During Fall 2020 I worked as a Co-Op for Delta Air Lines in their Liaison Engineering department. This job involved research into technical data to provide 24/7 support for the airline’s aircraft maintenance operations. I worked closely with engineers to develop paperwork and plans to repair aircraft.
In working this position, I got to have my perspective of the industry change. Before the internship, I had not had an opportunity to look behind the scenes at what the operation of an airline looks like or see an engineering team at work. During my time there I gained great confidence in my ability to succeed in the field of aerospace engineering. I was also struck by the sense of teamwork and the camaraderie that I saw within the department. I didn’t initially expect to find that in an office job environment, but I was pleasantly surprised this Fall. I was also impressed by the various departments as Delta working together to smoothly run the business with a sense of understanding of how important working together is.
Out of the start of my time at Delta there were challenges that I had to overcome. The first of these being the largest, finding out that I had to work from home. I was worried that this arrangement would cause a great disconnect between me and my co-workers during the rotation. Thankfully, many in the team made efforts to include me and get to know me despite not being in the office together. Just little chats about life in our brief video conference meetings were very valuable to me.
Working on engineering tasks and sometimes even taking the lead on them contributed to my greatly increased confidence and experience working as a part of an engineering team. Additionally, getting to communicate and coordinate with other departments allowed me to get a window into various areas of the industry. For example, being in contact with mechanics at the aircraft allowed me to see how the support process work on both sides, where previously I had only been on the mechanic’s side. It definitely was an interesting change in perspective for me.
During the co-op I also realized how much I enjoyed doing valuable work. Being able to get airplanes out of the hangar faster and discovering effective ways of solving a problem was personally very rewarding to me. This also was true when I was working on and presented my end of rotation project. Having others see and appreciate the value of my work is important to me being satisfied in my career.
Overall, my experience with Delta has confirmed for me that I want to work in the engineering field. When searching for opportunities in the future in engineering, I now understand that I want to look for a place where I can do work that I feel is valuable and has a very strong and supportive team dynamic. Additionally, I want to promote that kinda of culture in whatever I do professionally or otherwise. Finally, when I do get that engineering job offer, I can be confident knowing that I’m capable of doing what is required of me in the engineering field.