City of Westlake

Engineering Department Intern

May - August 2022 • Westlake, OH

What I liked

I very much enjoyed my time as a summer intern with the City of Westlake's Engineering Department. It was incredibly beneficial to my civil engineering journey to be in the field everyday as an inspector on multiple construction projects. I enjoyed working both independently and with my welcoming co-workers to expand my field knowledge and professional communication skills. I especially appreciated my main focus of the summer as an inspector for the city's waterline replacement project. While given this responsibility, I was able to observe and learn first hand how a new water main is installed and all of the other pieces and parts to the project. Overall, my time with the City of Westlake's Engineering Department has helped prepare me for my future career by challenging my engineering mindset and providing me with a variety of beneficial field experience.

What I wish was different

As I said above, I am very grateful that I was assigned to the waterline replacement project as my focus for the summer because I was able to learn a variety of new things. However, the intern assigned to the sidewalk program was not as fortunate. Though they were able to learn a lot about concrete, working with contractors, managing quantities and so on, it seems as though they miss out on a lot of the beneficial learning I was able to experience. I recommend that the sidewalk program and one other project could be split between a couple interns so that they may get more out of the work experience. At the very least, I recommend giving the intern similar training to mine by riding around with an engineer for a week or two. This way the intern could learn from a variety of different projects before doing sidewalks for the rest of the summer.

Advice

I advise future interns to get as much out of this experience as they can by observing and listening to the way both the engineers and contractors think. Taking notes during the morning meeting, while training, and out in the field will not only help you learn, but will come in handy when writing reports for each job at the end of the day. Also, like any internship or work experience, it is especially important to ask as many questions you can. The engineers in the department are extremely knowledgeable and happy to teach you new things.

Be the first to mark this as helpful