EE / Engineering Interns, i need your advice.

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>I am currently interning at a small company that makes various products for utility companies. What i do there is i test circuit boards. In other words i read the procedure and do what it says. There is little interaction between me and others, and little interaction between me and how the circuit actually works. Sometimes this is frustrating because of the fact that i dont need to use my brain that much in order to carry out the testing; it is also repetitive. The small amount of interaction with other people has made it a dull job. It would be nice if there were other interns, but there arent.</p>

<p>So my question is: for the future how would i find a company that is nice to intern for (electrical engineering internship that is). I would want some place where i interact with more people (currently im the only intern), and use my brain more. Are bigger companies better places to look at?</p>

<p>Also if any of you have done internships ee related or engineering in general, id be curious to hear about your experience and any tips you have for what makes an internship beneficial.</p>

<p>Also im in new jersey (northern) if that makes any difference. Im just trying to get some strategy for how to find a good internship for next summer.</p>

<p>Note: i do feel that the internship i have this summer, will help me in the future, so its not entirely a bad experience. but im hoping for something more enjoyable next summer.</p>

<p>Thanks,
Mike</p>

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<p>talk to your manager now and see if he can give you something more interesting.</p>

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<p>Um.... welcome to internships in general, unfortunately. =&lt;/p>

<p>Sad to say, pretty much all the internships I've heard about have involved similar sorts of situations. One engineer I know of interned with a department of transportation and spent his summer sitting on the back of a pickup truck driving along highways and counting road nipples, I kid you not. (And yes, that's apparently what they're called.)</p>

<p>Occasionally, you'll come across an internship that is <em>both</em> really interesting <em>and</em> applicable to what you'd like to do in the future, but those a rare breed. Might want to talk to your friends once you get back to school and see whether any of them had interesting internships that you'd be interested in applying for next summer.</p>

<p>Wish I had better news... At least you've got an internship where you're learning useful things!</p>

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<p>bres:</p>

<p>If you know how to read schematics (or can learn fairly quickly), you might want to try to talk your management into letting you take a shot in the board troubleshooting area for the boards that fail (this assumes they fix defective boards rather than trash them). Troubleshooting the circuits will give you a lot of practical experience in undertanding the design and how the various parts of the circuit actually work and end up helping you when you design circuits.</p>

<p>It's generally worthwhile to speak up and act eager for other duties like this but it'll end up being up to the management. If it doesn't work out, try to get an internship somewhere else.</p>

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<p>hey, just wanted to thank those that have replied. </p>

<p>Well my internship for the summer is over, which im sorta relieved about.</p>

<p>I just wanted to bring up some points: in the department i worked in ( pre - test), everyone pretty much did the same thing: testing circuits by procedure. Just some people had more knowledge and experience, so they were better at trouble shooting.</p>

<p>I was given the opportunity to debug broken circuits, but id like to point out some problems with troubleshooting circuits. The circuit boards are fairly complex, lots of components, lots of chips. So even if you know what all the components are on a schematic. It's a completely different thing to be able to understand what they do through out the circuit. At work they never made a point to explain what the product actually does, and how it works on some general level. So without really knowing what the circuit does, or how different parts work together, troubleshooting is more of a guessing game, or a brute force method. </p>

<p>Thus the main reason i was dissatisfied, was that simply testing circuit boards, is rather repetitive, and doesnt require much thinking. Yet in order to troubleshoot a circuit it would seem like youd have to know a lot more engineering, and have had way more experience.. </p>

<p>I do have to say, even with an internship that wasnt very enjoyable, i think the experience is still valuable.</p>

<p>So to other interns , or future interns reading, just being exposed to the working environment, is a good thing.</p>

<p>I know i learned how to use various electrical test equipment, beyond what i learned in school. It was also useful to see what an industrial place is like. For example seeing different workers, from those who solder pieces on, to pre-test, and final-test. </p>

<p>Also a few more things that crossed my mind.</p>

<p>I was thinking of doing some type of research for school (next summer), im not one of those "really smart" people, but i do work hard. I was wondering if research would be good in terms of learning and thinking, helping out. I dont know what subject id like to research, but it seems like just doing research could be a good way to learn, use your brain, and maybe get to know the professor / people better.</p>

<p>On the flipside though, by doing research, you wouldnt be experiencing a company. It seems like working for a company would be good in that you get yourself out to companies, which might help with after college jobs. Also how big of a part is meeting people at places you work. I would love to work at a place where i can meet other interns, and interact with them ocasionally. A couple of my chem-e friends, told me that they had like 15-20 other interns that they met at their internships. This seems like something that can be found at bigger companies.</p>

<p>If you made it this far, i appreciate your time. Any and all comments are certainly welcome.</p>