I was introduced to my first project on my very first day – which was researching IKEA and their furniture solutions to learn about a potential venture into making replacement cabinet doors. I was immediately interested to see what I could make out of this opportunity and also excited to continue developing my interest in engineering through this project.
While working on this IKEA project, I was tasked with finding a potential supplier for integrated pulls that would be attached to cabinet doors. After talking with several companies, I was able to talk directly with the representative we chose to work with in the future. I was surprised with the amount of freedom I was given in being able to choose which projects to work on and how invested I could become in each. I also enjoyed being able to collaborate with fellow interns on different projects, ranging from those directly related to my position and a variety of others.
My favorite part about my position was the fact that I was able to redesign a new piece of furniture that will eventually be on the market. This piece of furniture that I designed was a floating shelf. I was able to see a lot of correlation between what I’ve been doing at REHAU with design and what I’ve been doing in school with design. Specifically, through this project.
My supervisor, Scott Blair, supported me though each task and let me work on my own to develop my own ideas for new and current projects. He listened to my input and made me feel like this input was helpful in moving forward with different business solutions. I would meet at least twice a week with my supervisor and the entire department to discuss goals and updates. These meetings helped me to get to know my supervisor on a more personal level, which made it easier to talk to him about project updates and the internship.
Through my internship at REHAU, I was able to gain excellent engineering design experience in an intriguingly complex industry. This experience taught me that attention to detail and the ability to switch from standard to metric on the fly are important skills to apply in my future career.
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