My expectations before officially starting my internship at Tunehouse was that I would get a chance to fully express the skills I had developed over the course of my study as an engineer. This included things like applying my CAD skills to develop parts and to hopefully also get a chance to work on some more mechatronic projects to apply my knowledge around electrical systems.
The reality was that I indeed got to do all of those things. I had the chance to work with the team to develop and improve the newest turbo kit for the Gen 2 GR86, including the design and testing which was conducted in their in-house dynamometer. On top of working on the mechanical aspects of the Turbo kit, I also had the chance to de code the Can bus data stream of the new vehicle. This allowed us to display all the live data from the factory and aftermarket sensors onto an external dash and record the data with a GPS overlay as well.
Therefore, not only did I have the chance to apply my theoretical skills, but I got to go out on field, that being the racetrack, where the car we had built competed to get the fastest lap time. During this experience, I was personally in charge of acquiring and interpreting all the data from the external dash we had set up to monitor all the crucial data from the car’s sensors. In hindsight, these experiences indeed exceeded my expectations.
The most important lessons from my internship came down to these 2 things.
- You can be the best engineer / mechanic / electrician; however, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be successful. One must be able to be a good businessman to succeed in the industry. An example of this would be that I was able to come up with many ideas and present them to the team on various parts to design and build. However, the underlying questions were always, how much would it cost, and how many would we sell?
- Apart from the skills and knowledge you have to provide as an intern, your core character and work ethics are just as important. Things like rocking up on time, being dependable, showing respect and following instructions are just as, if not more important. Someone can always be taught new skills and learn new things, however it’s much harder to change someone’s character and ethics.
My value proposition to a future employer would be that I believe I possess these key character straights and if there’s ever something I don’t know how to do, I will always find a way to figure it out as I’m open to learning new things.
After having now completed my first internship, and due to the positive experience, that it was, the type of role I want as a future engineer hasn’t changed at all, and I love every aspect of being a mechanical engineer & a mechanic.