[Ben Lauer]

Ok, so my situation is a little different than normal. I did an internship after high school, but before I started college. I wasn't treated any differently, i was just younger.

I worked at Rolls-Royce Corp. in Indianapolis, Indiana. (YEAH STUIE!) A few mentors from my robotics team worked there, and i was hired on as an intern after doing a high school mentorship through my school. I had a great time and worked in the manufacturing. I helped by doing autoCAD type assignments. This included taking scanned picture sheets and cleaning them up so that they could be saved, as well as composing new picture sheets for gears in a gas turbine engine.

I also did some computer aided process planning. Basically this was taking written instructions and typing them into the computer. I promise this was more aggravating than it sounds.

Rolls has asked me to come back this summer, and i plan on doing so. Hopefully I will get into design or testing.

Internships are excellent, Co-ops are excellent, even if you are a freshman, or not even in college, do research on companies you want to apply to, so that you can tell the interviewer at the career fair something about their company. If you ask specific questions about the company, they will be more interested because they know you have a serious interest.

~benthos