The connection I made between my internship and school was my engineering class.  In that class I was taught some schematics which the company also uses when they are building antennas.  Yesterday morning  they allowed me to solder an antenna on a circuit board.  Everything on the board was really tiny, and the antenna was about 2mm by 4mm small.  Every time I tried holding it with the tweezers it would always slip out.  So the employees there found it funny that I was having a hard time with soldering the antenna.  The purpose of Electronics is creating innovating new ideas and design on antennas.  They also require you to learn certain skills to develop their products.  The skill I am developing now is learning how to work with the program they use to cut the specific metal to make the antenna.  Another one skill I need to learn is how to test these antennas for the ideal use.

What strikes you most about your workplace?
What strikes me is that they have a lot of wooden crates.  It looks like they are ready to pack some stuff of their equipment away. 

What strikes you most about your colleagues? (remember this is a publicly visible blog)
They are really kind and nice to me.  When I need help I can just asked them and they would help.

What strikes you most about the job you're doing?
What strikes me was when I got there I was told to help start packing.  I was also surprise on how much equipment the company had.

What are you excited about?
I am excited to see the new building the company is moving to.  It looks very different from their old office and  it all looks so new.

What are you worried about?
I am worried that I won't be able to perform the jobs they want me to do correctly.  It worries me because I have no background in engineering.

What questions do you have about your internship?
My questions are why is there only one company buildings in America? Next question is how do they test the new antennas design?

What connections can you make between this internship and what you've done in school?
Well It looks like the part of this job is going to be hands on and our school sometimes has hands on project.  There are multiple people working on the computers just like in school when we are given individual work.

Has anything happened that's worth telling us about? Funny stories? 
I don't really think there has been any funny stories.

What have you learned about your organization's mission and purpose?
I know they build antennas for phones, computers, and television.   

What new skills are you developing (or will you need to develop) for this internship?
The new skills I need to develop is probably programming and communication.  They use a program to make the antennas they need,  and I need to learn new communication skill because I am a new worker.

1.Why did you choose to work
here?

 I
had worked in antenna engineering for 20 years prior to starting at
Ethertronics, so it was a good fit between my experience and the needs of the
company in terms of bringing experienced engineers on board.  I saw the job at
Ethertronics being interesting due to the fast paced nature of the consumer
electronics industry. 


2.How did you end up doing the job that
you do?

 When
I was a junior in college I started to work for a small antenna company,
primarily to gain experience outside of the class room.  After graduating I
stayed on and continued to design antennas and gain additional experience. 
 

3.What is the purpose of this
organization?

 Ethertronics
goal is to design and manufacture antennas for a wide variety of consumer mobile
devices such as cell phones, notebooks, and Tablets.  At Ethertronics we develop
unique technology to help to differentiate us from our competitors.  Being a
business, at the end of the day the purpose is to grow, with common metrics for
growth being increased dollar sales year over year, increasing number of
antennas shipped per year, or gaining additional large
customers.


 4.What does it take to be successful in
this organization?

 It
requires everyone to not only perform their own job well but to work together in
teams to achieve design and manufacturing goals.  It requires the employees to
put in extra hours if needed, and to travel when required to work with customers
or our fellow employees overseas.  Also, employees need to on occasion learn new
skills or improve their skills in areas where additional productivity can be
achieved; for example learn new software programs to speed up design or
manufacturing processes.


 5.How important is getting along with
other people in your career?

 It
is very important, and this is typically something that is hard to teach in
schools.  Working with other employees in teams and being able to get along with
a wide variety of personalities is key to helping the company
succeed.


 6.What other personality traits,
skills, or knowledge are important here?

 Being
organized is important as well as paying attention to details.  Planning skills
are also key when working on large or complex projects.  If you think about it,
an engineering design or manufacturing process will only work as well as you
plan for it to work; if you forget to perform some small tasks or forget some
details of the design or process, it will show in the end result.  
 
Knowing
another language or languages can be helpful since we talk to customers from
around the world.


 


7.What questions did I not ask yet that
I should have?


What
engineering disciplines are employed at Ethertronics?  Electrical engineering,
mechanical engineering, Physics, software. 


 



Let
me know what day you start and we can coordinate a time for pick up for drive to
work.


 
 

Where are you going?
I am going to Ethertronics for my Internship.

Who's your mentor?
My mentor is Jeff Shamblin who is the Chief Scientist in the company.

What will you be doing?
I will most likely work on antennas that are built for our phones.  Then test if it sends RF signals and works with the phone.

What are you excited about learning through this internship experience?
What I am excited about is by interning there I will improve in my knowledge. 

What are you nervous about?
what I am nervous about is adjusting to my internship scheduled.