01 Jun Reflections of an Intern
When I was first asked to write a blog reflecting on my experience as an intern here at Key Tech, I found the idea a bit daunting. I thought “I’m an engineer, why are you asking me to write?” So like any trained college student, I went straight to the examples, googling “how to write a blog,” reading all the other Key Tech blogs you see below, wondering how best to imitate their words to make mine seem appropriate.
As a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate at Johns Hopkins, rarely (as in maybe once a year) are we asked to write anything. Besides the occasional lab report, we ignore our obvious lack of writing skills and focus our attention on mastering MATLAB code and heat transfer equations. So isn’t it understandable that such a task would worry me? Actually, down right terrify me? Then I realized that’s just it, that’s what being an intern is about, experiencing the unknown and often uncomfortable in the hopes that you will be better because of it. And so while this may not be a great blog, at least I’m writing, and to Key Tech, I thank you for that.
Nine months ago, when I first came to Key Tech, my primary goal was to gain work experience. Like most undergraduates, I was tired of sitting on an empty résumé and too anxious to wait until the next summer rolled around to get a job. Looking back, I truly underestimated how valuable this experience would be, and not just to my resume, because everything I learned here could not be summarized in a few bullet points.
For one, I met real engineers. It’s like reading your favorite storybook as a kid over and over and then getting to meet the characters in real life, getting to play their games and test out their toys. The first project I was put on was for the development of an airflow sensor that could be used in applications such as detecting sleep apnea. Having just completed a semester in fluid mechanics, hearing words like “pitot tube” and “Bernoulli’s equation” made my ears perk up at the possibility of being able to apply my text book equations to real life. However, I soon learned that it wasn’t the equations that would become useful; the engineers here have something more than just knowledge and understanding. They have intuition, experience, and creativity… things that my textbook doesn’t show me but I now know are necessary to becoming a successful engineer.
Secondly, I learned that for every problem there is always a solution, even if you can’t look it up in the back of a text-book. Before interning here, when stumped on a problem, it typically didn’t take long before I gave up and sought assistance. After just a few weeks at Key Tech, I became increasingly conscious of this, noticing how many times I would ask for help convinced there was no possible solution and then embarrassed at how obvious the answer was. After experiencing this all too often, my patience for problem solving quickly increased, and I realized that the solution is there you just have to have the patience to find it or the ingenuity to create it for yourself.
My peers at Hopkins would often tell me I was too-ambitious for having a part-time internship on top of a full academic schedule. But after spending my morning debating the problem sets of the week, coming to work in the afternoon was a much needed breath of fresh air. More than their incredible talent at executing the ideal product, I appreciate the professionalism, responsibility and respect that all of the engineers here possess. Working here was never an added stress, just the perfect situation.
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