Gentex Internship
Matthew
Experience Information
Employer: Gentex Corporation
Job Title: Process Engineering Intern
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Received Credit: Yes
Paid: Yes
Abroad: No
Description of the Organization
Gentex is an innovative company of roughly 4500 employees spread across the Zeeland, Michigan area that focuses deeply on its four 'foundations'. These foundations include: Unpretentious Management, Devotion to Quality, Devotion to Innovation, and Ownership mentality. These foundations set up the framework for a very low stress atmosphere and the freedom to make changes to the production process without going through the typical chain of command that is seen with most large companies.
Description of the Tasks/Projects Completed
The Process Engineering group did an excellent job of challenging me as an engineer. They did a great job of finding my strengths and weaknesses and shifting my work to balance my skill-set. Design projects ranged from a few days all the way up to 2-3 months and included tasks such as SolidWorks modeling, Work Orders, Purchase Orders, Project management, Hands-On Assembly, and Implementation. All of the projects were given deadlines either set by a customer within the company or by myself, which allowed me to have a much better understanding of how long a project will last based on the complexity of the design.
Skills/Knowledge Gained Through The Experience
One of the biggest skills that I learned during this experience was interaction with production team members and how to go about implementing changes to their processes while minimizing any push-back. This internship was very special in the fact that you are placed in a position where it is up to you to make changes for the good and you have to learn to deal with managing people and finding out why you might be getting negative feedback in order to achieve your final goals.
Favorite Part of the Experience
My favorite part about this internship was the people that I work with. Gentex is a great environment where everyone is willing to assist you and teach you what you need to complete your tasks. The amount of Gentex paid training and team building exercises that you are a part of during your internship is extremely helpful in building relationships outside of your normal work area and really help you to understand the big picture of what Gentex is striving for.
How the Experience Influenced Future Career Goals
This experience has shown me what a lot in terms of what routes a Mechanical Engineer can take during their career. There are endless possibilities of where you can end up from being a Designer to a Group leader to a role in Human Resources, where in school you are mainly taught the technical side of Engineering and are not exposed to many of these possibilities.