Internships

[davidthefat]

Anyone intern(ed) anywhere as a highschool student? Is there a lot of opportunities to intern in the technology field? Like robots and programming? I have only found stuff having to do with biology and chemistry... I heard theres some at JPL, will check that out.

[Andrew Remmers]

I won an internship here in Florida for a company called BBM Structural Engineering, its for 4 weeks this summer. I had a second possibility that a previous sponsor told me about and hooked me up with a name. Its with a company called Caylex Architectural Fabrication. However I don't think that one worked out to well since I never got a call back.

Just look around go to some place you find interesting, could be a sponsor, you never know what will happen until you ask.

Andrew

[davidthefat]

Originally Posted by Joyride_67_1902

I won an internship here in Florida for a company called BBM Structural Engineering, its for 4 weeks this summer. I had a second possibility that a previous sponsor told me about and hooked me up with a name. Its with a company called Caylex Architectural Fabrication. However I don't think that one worked out to well since I never got a call back.

Just look around go to some place you find interesting, could be a sponsor, you never know what will happen until you ask.

Andrew

Just emailed at lady at JPL about the internships, IDK if the internships will be more like Astro Camp style, you know the highschool lab stuff, or actual hands on work or even like slave work...

[The Analog]

I am a high school intern at Jabil Circuit in Florida. I have interned as a Manufacturing Engineer (programed pick and place machines, setup work-flows/work-cells), and as Electrical Engineer (deciding component placement on the board/basic circuit building). pays $8:50 an hour 40 hour work week during the summer, 10-20 hour work week during the school year.

[kjolana1124]

I'm a junior in high school. I was offered an internship job at the Connecticut Science Center, but I can't take it yet because I have to be 18. I will SURELY do it when I'm old enough though. It's for marketing, which is really cool because I might be interested in it.

See? And they said FIRST was all pop rivets and duct tape.

[Akash Rastogi]

Summer before Junior year I was an intern for Intuitive Surgical (creators of the da Vinci surgical system) working on their controls system.

Summer before Senior year I continued working on a similar project at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center and NJIT and also prototyped a next gen smart phone with an HTC affiliate.

I just began my new internship as a Systems and Mechanical Engineering intern at Siemens, one of the largest companies in the world. I'm working on mechanical and controls for prototypes in their Research and Development labs. The stuff they do here is pretty intense and affects millions of lives of patients in hospitals, so I'm really really enjoying it.

Its sick, I'm learning more than I ever thought and applying more from the microcosm that is FRC than I ever imagined.

PM me if you need help with winning an internship with companies in your area.

One of the few times I will say this and genuinely mean it: Thank you, FIRST and MORT Team 11.
.

P.S.- Other students on our team have worked at Google, EA Games, UC Berkeley, as well as research labs affiliated with Rutgers University. We've also had a few NASA interns of our own down in Virginia. I know students on other well known teams who work at their respective NASA facility, Lockheed Martin, Northrup, a place called Blue Dolphin, and a bunch of others.

Best advice I can give is that don't be afraid to show off what you know to the company or individual you are trying to impress. You are competing in a real world situation, so give it your all. Always let them know that you are there to learn.

[Edoc'sil]

Interning at Lake Region Medical, converting 2D models to 3D.

[theprgramerdude]

Through robotics I met an electrical engineer at a local company who offered me a summer internship-like job starting next week, where pretty much another buddy and I test some experimental electrical equipment and electronics for them, go through some code looking for bugs, etc. This is only one of many great things that has happened because of FIRST.

[davidthefat]

One question, would the internships be everyday type of thing or weekend or once a week type?
My summer schedules are PACKED since I have Football practice 4 hours a day with summer school

[Chris is me]

Depends on the kind of summer school.

I found it a lot more beneficial to do summer camps, academic programs, and maybe part time jobs than high school internships. You have all of college for that. You need to get pretty lucky to get them in high school.

[MGoelz]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

You need to get pretty lucky to get them in high school.

It's not about luck. It's about who you know and how determined you are to get a position with a particular company.

During first semester of my senior year of high school, I was an intern at Rolls-Royce. Their system is really competitive. There's an application process and they only pick 6 students per semester. The experiences you gain there are invaluable, though. They rotate you through three different departments so you get a variety of experience and small projects. All but one of the students during my time there was on a FIRST team.

During second semester, I got into Allison Transmission via a mentor from my team. I've done a lot of organization and simple data analysis since I've been here. I got in the middle of a rather large project near the end of the school year, and my supervisor asked me to stay over the summer, so that's how I'm here. It wasn't hard to get the internship here at all.

Just a few pointers:
On your resume include a section about all that you've done with robotics and how that can translate into a particular company's needs.

Remember, it's a job. And you are the primary benefactor because in an internship, you are surrounded by highly knowledgable people. Always be respectful, and always be observant.

An internship is also very time consuming. During my last year of high school, I couldn't participate in very many after school activities because of it, but it was well worth it, in my opinion.

[rcmolloy]

Thanks to my mother and father, I will be interning at Concord Engineering Group in Voorhees, NJ. I don't know my hours and pay yet but it should be pretty solid. One of the co-workers I will be interning with and learning from is a BIG fan of FIRST and has been with it since it's EPCOT's days. I'm not sure if he has been to the recent competitions but I have heard he is a huge fan.

[Lisa Perez]

Originally Posted by MGoelz

Just a few pointers:
On your resume include a section about all that you've done with robotics and how that can translate into a particular company's needs.

I've found that a lot of people think that a resume needs to have job experiences on it, and that they can't start one until they've actually had a job. Not true. Even if you've never had a job before, you can use a resume to capitalize on any and all leadership, teamwork, design, and problem solving experiences that you had during high school.

Also note that you may need to have multiple resumes with different foci depending on what you're applying for.

If any of you are looking for resume feedback/editing or tips on getting one started, I'm willing to lend a hand. Just PM me

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by davidthefat

One question, would the internships be everyday type of thing or weekend or once a week type?
My summer schedules are PACKED since I have Football practice 4 hours a day with summer school

Most of my highschool/college intern experience was a 40+ hour a week full time job. For a short time during highschool, I had a 10 hour a week afterschool internship.

Every engineering company has some sort of intern program. However, they likely are all full time things; you'll have to decide what is more important to you.

Also, pet peeve of mine, do not say you are working as an engineer, or are an engineer, until you own a degree that tells you so.

[BX HANNAH]

Both last summer (between Junior/Senior Year) and this summer (after Senior Year) I have had/will have an 8-week summer internship at NASA Glenn Research Center. I'm working in the Electric Propulsion Lab with my mentor who is an electrical engineer in the testing division there. It's pretty awesome. I still can't believe it. I work 40 hours a week, I actually work more hours than some of the civil servants there haha. It's really amazing though, I gained so much knowledge last summer it was incredible! I found out about it through FIRST and the heads of the program said they really look for FIRST students!