Reflection on the following nine points:
1. What professional skills and abilities did you gain from this experience?
The most important skill I learned was how to communicate effectively to different levels of management and various employees. In addition, I learned that it is important to ask for help or more information when needed. Keeping a dialog with those overseeing you as well as those working with you ensures that everyone is on the same page and working in unison. Furthermore, everything is a learning experience and an opportunity to grow.
2. How did this experience give you a greater insight into the Engineering Field?
Manufacturing is a very broad field and encompasses a wide range of concepts, however, there are things true for any manufacturing business. Organization and adhering to a standard is extremely important in this field. This emphasis is placed on standardization because a business markets a product that needs to be consistent with every sale. If a batch of a product sold does not meet the companies standard, that batch cannot be sold and the company loses money. Therefore any change in the processing of a product must be documented so that it can be repeated. The plant I worked at manufactured wholesale fence products and I oversaw quality control tests.
3. What skills and abilities did you observe displayed by the engineers as they went about their daily work?
I observed the engineers solving problems as they arose and managing multiple tasks every day. They were also very effective with their communication. When addressing a problem as a group, they made sure everyone knew their responsibilities and what steps needed to be taken to solve the issue. Problem-solving and troubleshooting are crucial parts of the job and my coworkers were able to identify the problem, propose a method of solution, and implement it effectively.
4. How would you describe this experience to a friend?
My internship gave me an opportunity to understand how a manufacturing plant works and operates. In addition, I was able to see practical applications of what I was studying. Initially, it surprised me that the plant was running continuously with only a few production breaks throughout the year. However, when I started to understand the company more, I was impressed by the production output.
5. How would you describe this experience to a future employer?
For my internship, I was responsible for conducting quality control tests for various products that Eastern Wholesale Fence distributes. This meant that I needed to make sure that a particular batch of the manufactured product met the same standard of performance. The majority of the tests I conducted were stress tests on various products such as posts and rails. I also performed accelerated weather tests to observe how continued sun exposure would affect the products once they were sold and installed.
6. What new goals and career paths has this experience set for you?
This experience has definitely made me more open to the idea of working in the industry, especially in manufacturing. However, I'd like to place more emphasis on process improvement in my career path because of my internship. Being able to improve quality in a process is what I would like to do in my future career.
7. How do your professional goals compare with the company goals?
My professional goals definitely align with the company I worked for. Eastern Wholesale Fence is a known brand that is expected to continue to grow. Eastern Fence cares about their customers and the quality of products they produce. I intend to continue to grow and learn from all of my experiences and contribute to the society in which I live.
8. Has your experience impacted your view of yourself? If so, how?
My experience while interning for Eastern Wholesale Fence has made me more confident. Having internship experience sets me apart from other engineering students, especially when the scope of my responsibilities affect a number of customers. This internship also gave me a lot more experience with professionals and things to talk about during job fairs and interviews.
9. Has your experience made you more motivated to pursue knowledge on your own, as opposed to relying on classroom learning? If so, what kind of knowledge?
My experience made me study manufacturing processes more on my own outside of the classroom. It was interesting applying concepts I learned in a professional field. I've also been more interested in process design. Seeing processes already established made me even more curious about how they were designed and made. I was given the opportunity to design my own experiments to compare certain products produced by different manufacturers.
Create a short 3-minute presentation on experience gained from the internship - Try making a Prezi (http://www.prezi.com. Create an account with your Stony Brook email address for more space.)