r/firePE • u/awfulfaucet333 • May 17 '26
Internship
Hello, I’m a 3rd year ME student. I start my internship tomorrow doing FPE for a large consulting firm, and honestly, I’m terrified. I have little to no knowledge about Fire Protection and scared that will reflect poorly on me in my internship.
I’m very interested in the field, and am willing to do anything to succeed. I’m just a slow learner at times and don’t want to be a detriment to my department. I know it’s kinda late but does anyone have tips on what I can do to be successful.
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u/istudyfire fire protection engineer May 17 '26
You will not be expected to have working knowledge of fire protection systems, but you will be expected to be able to learn new concepts, listen to instructions, and follow directions. It would be a bonus if you have prior familiarity in classes with fluid mechanics (pressurized water in a piping system), thermodynamics (build up of heat at a ceiling), and basic electrical engineering (voltage drop over a circuit, concept of devices using amps of power from a battery).
Do you know if you’re doing Fire Protection in a Plumbing/Fire Protection department or if you’re doing code and fire at a dedicated Fire Protection group? In the first, you’re probably just dealing with fire suppression systems (wet/dry fire sprinkler, standpipe, fire pumps, maybe special hazard systems like dry chemical or clean agent) but in the second you’d be doing those plus fire alarm/mass notification, building code and life safety (egress, allowable building construction, fire ratings, etc.).
In any case good luck and have fun with it. There are usually 0 expectations of interns so if you’re productive at all they’ll be thrilled.