Happy National Internship Awareness Month! The Voiland College Internships & Career Services office is excited to provide students resources, assistance, and guidance during their internship search. Have you ever wondered how other students get internships? What is their experience like? What did they do during their internship?
Brenno Aguiar Bonfim Cruz, a VCEA Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student has been interning at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Pullman, WA. We caught up with Brenno to ask him about his experience and get some details about how it’s going! Check out our interview with Brenno below.
What company was your internship with, when did you intern for them, and what was your title?
I am a Mechanical Engineering Intern at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL), a multinational company headquartered right here in Pullman, WA. I started at SEL in August 2020 and have been working part-time ever since.
How did you find this internship opportunity?
I first heard about SEL during the WSU Career Fair. I felt motivated about their mission and started looking into positions offered to interns on SEL’s website. I found an internship that aligned with my goals and skills and applied for it.
What suggestions do you have for students looking for an internship opportunity?
I think the most important step during an internship search is to find a company in alignment with what you believe. If you don’t have to convince yourself that you enjoy something, that makes the whole job application naturally easier. Finding a perfect match for my skills was also important during my search. Companies are constantly seeking different profiles throughout the year, be perseverant, and your time will come.
What do you do during your internship?
My duties include creating drawings with AutoCAD and SolidWorks, mechanical qualification testing of new parts. Additionally, I analyze existing part designs and/or create designs for increased manufacturability, improved quality, and reduced cost. On a daily basis, I follow root-cause analysis practices to resolve issues and develop novel solutions to meet emerging customer needs.
What is your favorite part about your internship?
My favorite part about my internship is to help people solve their problems. Due to the advent of the economy of scale, many companies have been more interested in increase production levels in exchange for reducing product variability. Every day at SEL, I have different opportunities to work on solutions tailored for our customers, which makes the job very dynamic and fun.
What skills have you learned in your internship?
During my internship experience, I learned to communicate problems and solutions efficiently. I gained experience using professional management tools such as JIRA, Confluence, and IBM Lotus Notes. I also had opportunities to design and modify parts, knowledge in the product lifecycle, and learn a lot about World Class Manufacturing principles.
How do you think this experience will help you in your job search?
My internship experience helped me to understand where my profile and skillset fit within a team. This knowledge will guide me through selecting job openings that are a good match for me.
Has your internship provided you any networking opportunities?
My job at SEL is extremely multidisciplinary, every day I go to work I get to meet new people from different sectors in the company to better assist our customers. Having these opportunities to strengthen my connections with many other teams made me aware of many other fields I can pursue at SEL.
If you have additional questions or would like to chat with Brenno more about his experience, he is an MME Peer Mentor in the VCEA Internships & Career Services office and is happy to meet with students to talk about his experience and help others find great internship opportunities. You can schedule a meeting with Brenno here: https://calendly.com/brennocruz or you can drop-in our Zoom Career Coaching hours Mondays from 11AM to 12PM and 1PM-4PM, Tuesdays- Fridays from 11AM to 4PM.