Once upon an internship

Before going to a new place, you set up a picture in your mind as to how the people there are going to be, right? For my internship, I was going to a company and I had an image of the boss and the workplace formed in my mind. But surprisingly, the place was far better than I thought.

What topic of discussion do you expect from the boss of an engineering company? I expected my first session with the owner to be a really dry session, in which the boss would talk about the achievements of his company or telling how great of a man he is, and our interests towards the profession.

But to my great surprise, we didn't discuss any of it.

He asked about our hobbies and why we like doing what we do. He told us that there is innate talent in every one which one can always use in the field of engineering. He explained; suppose a person who is good at writing can always write good reports, a person who teaches can always explain things to others in a better way etc. Somehow he linked art to the profession of engineering. He said "Even if you are dealing with a project alone, there is always one person that you have to manage, i.e. yourself."

Engineering profession, as experienced, always focuses on the engineering concepts but somehow after that first session, I started giving time to hobbies and recognising my talents because now I know I can always relate the art to engineering profession, knowing it will benefit me somehow.

I worked for approximately a month in the firm, the sessions with the boss were less but had such positive impact on me. He was a person who would always see the positive in everything. He was influential.

The other person and the person we had the most interaction with was our supervisor. A good person by heart and always willing to teach us.

Other people were all good and co-operative there. The working environment was very good. Within no time we got adjusted into the environment. The good thing about the company is, they praise you for your work and your ideas are taken into consideration.

I learnt both engineering and valuing art in the company. And it was a really good experience.

-Rida Mir