Careers Come Alive for Interns Communication Skills Highlighted as Necessity By Heather Burgette Internship Coordinator/Career Advisor
It’s the best part of my job… students landing internships at great companies and learning how their classroom knowledge directly applies to the work in front of them. In summer 2011, interns took advantage of experiencing this type of work with companies that were as varied as the majors of these students, from a mid-sized credit union to a global steel manufacturer to a small biomedical laboratory. Eight of these companies hired multiple students, and a number of them offered continuing internship positions into the fall semester. I drove out to Columbia City on a very hot summer day to visit Jeff Powell, senior computer engineering student, at Parkview Health’s latest building project. He had landed an internship with Havel through a professional connection and was the only intern on staff this summer. His project consisted of setting up systems which managed the airflow, heating and cooling throughout the hospital. “I gained experience working hands-on with building automation systems at the hardware and software levels and was able to experience first-hand how disciplines that I had thought of as being typically separate in industry can come together in ways I wouldn’t expect,” Powell said. I was impressed with the way his supervisors bragged about his ability to be professional and follow through with his tasks. Although the summer heat didn’t improve, my round of visits only got better as I stopped to say “hi” to four students interning at Fort Wayne Metals, a global leader in medical grade wire and cable. Jacob Harris, Michael Russell, and Kate Whitacre all worked in the engineering areas, while Alyssa Priebe, a junior marketing student, learned the sales and marketing side.
Tara Hanna and supervisor Margie Kidd at Vera Bradley
“The most beneficial part I learned was how I really love the work and the people I work with,” Priebe said. “This experience has painted a picture as to what I see myself doing in the future. Experience is really the only way to find what type of job fits you best.” Fort Wayne Metals hosts about 20 interns each summer and certainly draws from the best of the best at Indiana Tech. “Communication is so important and necessary in any career. If you are an engineer and think you’ll get to sit and design things and work out equations all day, you are sadly mistaken,” Harris, a senior mechanical engineering student, noted. “People skills are required, especially if you want to move up the ladder.”
Adrianna Michel works the TinCaps Ticket Office
28
Trends
My next stop was Navistar, a close friend of the Career Planning & Development Center. Two of their human resources staff members are Indiana Tech alumni, and they hired five interns from Indiana Tech this summer. Because they have 20 to 30 college interns at any point during the summer, they also have an HR intern coordinate the activities for these interns. This again was a Tech student, Stephanie Long, human resources major.