<p>Hi! I'm a High School Sophomore and I'm starting to be interested in Industrial Engineering and I am wondering what kind of opportunities I can take advantage of at the High School level to start getting experience. I don't need to know what types of classes I should take in High school, but more experience related things like volunteering, internships, etc.</p>
<p>Most Industrial Engineers will eventually have to assume a leadership role, so I'll strongly encourage you to get involved in your school's clubs/societies and participate enough to assume a leadership role. The game kind of changes when you are at the hot seat, because it's no longer about the interests of the group, but how to set a goal and reach that goal. Knowing how to work with different types of people, figuring out group dynamics and focusing on strengths and identifying and dealing with weaknesses are something that's hard to learn in the classroom. Volunteering for your local scene is also highly recommended, it can be anything, cancer awareness, food bank, etc.</p>
<p>I've always been heavily involved through my time in middle, high school and especially in college and many times, it helped me mentally figure out how the gear moves in people oriented settings, which is where a lot of Industrial Engineering can take place.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any science or engineering related program recommendations to aid in this process? I live in Northern California, so if anyone who know such programs can reply?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I am curious as to if I can a more direct experience of what being an industrial engineer is like , a high school engineering internship where I can learn directly about engineering</p>
<p>You're only a HS sophomore... You really don't need an IE internship yet.</p>
<p>He might not need one, but it might be useful in deciding if IE is for him.</p>
<p>Maybe you should try contacting a local college that has an IE program and seeing if they have any sort of list of companies you might be able to contact. I don't know if I'd ask for an internship, but shadowing a professional IE for a week or two might be worth your time (and, since the company wouldn't have to pay you or do any sort of hiring stuff, they might be more willing).</p>
<p>I would recommend looking out for your local division of major mail carriers such as UPS, FedEx and USPS - they do a great job with logistics.</p>
<p>Best example of how IE plays out in real life is actually in supermarkets. But then again, as a HS student, they'll probably make you restock shelves. I've never tried this myself, but it might be worth talking to the store manager to see whether you can shadow him in the operations side of supermarkets.</p>
<p>If there are manufacturing plants nearby, it might be worth talking to the plant manager too.</p>
<p>Northern Cali boasts the best concentration of IE programs in Stanford and California-Berkeley.</p>
<p>The subject of economics also is very interesting to me. Now, I understand that IE does have some relevance to Economics and I am interested in how they play hand in hand and what are some good ways to cultivate these interests?</p>
<p>Here's a simple example. Say in a place like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc, there's capacity of 10 checkout areas. Do you staff each checkout line with a single employee at all times? If not, how many do you staff? Or would you make it dependent on day & time?</p>
<p>Things like this are also dependent on if it is over the weekend, or if its before, during and after vacation period or seasons. You may need to pay differently for those working after 5PM, or is it better to pay someone overtime? Some areas may experience boost in customers due to external factors such as rising gas price, oranges juices becoming more expensive due to hurricanes ripping through Florida, the government issued economic incentive checks in the hands of families, increase/decrease in spending after tax forms deadline, etc, etc. Certain products need to be restocked more, certain products may need to be cut.</p>
<p>So you can see how those economic factors influence your business strategy, which you can try to model in IE. Have to admit, you won't get into such complicated scenarios in school, but it's the stuff you will have to deal with in industry.</p>
<p>Just keeping up with current affairs can give you insight into how these things all tie together. For me, the interest started during my high school when I visited a developing country and saw that legitimate looking Nike shirts were being sold at 10% of the price I would have had to pay in the US. That got me thinking, how are they able to do it so much cheaper? Where do they get their raw materials from? How do they ship it to the US and distribute them? In greater scope, this is Supply Chain Management, but IE still has to do a lot with it, so I went with it. Free Trade Agreements, Supply & Demand, Global Logistics and Outsourcing all plays hand in hand.</p>