Wade Trim

Community Design Intern

May - August 2024 • Taylor, MI

What I liked

I thoroughly enjoyed working for this company! The atmosphere of the company is really great, all of the people are so friendly and interested in your success. Everyone was very willing to answer my questions and wanted me to gain as much experience as I could in the short time I was going to be there. They did a great job of explaining things to me and were very patient if I wasn't understanding something. They tried to get me in the field when they could, and if I wanted to try a different area of the company, all I had to do was talk to my supervisor. I got to work on a variety of projects primarily focused on the design side of things. I helped create and touch up engineering drawings in Civil 3D, put together estimates, completed reviews of site plans, and completed field visits to collect site data and talk with clients. I also liked that the company is pretty laid back and very flexible with schedules. The office I worked at was hybrid, so I was able to work from home on Friday's and they provided me the equipment to do so. Overall, I would highly recommend this company!

What I wish was different

There are a few things that I wish had been different. One is that I wish I had more Civil 3D and AutoCAD experience prior to starting work. I had very minimal knowledge of the software so when I needed to use it I felt that I had to bother people with excessive questions. They had training videos for CAD which were helpful, but I think hands on learning works better. Another thing I wish had been different was the initial trainings, they took a while to get through and it made the first week or two go by pretty slowly. Aside from that, the only other thing I would change, is I wish I would've been given a little more work to do. I worked through my tasks pretty quickly and then had nothing to do until someone found something else for me to work on. I found myself having to find my own work, often watching CAD training videos and practicing those to take up my time.

Advice

My biggest piece of advice is to not be afraid to ask questions. There are a lot of complex topics that you will work with, its important to make sure you are understanding things correctly and completing your tasks properly. It also shows that you are interested and want to learn more about what you are working on. During your internship you have so many upper level engineers that you can learn from, they can have very valuable insight to your questions. I learned during this experience how important communication is in the civil engineering industry. There are so many people working on the same job that communicating properly and asking the necessary questions is what keeps the industry running smoothly.

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