen.



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    Dean Morrell S.M.ASCE
    Des Moines IA
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  • 3.  RE: Giving Interns Meaningful Experience

    Posted 9 days ago

    I am a freshman at UTRGV, I was looking forward to having an internship experience in the summer with the purpose to grow and develop my skills. Could you tell me if you know about some good internship opportunities for a student like me?

    thank you very much.

    - Brayan Armijo



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    Brayan Armijo S.M.ASCE
    Student
    La Joya TX
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  • 4.  RE: Giving Interns Meaningful Experience

    Posted 6 days ago

    Hi Brayan, 

    I'm sorry but I don't live in Texas and don't have any knowledge of what local internship opportunities there might be. There are some other threads on this forum that provide tips for where to get started, or you can post a new thread and ask about it. Otherwise I would suggest starting with your school and seeing if they have an outreach program. Talk to other students and keep and eye out for career fairs at school.

    Good luck! 



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    Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
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