Good Ideas for Keeping Interns Useful and Busy 9

[STrctPono]

So we've had interns in the past and I've typically been one of the mid-level engineers that is responsible for keeping the interns busy and learning. I had one intern in the past that was fantastic! She was sharp, tech savvy, and helped me tremendously produce hundreds of pages of calculations for a bridge load rating project one summer. Unfortunately, our current intern is not up to snuff and alas, there is not that same perfect project for him to help out on in.

Besides shadowing us for field work, do you guys have any ideas for what to do with interns in a Structural Design office to keep them busy and useful? I want him to feel like he is contributing and not just like we are doing him a favor.

He's actually a Junior level CM major and not an Engineering major so having him do small structural designs actually is not an option.

 

[IceNine]

Agree with 271828 regarding shop drawing review.
Not only might they not pick up on detailer errors, but they might miss potential design errors as well.
I look at is a last chance to check the design, and someone with no experience won't have the feel to notice a design error.

 

[skeletron]

I was thinking the intern's SDR would happen before the "final" SDR which is approved. Definitely not the final check, but an intermediate/make-work check to get used to seeing a drawing and the details required.

 

[3DDave]

Relying on someone that is getting their school work examined and graded and getting anything less than A+ on everything and expecting their intern work output to be perfect is misunderstanding the contribution they can reasonably make. Have them work in parallel on some items and see where they diverge and have them figure out why they diverged, then discuss with them their reasoning as to what they felt caused the difference.

 

[STrctPono]

271828 and IceNine. I completely agree with your sentiments but as stated by 3DDave, this would be done from a position of mentorship. I would certainly be making a full review of shop drawings myself and hoping that the intern catches all the same errors that I do (or perhaps more). I had a bad experience with allowing someone else in my office review some shop drawings 5 years back and it was bad. Luckily the owner and I had a great relationship and the Contractor and Owner were barely on talking terms so I dodged a bullet on that one but learned that shop drawing review is not to be considered a lesser task.

Plans, Specs, Estimate, Proposal Schedule, Analysis/Calculations, Special Inspections.... The bulk of the tasks that are common to structural engineers are all important and carry their own level of liability. I understand this and came looking for advice for what I CAN do with this intern and creative ideas that others have implemented.

He's been getting great experience shadowing some inspectors for girder rebar/prestressing special inspections, concrete pours, and drilled shaft installations as well as being slammed with reviewing plans and checking our quantities. I will have him do some small drafting work on some of our gratis jobs in the next week or so. It would be great to hear some other ideas for tasks that you find are beneficial to interns...