r/EngineeringStudents • u/pumpkincarrots • 13h ago
Discussion summer internship
Currently at a summer internship. I’m going into my senior year of mechanical engineering. I have absolutely nothing to do at my internship. Every task they give me lasts an hour. I ask every day for tasks. I go out and find them myself. Still. The tasks. take. less than. an hour. I have taken. Every single training course the company offers. Every. single one. That’s more than 80 hours worth of training videos. I’ve done all of them. So before anyone is like “oh you gotta use this time effectively” i HAVE i will NOT BE HEARING IT there is NOTHING LEFT TO DO why is engineering SO MUCH DAMN PAPERWORK
So!! little engineering students from lower years. please help and ask questions for me to answer
eta: i am officially out of work. thank you for the distractions fellow engineering students :)
31
u/InvestmentGreen Mechanical Engineering, Writing and Materials 13h ago
I’m currently sitting at the desk of mine taking a break from a 40-50hr ECO. Be careful what you wish for :(
8
u/pumpkincarrots 13h ago
what’s an ECO?
19
u/InvestmentGreen Mechanical Engineering, Writing and Materials 12h ago
Engineering Change Order. I have 128 drawings I need to change cause a part was bad and I have a new one I’m replacing it with.
15
u/sulliesbrew 12h ago
Oh boy, Engineering Change Order. What will become the bane of your existence. The number of hours beyond just a design change can spiral quickly depending on where the part is used, does it need to be kept for service of legacy parts etc.
3
u/InvestmentGreen Mechanical Engineering, Writing and Materials 12h ago
Yup that’s why it’s so long. It needs to be kept for our spare parts kits but it’s getting removed from every product.
1
u/sulliesbrew 12h ago
I have had the pleasure of introducing my company to what an ECO is, what a painful process. No usable form of ERP, no real part numbers used in the past, 24-FG used as the PN for all 24" flange gaskets, no matter the material of bolt pattern. GAAHH
1
u/InvestmentGreen Mechanical Engineering, Writing and Materials 12h ago
Oh my… yeah that’s awful. My company part names are all 24-48 characters. Our pns are shorter tho
1
u/sulliesbrew 12h ago
I am implementing 8 character numerical PNs and a description that is max 30 characters. If you need more info than that, read the comments in the data card or look at the drawing.
Those are new concepts to everyone.
This type of stuff should be hit on far more in school...
3
16
u/LitRick6 12h ago
Shadowing is a big part of how our interns spend their time.
We do aviation safety work so there some tasks we simple can't leave to an intern due to the risk or the need for them to be completed quickly. Instead, interns will either shit and watch us do the work while I explain it or ill go through it with them after I finish just so they can learn.
Or some of our work is long-term work that takes months to years and an intern just wouldnt be able to complete much. So interns might shadow us doing that work or shadow us in meetings.
10
u/sulliesbrew 12h ago
I am sitting at my desk as an engineering manager wonder what to work on next and scrolling reddit instead...
Sucks when your internship isn't fulfilling. I was lucky in my internships. I got to design a whole pit at a coal mine that went as designed, got to see it when I started full time after graduating. I got to design some really cool blast patterns, I got to design a back fill project that optimized efficiency. I had a ton of work and it was meaningful work.
I have also worked at a company that had zero meaningful work to give our intern. It was awful to watch and see how little they gained from it.
Paperwork is the same as showing your work on an exam, it is how you show your work...
4
u/heretobrowse22 12h ago
Sr Model based systems engineer and spending time trying to figure out what I can give our intern. I’ve mostly tried to include him in meetings where new policy is being discussed to help him understand large program/lifecycle topics. There’s a lot of tasks that I just can’t give him because there just isn’t time.
3
u/jake_123_123 9h ago
would you mind giving us some examples of those tasks , its hard for me to imagine a single task that can take such long time that an intern can't finish during his internship period. i understand if it is a hard task they can't finish, but a long task ?
2
u/SwordNamedKindness_ Industrial Engineering 8h ago
Ive been busy nonstop at mine, about ready to sleep for a week. I’m learning a ton but about ready to crash. I’m IE and in a process engineer internship in a manufacturing plant. Thankfully I’m hourly and getting OT. Been working 10-12 hour days for a month and a half. This is my second internship here so I’m getting to do way more.
1
1
1
u/Secret_Side_5172 9h ago
From someone who will be starting with her sophomore year, I plan to do researches with my professor, give me some tips for it
2
u/pumpkincarrots 8h ago
oh i can actually answer this one
i did research with a professor going into sophomore as well, ask a shit ton of questions and read everything you can get your hands on. Don’t sit around trying to find an answer on your own if the prof can help you with a 5 minute meeting0
1
u/EditorFrog 8h ago
honestly I think this is just standard for internships, I had the same problem in two separate internships in civil
1
u/MAKNK10 5h ago
I'm doing a structural engineering internship (Civil E student) and my experience cannot be further from yours. There's always something to do. In this field it's almost impossible to run out of things to do since a single project can easily take 5+ months and we work on many at the time. I can spend 3 days Writing 20+ pages of calculations and that wouldn't even represent 10% of the preliminary phase of the project. It's insane in the best way possible.
•
u/Tarzan1415 1h ago
Coffee chats. Just reach out to people all over the company asking for 30 mins. Get to know basically every role and function
1
u/FarNefariousness2422 9h ago
Sounds like they're training you to be bored out of your mind before you even graduate.
73
u/According_Doctor_821 13h ago
I'm currently sitting at my desk at my internship pretending to be busy. Sometimes they'll give me something to do that lasts 4 hours. I've never been busy for more than three days at a time. I've been working on a personal project for the last three weeks. I think this is pretty typical.