For my practicum, I worked at the Manhattan University Physical Plant as an intern and employee for Aramark Facilities Management. Facilities management involves the oversight of all operation, repair, and maintenance of physical infrastructure. I had the role of Service Response Manager, meaning that I was primarily responsible for delegating tasks and responsibilities to the team of technicians to ensure that the facilities were being operated smoothly. The goal of the project was to provide an essential service to the university. Simultaneously, I was able to develop my knowledge and skills in mechanical engineering systems, project management, and communication within a professional environment.
A typical day on the job would begin with me arriving at the Physical Plant, the office in the university where Aramark employees and Manhattan University technicians are stationed, at around 8:00 in the morning. I would spend the first hour or so of the day reviewing online work order requests with the WebTMA computer program, and printing them out for our technicians. I would also close any work orders and log the adjacent information into the WebTMA system that was completed the night before. After these tasks were completed, I often worked on the preventative maintenance program, updating my spreadsheet and detailing the task description in the document. I took an hour lunch break around noon, where I got to walk around Van Cortland Park, a local park in the area. After this, I spent the rest of the day walking around campus. This could involve performing inspections on equipment, meeting with representatives from the university, or getting a tour of different facilities and learning how the mechanical systems work. My work day ended at 3:00 PM, where I would close any work orders from that day and pack up my belongings.
By observing the surrounding environment and working with others, one of the biggest problems I witnessed was the challenges of working under a small budget and with a shortened staff. A lack of resources and helping hands made it difficult for all tasks to be completed on time, with some of the details falling through the cracks. Communication was also more difficult, and misunderstandings could lead to major mistakes. Relating this to the SGC colloquium, the skills of scientific and technical communication and team-based collaboration were incredibly important. In order for a task to be done properly, it was important that I communicated the technical details in a way that was both truthful and easy to understand. This reminded me of the different projects we had over the course of the SGC classes, where scientific information was to be presented in a way that all audiences could understand and remain engaged with. This helped me develop my skills in communication, and also improved my understanding of the topics I was discussing.
Through this project, I learned a lot about my different soft skills and how I can utilize them in my engineering classes. I learned that I am proficient in time management, organization, detail oriented thinking, and project management, which has been influential in the approaches I take towards my studies and extracurricular activities. I believe that I want to further pursue project management in the field of engineering in my professional career. This project allowed me to develop and practice using these skills, which made it a very rewarding and educational experience. To better prepare for this work, I would have further practiced my phone communication skills. I learned the importance of speaking in a more clear and audible voice over the phone, but it took a few attempts to realize this. Moving forward, I will continue to call upon the project management and communication skills that I developed through this work experience. The most direct example of this has been through my role as a team lead in the engineering club that I am a part of, where I have had to communicate and delegate tasks the same way I did during this practicum. I believe that this will continue as a long-term future development, as the skills of communication and project management are always going to be valuable in securing any future job or internship opportunities.
My practicum required collaboration for all of its tasks. As someone who was hired as an intern but also held the title of a manager, I had a very dynamic role. There were situations, such as meetings with managers and university administrators where my role would be to listen to my supervisors and have information to present. In other situations, I was in charge of a team of technicians where I would assign tasks and responsibilities. Overall, in both roles, I had little prior experience but I was able to grow to be successful in handling my responsibilities. Our team was successful in achieving the goal of operating the university’s infrastructure through our team’s collaboration and communication.
I would recommend this project to aspiring engineers in SGC as I learned a lot about mechanical systems. More importantly, the soft skills of project management and communication are incredibly valuable in any future engineering team. I have been able to successfully secure internships and leadership roles because of this experience. Overall, the skills I developed from this experience have been incredibly beneficial to my academic and internship success, and I would recommend an opportunity like this to future SGC students.