Would you rather be a ......

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One of my jobs was to mentor new engineers. We only hired the top 10% out of TAMU and Georgia Tech primarily.
These were great kids but it made you wonder sometimes who in their life taught them to breathe. I was supposed to give them real life experience to go with the book knowledge.
This is exactly why those program require a 1 year internship before they can graduate.
 
Internships are a mixed bag.
In 2021 43% of internships with for profit companies were unpaid - obvious advantage for the company - but for students?
41% of unpaid interns did not receive a job offer at the end of their internship and of those who did 50% of the time the offer was less than that offered to new graduates. 74% of all interns were female, but they were overrepresented in unpaid internships at 81%

The conclusion of the study by Harvard Business Review found no significant career difference or in earnings between doing an unpaid internship and fellow graduates with no internship experience.
paid internships - yes
unpaid internships - no
 
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We've got a you lady working at our plant right now as an electrician for a contracting group. She's working hands on as a field electrician and doing about everything that can be done. She says she is going to electrical engineering school but felt like she needed to take a year off to get actual field experience. I'm sure it'll help her.

It amazes me how when we talk to some of our engineers how knowledgeable they are about the equipment but if we get them out in the field they've never laid eyes on the stuff they know so much about.
 
When I was building substations in Nebraska we had a huge one where they had designed special switches on top of ten foot steel. The switch itself was almost eight feet tall and had arms coming out both sides, about six feet. And then the ends swiveled so they locked in for good contact.

We'd spend hours adjusting the d**m things to get them to work, and a couple hours later they wouldn't. This went on for months with the engineers constantly on the phone and wondering why we couldn't get the switches to work. Try telling an engineer in a warm, temp controlled office that their specially designed switches won't work.

They finally came out and did adjustments themselves, getting the switches to work, and made out like we were incompetent as they made to leave. The job Foreman and the Inspector both got in their faces, telling them they'd have to stick around because the problem wasn't adjusting them to work NOW... but ten minutes, two hours, next morning. Sure enough, the switches failed to engage properly as the temperature changed, or the wind picked up. The engineers spent the week adjusting with the same results we'd gotten. Switches ten feet in the air, with almost fourteen more feet of distance, and trying to hit a half inch window to work properly... in temperatures and wind that was constantly changing... was a little different than on the drawing board.

I have no idea what eventually happened. My part of the job was over with and I left. But it is amazing to me how many substations have specially designed equipment specific to that substation, and those costs are passed on to customers.
 
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Internships are a mixed bag.
In 2021 43% of internships with for profit companies were unpaid - obvious advantage for the company - but for students?
41% of unpaid interns did not receive a job offer at the end of their internship and of those who did 50% of the time the offer was less than that offered to new graduates. 74% of all interns were female, but they were overrepresented in unpaid internships at 81%

The conclusion of the study by Harvard Business Review found no significant career difference or in earnings between doing an unpaid internship and fellow graduates with no internship experience.
paid internships - yes
unpaid internships - no
Seems like a good way to identify and weed out the ones that aren't very bright and are inclined to signup for a job that doesn't pay.
 
Seems like a good way to identify and weed out the ones that aren't very bright and are inclined to signup for a job that doesn't pay.
Or working their system of faculty connections to provide a pipeline of student workers, who mistakenly trust faculty advisors with little real experience, when they are told it will be good experience to advance their careers.
 
Or working their system of faculty connections to provide a pipeline of student workers, who mistakenly trust faculty advisors with little real experience, when they are told it will be good experience to advance their careers.
Or a system for employers to sort out the good ones from the ones who really shouldn't have gone to college. At my old job I was in charge of recruiting interns. The last two administrators started out as interns. This was true of a lot of the staff. But we also had a number of interns who should have been ditch diggers.
 
At my old job I was in charge of recruiting interns. The last two administrators started out as interns.
But we also had a number of interns who should have been ditch diggers.
Paid or unpaid interns?
What do you think was missing from the interview process that failed to screen them out?
Or was it more recruiting than interviewing?
 
Or a system for employers to sort out the good ones from the ones who really shouldn't have gone to college. At my old job I was in charge of recruiting interns. The last two administrators started out as interns. This was true of a lot of the staff. But we also had a number of interns who should have been ditch diggers.
You can make really good money digging if you're willing to work on the right of way.
 
Paid or unpaid interns?
What do you think was missing from the interview process that failed to screen them out?
Or was it more recruiting than interviewing?
Unpaid. It varied a lot. Some times there was an interview and screened them. Other times it was a live body who showed up. The good hard working interns who were intelligent and did the job which we didn't have available space for I reached out to my contacts to line them up with jobs. At the very least I wrote them stellar recommendations. Others you had to wonder how they were graduating from college.
 
Or working their system of faculty connections to provide a pipeline of student workers, who mistakenly trust faculty advisors with little real experience, when they are told it will be good experience to advance their careers.
But they have a choice to sign up right? And these are adults we're talking about. That whole "college kid" thing is a misnomer. Handholding a 20+yo is ridiculous. Being in college doesn't absolve you of personal responsibility.
 
But they have a choice to sign up right? And these are adults we're talking about. That whole "college kid" thing is a misnomer. Handholding a 20+yo is ridiculous. Being in college doesn't absolve you of personal responsibility.
Kind of irrelevant, really. It's also an individual's responsibility not to get scammed or defrauded but we still punish the perpetrators. Also, you only have the experience that you have in this life and the experience threshold for the average college kid has dropped like a rock in a slop pail, so there is something of an implied moral imperative to not fleece the little shites too badly.
 
But they have a choice to sign up right? And these are adults we're talking about. That whole "college kid" thing is a misnomer. Handholding a 20+yo is ridiculous. Being in college doesn't absolve you of personal responsibility.
I agree to a point. In a lot of cases they are getting a pitch by their college or it may even be required. There is a fine line between gaining experience in a company "partnered" with your college and being sold a line. Who doesn't love a partnership with unlimited free free labor, right? 😄

My brother did internships all through college. He wasn't paid a lot, but he was paid some thing.
 
I'm not saying it's a good, fair, or otherwise positive arrangement for the intern. I'm saying these are adults (for sure not as mature as college students used to be), making a decision to sign up. Every choice we make has a consequence good or bad. They can make $15 an hour at Hardees. They don't have to be unpaid interns. If they're semi-intelligent, humble enough to take instructions, and have a willingness to work, they'll be successful. Might get there on a different path than the school guidance counselor described, but they'll get there. Whining about not getting hired at a six figure salary after you agreed to work for nothing the summer before won't get you there.
 
Use to work with a man that could fix any problem , in his head…just don't let him touch it..
I knew a heat & air guy once who was like that. His business had the reputation for being the best. He could solve any issue and instruct his guys how to do it the best way, but if he physically done anything, it looked like amateur work.
 

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