| Our Internship Program creates
the proverbial "win-win" situation for HBG and for our interns.
At HBG, we benefit from the extra labor, and an opportunity to try people
out before hiring them. If we do hire them, they already have proven skills
and are familiar with our company culture. From the students' point of view,
the internship is a learning experience in the field that provides all kinds
of information and experience not available in a traditional classroom.
Other advantages for the interns? In these two interviews, they speak for
themselves:
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 is currently an intern at Myrtle Beach, working closely
with Dan Goodwin. A civil engineering student at the University of Alberta,
Canada, Michael is in his fourth year of college, and has one more year
to complete his degree. He started his internship in January of this year
and will finish up in late April.
Michael has taken on a variety of tasks at the main office in Myrtle Beach,
including updating quantities, making full payments, scheduling, tracking
quantity and takeoffs, tracking monthly progress payments, and drafting
with autocad. "This has been a great project to work on," he says.
"I've been involved in lots of planning and seen how all the parts
of the project are pieced together.
Part of the learning experience for Michael has been the opportunity to
travel away from his native Edmonton. He drove 3,000 miles from home to
Myrtle Beach in five days, taking in Kansas City and Atlanta along the way.
He'll drive a different route home, and recently attended the Mardi Gras
with his roommate and fellow intern, Tim Walsh.
Working at Myrtle Beach was not Michael's first experience as an intern.
He's had several other work experiences, including soil and concrete testing
for eight months, and working for a structural engineering company for four
months. "These experiences are giving me a chance to see what I really
want to do when I graduate," explains Michael. He has tentative plans
to attend graduate school, either majoring in project management or structural
engineering.
Michael has found Myrtle Beach a fluid, tourist community where "lots
of people come and go." He's been able to keep up with his weight lifting
during his internship, but finds opportunities for ice hockey extremely
rare. |
spent a semester on exchange with Purdue University from the
University of Western Australia, from August to December 2001. He then contacted
HBG Flatiron about an internship, and has been at Myrtle Beach since January.
He will be leaving on May 1st to return to Australia for a final year of
school before graduating.
The young civil engineer has been working in a field office under the tutelage
of Dave Reilly. His assignments have included design work and actually going
into the field to help with all aspects of construction. The Perth native
is finding civil engineering is a good fit with his interests. He enjoys
seeing his classroom knowledge applied, and is complimentary about Palmetto
Constructors. "These people are well organized and proud of what they
do," he says. "Everyone puts in a good effort around here."
Learning about American culture has been one of the interesting parts of
Tim's internship. "Before I came here," he explains, "everything
I knew about the U.S. was from TV and the movies." He enjoys the diversity
and excellent highway system that has made it possible to drive so many
places in just a few hours.
During Christmas break, Tim was fortunate to be invited to Sacramento, California,
to spend the holiday with a college friend from Purdue. Before returning
to Australia in May, he plans to drive up the East Coast of the U. S. visiting
as many places as possible. "There's so much to see and do here,"
comments Tim. "It's amazing!"
After graduating from the University of Western Australia next year, Tim
would like to return to the U. S. to work. He says many more opportunities
exist to work in construction here than in his native country. |