Listen to Amauche (2020) talk about internship at an aerospace engineering company last summer.

Transcript: Stephanie: You're listening to Gear Up, The Duke Career Center's podcast showcasing real students summer internship experiences. My name's Stephanie Mayle. And today we're talking to Amauche. About her aerospace engineering internship.

Stephanie: All right. So can you introduce yourself?

Amauche: Hi. My name's Amauche Uzoigwe. I'm a senior electrical computer engineering major and I'm from Atlanta, Georgia.

Stephanie: Cool. So where did you work this past summer?

Amauche: So this past summer, I was in Los Angeles, California, working as a circuit engineer for the Aerospace Corporation, which is the nonprofit government contracting company for aerospace.

Stephanie: And how did you find that job?

Amauche: On campus, I’m a part of a organization called NSBE, which means the National Society of Black Engineers and they have conferences with career fairs bi annually. So at one of the conferences I was able to speak with the recruiter and get insight on the job and I set up an interview and get the jobs.

Stephanie: Congrats.

Amauche: Thank You.

Stephanie: So what kind of stuff were you doing day to day for work?

Amauche: So for my position, I was working in the Powers Systems Department, which just means working for the things that powers spacecraft.

Stephanie: That’s pretty cool.

Amauche: Yeah, it was pretty cool. My job particularly, I would just run simulation of electrical circuits. I got to build some electrical circuits and I just got to learn about the company in general and a lot of other positions that I wasn't doing. So that was nice.

Stephanie: And did you like the work? How did you feel about it?

Amauche: The work was very interesting, but I think personally that that type of work I was doing wasn't necessarily what I was that interested in. So there's a lot of technical computer, also laboratory work. And I think doing that made me realize that I might like the logistics big picture business side of engineering more than I do like the technical hard core work. So I'm glad I got to experience that so I could see maybe what I don't want to do in the future.

Stephanie: So how did you like kind of the company culture?

Amauche: Oh, I love the company culture. It was very different because that was my first internships. I've never experience working a full day, a 9 to 5 job. There are also a lot of interns, so there are a lot of events geared towards us just to get us to know each other, to get us more comfortable, get us to know more about the company. So I did like the culture. Everyone was very nice. We had lanyards and the interns were like a different color lanyard. So it was always like you always knew who was an intern, who was not. People that worked at the company loved to just get to know us and be a resource to us because they knew that they would know that we're there learning as well. They were interns from all years. I think there was even a high school. There was a high school interns,.

Stephanie: Getting them Young!

Amauche: Yeah, from there to graduate school interns. So it was a really nice company culture. They really do push work, balance life work life balance. I'm sorry and yeah, it was really laid back. I think in terms of engineering jobs, it's really just working on your projects and making sure you get those done in a timely manner. So I never felt like I was on a set schedule every day. So I did like that.

Stephanie: So besides kind of learning that it's not what you want to do.

Amauche: Yeah!

Stephanie: Was there any other big takeaways or big skills that you you left?

Amauche: Yeah so, just being able to communicate.

Amauche: So at the end of that internship. We gave presentations to the whole division. So I just learned how to, you know, present my work in an organized and in a manner that was impressive to my bosses and what not communicatio