Working as a contractor
Josiah
Experience Information
Employer: Disher
Job Title: Electrical Engineering Co-Op
Major: Electrical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
This semester I worked at Disher a quickly growing contract engineering firm. Disher is a company of about 125-150 engineers from many disciplines. The company is trying to maintain its flat architecture while growing into a larger more complex company.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
This semester was split into two halves. The first half had me working at Disher on small customer or stewardship projects. I also spent time during this semester learning the coding language of Python. The second half of the semester I spent working as a contractor for one of Disher's clients as a components engineer. I helped the client's components engineer transition the company to a new database software and check their old database for errors.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
This semester I learned how to code in Python which I have found helpful when working with data and for creating software that works with the internet. I have also learned many of the skills needed to work as a components engineer and how to catalog electrical components in an efficient manner.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite portion of the internship was working on a design project that let me design a "light show" for a product that was supposed to help a company visualize their debt and how they were paying it off.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
This experience has shown me the benefits of working as a contract engineer rather than working with a manufacturer. Working as a contractor is enjoyable because you can work on many different type of projects in many different type of fields. This semester I was able to work as a design engineer, components engineer and even a quality/safety engineer for a small portion of my time.