Well, I'm leaving in a few hours. It's been 9+ long months of skipping school to work as an intern at International Truck and Engine in the engine group headquarters. I have a newfound appreciation for what all of you do working full-time everyday; it certainly is the polar opposite of being an undergrad student. Moreover, I can't put my finger on it, but general perspectives of many aspects of the socio-professional environment, my career goals and vision, etc, have changed greatly over this time.

My job here consisted of Competitive Intelligence and Analysis, mainly revolving around medium and heavy duty on-highway diesel engines. It was primarily mechanical engineering oriented with some market research/intelligence thrown in there. All in all, working with experienced engineers and doing some work for upper-management (which has also resulted in some new mentors), I have come away with a sound knowledge of advanced diesel engine design and a thorough grasp of the heavy-duty on-highway market.

I will be remaining with the company this summer, but have a new position in our Indianapolis plant where the our V8 (known as the Ford Powerstroke) is made. My new job will be Manufacturing Engineering. After talking to my new boss, I foresee myself walking away this summer with good experience in operations, process control, quality/reliability control, machinery upkeep, bit of supply-chain management, etc. This plant has an extremely high output per day, so I hope I make positive impacts as even seemingly minor improvements in efficiency go a long way with this kind of volume.

All of this will end up postponing my graduation by a semester which seems to be worth it. By the time I earn my degree, I will have had solid mechanical engineering background in automotive (engine) focus, good opertaional experience. Between next summer and the following, I am going to get ample supply-chain epxerience as well, and will try my best for global experience (China), for which I will change companies. Very eager to find out how all of this culminates into a full-time position at the end of undergrad.

Really, this will be the first time I will be truly living on my own. I was in college last year and operated from home this year because my parents reside in Chicago as well...should be an interesting few months..still have to find a place to live within the next few days . All I can say is that I am loving this part of life. I am experiencing so many new things at such a rapid rate, that affect my overall thought processes and outlook on life. Between college life and this past year, it has been fantastic and I can feel the changes. I hope things keep rolling the way they have been. Looking forward to what lies ahead .


Thanks for listening .