For my STEP project, I worked in Louisville Kentucky for GE Appliances. During this Co-op, I worked on a new product integration team for their 2021 Monogram and Café series gas ranges and cooktops. While apart of this team, I developed a PID controller for a new precision cooking mode, as well as performed thermal and structure testing to assure products were ready to be launched.
This was my first internship opportunity, and being from Columbus, the first time I had lived in another state. I was excited to get a glimpse at what working as a full-time engineer could look like, as well as experience a different city’s culture. My goal for this semester, was to gain real-world experience as well as teamworking and leadership experience that I can translate to school organizations, and future jobs. My internship at GE Appliances provided me a perfect environment to grow in these ways. I was able to see the management style of a large-scale project and work alongside senior design engineers. I greatly strengthened my time management and communication skills, as I was expected to balance multiple projects and tests, while also presenting and being a part of team meetings.
Being an engineering student can stressful. I believe that what I learned that was most important, was that I am going to engineer. I believe sometimes when school gets stressful, imposer syndrome can make it hard to really imagine your career after graduation. When working at GE, my confidence in career choice greatly increased. All the work I was conducting felt like it was a part of something greater than myself, and something that is going to affect people’s lives. I really enjoyed learning and implementing new concepts onto real products, and learning how to find, discuss and solve design problems. Coming back to Ohio State, I feel my work will be more rewarding knowing how I can translate it to a career to work through problems.
Living in a new state, without any previous relationships was a great experience for to step out of my comfort zone, make new friends, and pick-up responsibilities for taking care of myself. While there, I made a group of other interns that turned into friends. It was difficult with corona to meet interns out of my building, so I had to go out of my comfort zone a bit to make connections though GroupMe that translated to doing things as groups in person. Additionally, I picked up responsibilities such as cooking and taking care of my car. I cooked for myself most days of the week and came to liking it quite a bit. It was fun to find new recipes on the internet and try to make them. I am not a picky eater, so when things went not so great it was not a big deal. Unlike school, my work was over at 5pm, so I had a lot of free time after that I would fill with new hobbies. During this semester, I improved my guitar playing as well as started to skateboard. It was nice to have this time to relax and work on hobbies/get exercise.
The key aspects that greatly aided my growth as an engineer was working in a team of full-time engineers and being a part of extra projects. Working with full-time engineers greatly developed my skills as a team member. Every day, I would work with engineers to root-cause problems, and construct solutions that were viable for the company to include in their products. I learned how to approach individual problems, and how to design a test to prove a problem cause and solution. My ability to participate in problem solving conversations greatly increased, as I was conversing with full-time engineers daily. During my semester, I developed close mentor/mentee bounds with multiple full-time engineers, who were able to work with me to improve my understanding of combustion related issues as well as leadership skills. My team relied on me as if I were a new hire, meaning I would take on projects and explore problems in different areas other than just my assigned intern project. This sharpened my communication and organization skills and pushed me to solve problem both in a team and as an individual. I learned when it is right to ask for help, and when I can help others while also balancing my responsibilities. With these skills, I feel much more adapt to working with many different types of people on a tight schedule to get work done.
An additional project I took on while working at GE, was the Fall Unlocking Innovation drive. This was a two-person team project where members create a prototype for a possible appliance product that GE could pursuit in the future. Of the 25+ teams who joined this project, I was a part of the only team comprised of only Co-ops. My team member also went to Ohio State, and even more interesting, he grew up about 12 minutes away from me. Although I had never met or worked with my partner before, we took on this project together, and received a bronze reward after presenting to 15+ senior leaders at GE. Because I was on a 2021 release team, my required workday was very busy. This made my innovation project a tight balance and pushed me to sharpen my time management skills. Additionally, I gained great exposure to pitches by presenting an original idea to higher ups in the company, something that would have terrified me at the start of my rotation.
Having gained experience as a leader and confidence as an engineer, I am excited to go back to classes and pick-up courses that would have been related to the work I was doing. I have a new sense of curiosity for controllers and thermodynamics, two topics that I dove into while working. I am also very excited to go back to Engineer’s Without Borders (EWB). I hold the position VP of local relations in this organization, and co-lead the local half, which is two weekly meetings. In this organization, we do philanthropic projects with nonprofits around Columbus, last semester taking on three simultaneously. I am very excited to continue leading this section of EWB and trying out some of the leadership styles that I had learned and developed while at my internship. After seeing how projects are approached in a large company such as GE, I feel like I will be able to improve the EWB project efficiency. Finally, I am excited to work at a company such as GE in the future. If I receive a return offer, I would love to work in a different part of the company and increase my understanding of appliances and product design. I have a great sense of hope for becoming an engineer in my future, and very am grateful for opportunity I received and the people I met who pushed and taught me along the way.
