How to make the most out of your internship

Erin: I have been on this one project, but I'm pretty lucky in that the company lets me do a lot of different things and they're kind of trying to prepare me for a site engineering role once I leave university. It's a road construction project, but we're also building a better stormwater drainage system because, for a long period, the area was subjected to flooding, and it was really bad so we get to help out with building that infrastructure.  

Hana:  During the first 2 weeks I was working on Excel and income spreadsheets just to get into the rhythm of my internship, but my supervisor told me I could handle something much heavier that could help me improve my skills. To start, I worked on the Tesla Project where my supervisor came up with the idea to unlock Tesla cars using a Near Field Communication (NFC) system, so he wanted me to come up with my own solution. He taught me the software Altium where you design printed circuit boards. In the software, I designed the system for the NFC, and a whole printed circuit board. Then I jumped on to SolidWorks to design the exterior to put the system inside.  

Elena:  Thales has the Blutonomy project that they bid out to UTS every year in the Mechanical and Mechatronic design subject. I was helping from the Thales side, with the UTS students who work on the project.  We would try, for example, to make from a remote operated underwater vehicle to an autonomous vehicle. We're working through how to use sonar to be able to create paths dynamically.  

When we shifted online, I was working on a couple of system engineering tasks. Breaking down how the interfaces between the mechanical and the electrical systems,  how they interact and meet. I was developing diagrams to communicate that and that became my biggest responsibility. 

Erin:  I enjoy feeling like I’m part of a team. At the beginning of my internship, I felt like I was just helping out, but at this stage now I really appreciate the fact that I'm able to contribute to something bigger and be a part of a team. 

Hana: I enjoyed the responsibilities I had, I felt like there was a lot of trust. My supervisor trusted me a lot with the project, he knew I had it in me, but he just had to get it out of me. That’s the best thing about a start-up business, you learn more, it’s hands on and you’re more involved in the company’s responsibilities and projects. 

Elena: Meeting all these people. People are fascinating. Everyone has a story. Everyone has not only interests, but things they like, and things that they're really good at and passionate about they can share within and outside of engineering. 

Erin: I think my communication skills have really benefited from the experience. I used to be pretty shy talking on the phone.  Having the opportunity to use surveying equipment has also been really great and learning to use that, ‘cause I know a lot of people in my cohort, we've just been learning online, so we haven't really had that practical experience.  What was surprising was a lot of the jargon that people use, so many colloquial terms that even when you Google them, don't really come up. For example, there’s an excavator, that's called a rubber duck, and it's like an excavator on wheels, a big piece of machinery.  I'd never heard of that before!  

Hana:  The first thing I learnt is that challenge is a good way to grow, if you aren’t challenged you won’t be growing your skills and your knowledge.  The second thing I learnt is mostly how to interact with someone professionally, since I’m used to only interacting with other students in my faculty, I learnt how to convey the proper tone, speech and language with someone in a professional setting. 

Elena: If it's not documented, it doesn't happen.   I think it was important for the next round of people to come in and see okay, this is what happened when we encountered this problem, that's how they've solved it. These are the methods that they tried, or this is the sort of problem-solving measures that they tried that didn't work. I also learnt a lot about Autodesk Inventor, and how similar it is to Solid Works. So if you know one CAD modelling software, you're going to know them all. It's just a matter of transferring it across. 

Erin:  Imposter syndrome kind of set in a bit, I felt like I didn't belong, but I realised that my team is there to support me and that they're always finding opportunities for me to learn and that they're going to back me up.  I’d say, be open to learning and communicating with your team and identify a mentor early on, someone that you can kind of shadow and ask questions.  

Hana: Go for a start-up if you want to develop the theory you have learnt from university and put it into practice.  Enjoy your internship! Don’t compare or overwork yourself. As long as you can walk out of the internship knowing you learnt something that could help you out in the long run. 

Elena: For the application, research the company. Not just what the company expresses, but interviews with employees, look at LinkedIn and Glassdoor, places where you can find information from individuals, from businesses, articles, just as much information as you can. Don't say no, say yes to everything. If someone asks you, “are you interested in learning about this” even if you're not, say yes, just be a sponge, soak in as much as possible, because one thing always leads to another, which leads you down multiple different pathways to explore. Opportunity is so valuable! 

Something that all our interviewees can agree on is to go easy on yourself, you’re only just beginning and you’re still learning. Believe in yourself! 

• If you need more help, check out UTS CareerHub’s resources and search for WiEITConnects to find WiEIT partners’ jobs and internships opportunities.  
• Want to share your internship story? We want to hear it! Email us at wieit@uts.edu.au