This past summer, I had the incredible opportunity of working a construction management internship for Riparius Construction on-site at M&T Bank Stadium. I was able to earn this position through contact with a family friend of mine, who has always told me about the incredible work he does, how much he loves it, and that he would love to see me work for his company in the future. This is a perfect example of how important connections to friends, family, and any broader network of people you meet in your life are for finding employment. I still earned my position through an interview, but being able to have a connection to the company by someone who would vouch for me was very helpful in the process. I would advise you to exhaust all connections you have in searching for opportunities, because connections really do go a long way.
During my internship, there were several different projects I was responsible for working on, including luxury box level suites, ticketing booths, corporate offices, and the largest industrial kitchen in the entire stadium. Since there were many projects I was coordinating, I had a lot of different responsibilities. Some of these responsibilities included conducting site walks to monitor progress in accordance with our project schedule, reviewing construction drawings across electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems, communicating with subcontractors to support issue resolution and follow up on this communication by submitting requests for information after identifying discrepancies between the printed plans and existing site conditions. Basically, I was the line of communication between the people working on the site and the company I was working for who produced and held all of the plans. To be successful in this role, I would carry a huge ring of keys that gave me access to the entire stadium, as well as a walkie-talkie so I could send messages anywhere, anytime. Another thing about the ring of keys is that I was told they were worth about $500,000 since they would have to replace all of the locks throughout the entire stadium if it were lost. This was a huge responsibility to give to an intern, but I loved that they trusted me with it, and it made me careful and attentive at all times. Through all of this, I improved as an engineer and gained many skills. Some of these skills include being able to interpret blueprints, following tight project schedules, understanding and solving technical issues in the field in real time, and collaborating with multiple teams simultaneously to achieve a common goal.
Aside from all of the experience I gained this past summer, the practicum experience had a personal impact on me emotionally. My work actively contributed to projects within the stadium that my favorite football team plays in. A place that is so nostalgic to me, and will continue to be a place of more memories for the rest of my life. Not only was my work satisfying for that reason, but it also showed me that it is possible to find genuine joy in my future career if I truly appreciate the place, purpose, and people the job's objective concerns. I hope to find a position like this in the future, where there is personal significance behind my work, so that I can love each and every day like I did last summer. Another thing I learned from my work this summer is that I would love to have a career in the construction side of engineering. Although I may not want to do construction management itself, I would like to work on a mechanical design team that produces the plans and blueprints for different construction sites. This way I can still work in construction, which I found out I really like this summer, while also following my passion for design.