The college experience can really shape your mind and prepare you for the future. It has the ability to broaden your experiences and encourage you to seek new opportunities like high school never could. It helps that there’s a lot more choice. With that choice, though, comes the responsibility of deciding what is best for you and your future. For some, that means studying abroad to better learn a language. For others, it means getting as many internship opportunities as possible.
The word internship can draw up visions of being sent for coffee and unpaid, long hours. For many, though, that isn’t the correct picture (at least not anymore). At Hoyle Tanner, we’re proud to offer internships that deliver a wide range of project experience and field work. Our interns get to work on projects from multiple disciplines within our firm and get the experience to work on reports, visit sites, assist with construction oversight, and experience working in an office setting.
This year, I asked two of our interns about their experiences as part of the Hoyle Tanner Internship Program this summer.
Haven Rose is entering his senior year of college at Florida State University. He’s joining us for the summer in our Burlington, Vermont office, working with both our Bridge and Municipal Engineering groups. His favorite part about the internship has been the field work so far, closely followed by the kind and uplifting coworker environment.
“Jon Olin and I went to do a survey of a dock that’s falling apart in Vergennes,” he said. “We went to talk to the Town Administrator, took measurements, and surveyed the structure. Now we’re writing a report about the damage. It’s fun field work that’s interesting and unique, and hopefully helps Vergennes in the future.”
Haven prefers the field work, so his experiences doing resident project representative work overseeing construction and his trip to Vergennes have been the highlights. He also listed things he’s learned, from construction site operations, to understanding how to interact in an office setting, to working more efficiently. One of the skills he’s developed most, though, is technical writing.
“My technical language has developed quite a bit,” Haven said. “I’ve surpassed the high school and college-sounding reports, and now it’s the next level of professionalism.”
Our other intern, Nick Eagan, joins us before he begins his master’s transportation program in the fall. While Haven has worked to learn about the profession and field work, Nick has already had previous internships, so his favorite experiences are more about the people he has worked with.
“It’s a hard question, what my favorite thing is,” Nick said. “Probably working with everyone and meeting new people. I started back in June before people started coming back to the office, so now that my department has people in it, that’s been my favorite thing.”
Nick also said he’s been learning new things everyday with our group. Previously, Nick interned at a Department of Transportation and interned in the field doing construction work. His experience with us, he said, has been very worth it. As for what he’d tell other interns about working here, this is what he had to say:
“There are really nice people here. The work environment and the community – probably one of the nicest positions I’ve been in.” We appreciate our interns and all they can teach us. Interested in interning or applying for a job at Hoyle Tanner? Visit our careers page! We’d love to bring you on board.
