Author Topic: Got My First Real Job(Internship really)  (Read 270 times)

Offline curry1

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Got My First Real Job(Internship really)
« on: April 19, 2012, 08:20:14 PM »
I am going to be working for ECS (Engineering Consulting Services) after I graduate from High School in June.  Basically they are going to train me to test materials at constructions site for structural integrity like reinforced concrete.  If the contractors have done it wrong, me the baby faced 18 year old, fresh out of High School gets to tell them to do it over again :devil.  The best part is they are going to be paying me $8-11hr while they teach me :O!  And they'll really put me to work they expect to work me an average of 50hrs a week.  With overtime after 40 hours  :rock.  I'll know my official set wage for sure tomorrow.  This is really an awesome experience for someone my age.  I am going to be working with engineers in the field before I even set a foot into college.  Even though this is Civil Engineering and I want to be an Aerospace Engineer I am still really excited to start.

My first duty is to take a drug test tomorrow.  On a completely unrelated note tomorrow is 4/20  :noid  :lol
« Last Edit: April 19, 2012, 08:25:46 PM by curry1 »
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Offline B4Buster

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Re: Got My First Real Job(Internship really)
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2012, 09:10:45 PM »
 :aok
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Offline uptown

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Re: Got My First Real Job(Internship really)
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2012, 09:26:22 PM »
Congrats! Sounds like you're well on your way to doing great things in your life. It's refreshing to see a young man such as yourself with a plan and direction in life. I wish you the best.  :salute
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Offline Pigslilspaz

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Re: Got My First Real Job(Internship really)
« Reply #3 on: April 20, 2012, 12:46:57 AM »
Remember, Test comes before Toke in the alphabet. And congrats! I got my first internship this summer too.

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Offline Babalonian

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Re: Got My First Real Job(Internship really)
« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2012, 04:04:50 PM »
I am going to be working for ECS (Engineering Consulting Services) after I graduate from High School in June.  Basically they are going to train me to test materials at constructions site for structural integrity like reinforced concrete.  If the contractors have done it wrong, me the baby faced 18 year old, fresh out of High School gets to tell them to do it over again :devil.  The best part is they are going to be paying me $8-11hr while they teach me :O!  And they'll really put me to work they expect to work me an average of 50hrs a week.  With overtime after 40 hours  :rock.  I'll know my official set wage for sure tomorrow.  This is really an awesome experience for someone my age.  I am going to be working with engineers in the field before I even set a foot into college.  Even though this is Civil Engineering and I want to be an Aerospace Engineer I am still really excited to start.

My first duty is to take a drug test tomorrow.  On a completely unrelated note tomorrow is 4/20  :noid  :lol

Very cool.  I'm guessing mostly you'll be working with the guys in the field who NEED (as in legaly liable) to take regular samplings of concrete being pumped and poured?  Most guys I know/met who do this are mechanical and structural engineering backgrounds though, as they're usually involved with high-rises or large parking structures where they got like 20-50 cement trucks comming in a day and need to do sampling on each or each other one because of the  nature/signifigance of structural grade reinforced concretes.

Civils I know mostly deal with geotech and soils testing/sampling (site conditioning/preperation and/or (de-)contamination - IE: knowing how thick to construct and how deep to anchor a retaining wall holding back a hillside, or grading and soil compaction rates for water drainage/runoff/retention)... which makes some sence, they may have some slit-trenches/boreholes in need of some young n scrapy blood to scurry around with them.

Not that they don't do reinforced concrete work either... but that's usually the last part to a much more elaborate process they're involved with (like a cake baker that only focuses on piping names or messages ontop) - they do prepare the site for and pour structural foundations and slabs (very important structural components requiring regular, meticulus and thuroughly detailed cateloging and recording), retaining walls and some even do water drainage improovements, retention systems or restoration (this can be a storm basin no bigger than a couple swimming pools or the next hoover damn, to restoring a 1/4mile agriculture canal to a natural stream/river or restoring major sections of the LA river).

But I will warn and STRESS to you the meticulous and thurough daily repetitiveness you may be doing... (depending on the work).  We (the team we were a part of) completed this hospital in Merced just a couple years ago where what you're doing now is becoming central to a very heated issue.  First it started as just a floor surface finish issue, the hospital/client was having problems and disatisfaction with this material they used on the floors, with it cracking and peeling already (brand new hospital, remember).  So a couple months ago the client and architect and manufacturer get together and it's discovered this product has never had this problem anywhere else.  Documented samples taken from the time of construction are pulled and found to be within standards.  The manufacturer is pointing the finger at a moisture problem.  To make a long story shorter - fastforward to just two weeks ago, where we're pulling and looking at actual concrete samples taken from each individual truck during the structural deck pours and the particular deck and section in question - it's gone to the lawyers and insurance agencies now for the rounds of hot potatoeing, but needless to say you DO NOT want to be the contractor or sub that hired mister Johnie Day Laborer that day, standing next to the concrete pumper with a hose and cluelessly being over-generous in his assigned duty with the proper aplication of concrete-pump "lube"....

...so, if the guys you'll be working under act like what they're doing and teaching you has a few million dollars riding ontop of it (and your job), then they're likely experienced pros.  :aok  Congrats, I think it'll be tedius and repetitively boring at times (especialy at your entry level), but also something new and different with each job and site.  Personaly, I think it's great to get your foot in the door with Civil engineering/contracting, man has always wanted to move/mold the earth and mountains to the way they want it to be.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2012, 04:14:57 PM by Babalonian »
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Offline curry1

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Re: Got My First Real Job(Internship really)
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2012, 05:27:29 PM »
Very cool.  I'm guessing mostly you'll be working with the guys in the field who NEED (as in legaly liable) to take regular samplings of concrete being pumped and poured?  Most guys I know/met who do this are mechanical and structural engineering backgrounds though, as they're usually involved with high-rises or large parking structures where they got like 20-50 cement trucks comming in a day and need to do sampling on each or each other one because of the  nature/signifigance of structural grade reinforced concretes.

Civils I know mostly deal with geotech and soils testing/sampling (site conditioning/preperation and/or (de-)contamination - IE: knowing how thick to construct and how deep to anchor a retaining wall holding back a hillside, or grading and soil compaction rates for water drainage/runoff/retention)... which makes some sence, they may have some slit-trenches/boreholes in need of some young n scrapy blood to scurry around with them.

Not that they don't do reinforced concrete work either... but that's usually the last part to a much more elaborate process they're involved with (like a cake baker that only focuses on piping names or messages ontop) - they do prepare the site for and pour structural foundations and slabs (very important structural components requiring regular, meticulus and thuroughly detailed cateloging and recording), retaining walls and some even do water drainage improovements, retention systems or restoration (this can be a storm basin no bigger than a couple swimming pools or the next hoover damn, to restoring a 1/4mile agriculture canal to a natural stream/river or restoring major sections of the LA river).

But I will warn and STRESS to you the meticulous and thurough daily repetitiveness you may be doing... (depending on the work).  We (the team we were a part of) completed this hospital in Merced just a couple years ago where what you're doing now is becoming central to a very heated issue.  First it started as just a floor surface finish issue, the hospital/client was having problems and disatisfaction with this material they used on the floors, with it cracking and peeling already (brand new hospital, remember).  So a couple months ago the client and architect and manufacturer get together and it's discovered this product has never had this problem anywhere else.  Documented samples taken from the time of construction are pulled and found to be within standards.  The manufacturer is pointing the finger at a moisture problem.  To make a long story shorter - fastforward to just two weeks ago, where we're pulling and looking at actual concrete samples taken from each individual truck during the structural deck pours and the particular deck and section in question - it's gone to the lawyers and insurance agencies now for the rounds of hot potatoeing, but needless to say you DO NOT want to be the contractor or sub that hired mister Johnie Day Laborer that day, standing next to the concrete pumper with a hose and cluelessly being over-generous in his assigned duty with the proper aplication of concrete-pump "lube"....

...so, if the guys you'll be working under act like what they're doing and teaching you has a few million dollars riding ontop of it (and your job), then they're likely experienced pros.  :aok  Congrats, I think it'll be tedius and repetitively boring at times (especialy at your entry level), but also something new and different with each job and site.  Personally, I think it's great to get your foot in the door with Civil engineering/contracting, man has always wanted to move/mold the earth and mountains to the way they want it to be.

Thanks for the insight and story I can't wait to start.  Also I will be doing soil samples and and the stuff you listed as well.  In fact I might even be in the lab some of the time measuring densities of soil at different depths from the bore holes we drill and cataloging what types of soil are at which level.  I guess it is more of a mechanical/civil engineering job in fact my friend's dad who is one of hte owners of the company is a Mechanical Engineer.
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