Internship Assignment

Akshat Agrawal

Westcliff University

INT 701-2: Internship

Professor Amin

August 23rd, 2020

The Internship Experience

I was offered an internship opportunity by the Meridian Rapid Defense Group Company (MRDGC), which was an opportunity for advancing my personal and professional skills and competencies. The main duties and responsibilities assigned to me included deployment of Archer Barriers to appropriate locations in ways that allow for pedestrian flow, and emergency access to vehicles as required. I was expected to be flexible since my roles would vary to include coordination of a variety of activities such as risk assessment, and participation in research and development activities such as idealization of security devices and technologies. My operations and activities were mainly guided and assigned by my supervisor who relentlessly offered support in all social and professional aspects of the job. For instance, the supervisor would give me instructions on how to complete different tasks, and was readily available for consultations whenever I got stranded.

The supervisor provided leadership roles, motivation, assigned responsibilities that supported professional development, and gave feedback and advice that allowed me to boost my strengths and work on my weaknesses. The frequent assessments by the supervisor were particularly important since feedback has been shown to increase employee motivation and enthusiasm for work, which increases employee productivity, creativity, and loyalty to and appreciation of the organization (Goller, Harteis, Gijbels & Donche, 2020). On most occasions, I was required to work in teams consisting of few interns and more professional engineers. My internship experience was exciting and educational since I was not only able to apply my engineering knowledge in real work settings but I was also able to gain more knowledge and experience that significantly increased my personal and professional competencies.

Learned Skills and Attitudes

Self-Discipline

Self-discipline is among the core qualities in MRDGC’s organizational culture that all employees including interns are expected to uphold at all times. Since the MRDG is an organization operating in the Department of Defense (DoD), great emphasis is put on self-discipline so that the conduct and work-related behaviors ought to reflect the highest possible discipline standards aligned to DoD’s ethical standards (Meridian Rapid Defense Group, 2020). In this regard, the MRDGC has strict rules and standards on neatness, social relations, and time management. In particular, employees are required to stick to the operational charter and follow all operational procedures without rebellion, and all the assigned duties and responsibilities ought to be completed within the set timelines. Furthermore, Employees are expected to use respectful language when communicating with all types of stakeholders including customers and colleagues, and react to situations with positive attitude regardless of the provocative nature of the interaction. Employees are also expected to dress appropriately and be neat at all times according to the dressing code and standards set by the organization.

The aforementioned discipline standards establish order and increase efficiency in regard to the overall organizational productivity. The internship experience significantly improved my self-discipline since I was able to have a better understanding of what self-discipline is all about. Although I experienced difficulties keeping time and staying on task, my interpersonal skills improved since I gradually became more respectful and avoided confrontations and arguments whenever I received negative feedback or comments from my colleagues, managers, and customers. Self-discipline has been demonstrated to directly correlate with cohesion in work-related processes, employee relations, and acknowledgement of one’s mistakes, which not only improves interpersonal competencies but also knowledge transfer and increases productivity (Hoch, Bommer, Dulebohn & Wu, 2018). In this regard, I gradually cultivated conscientiousness that allowed me to exercise the highest levels of self-control in difficult situations. Through conscientiousness, I’ve been able to; develop emotional intelligence, which involves manipulating one’s and other’s emotions in ways that result in positive outcomes; increase my industriousness; anger-management; and orderliness (Lamb, Maire & Doecke, 2017). The virtues I cultivated from self-discipline enabled me to work with ease and unity across many work-related settings and processes including coordination and cooperation with colleagues to complete assigned tasks.

Teamwork

Most of the roles and responsibilities assigned to me during the internship required teamwork for successful completion. In particular, deployment of the Archer Barriers, monitoring, and surveillance entails different roles that are accomplished by teams. As such, it was crucial to cultivate teamwork skills, which include effective communication skills, cooperation and coordination, creativity, focus, emotional intelligence, and effective time management skills (Alshehri, 2019). Initially, I found teamwork difficult especially when team members were required to make suggestions on the best approaches to tasks since arguments and confrontations arose when the ideas suggested were in conflict with other team members’ opinions. Such instances required understanding, respect, and high emotional intelligence.

Nevertheless, with effective leadership from the supervisor and the team leader, I was able to learn and understand the challenges associated with teams, and how to work effectively in teams. Effective communication and coordination is particularly essential for smooth flow of activities since they positively correlate with high productivity and accuracy in in work-related processes (Alshehri, 2019). My interpersonal skills and orientation to task improved gradually throughout the internship program since I learnt that even small mistakes such as failure communicate on time can lead to disasters since terrorists can have an advantage due to negligence or delays in executing some responsibilities by one or more team members. Furthermore, I have been able to cultivate respect and understanding of people from diverse cultural backgrounds since I was working in diverse teams. It is particularly necessary to learn about other team members’ cultures so as to understand how to relate with them without confusion and unintentional disrespect since some gestures or mannerism appreciated in one culture may be taboos another (Lamb, Maire & Doecke, 2017). Working in teams significantly improved my soft skills, and presented opportunities for development of leadership skills through mastery of planning, monitoring, and implementation techniques regarding work-related obligations and projects.

Responsibility

The sense of responsibility is admittedly the most difficult challenge I experienced during my internship program. Although classroom engineering knowledge were enough to enable me accomplish my duties, it was often difficult to understand how to operate different devices, which further reduce my coordination and communication efficiency. However, with my supervisor’s guidance and support, I was able to gradually master the required skills. The supervisor particularly applied transformational leadership skills such as individualized consideration to identify my weaknesses, and providing appropriate support to increase my skills, and effectiveness of completing my obligations (Jiang, Zhao & Ni, 2017). I gradually gained more engineering skills to eventually become one of the most productive employees in regard to time management, accuracy, and efficiency.

Strengths

The internship experience has promoted my growth in leadership since I was able to understand effective leadership styles. In particular, I mastered the skills of transformational leadership, which is convenient in engineering careers. Transformational leadership consists of four main dimensions which are: idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration, and inspirational motivation (Jiang, Zhao & Ni, 2017). Idealized influence entails leaders’ motivation of others to boost trust; idealized influence involves creation and implementation of visions to motivate employees; and individualized consideration is associated with giving support and guidance to increase employees’ competencies according to their strengths and weaknesses (Jiang, Zhao & Ni, 2017). Inspirational motivation involves supporting employees to be creative and challenge themselves by developing new effective and efficient approaches to work. I have also mastered more engineering skills including designing, using, and repairing security software and other equipment and technologies. Furthermore, I have gained more knowledge and competencies needed for teamwork and project management skills. In particular, I am competent in risk assessment and mitigation, and coordination of teams, and project planning and management hence I am qualified for the roles of project management.

Weaknesses

Although my leadership skills significantly increased, I still have problems associated with anger-management. Indeed, I find myself reacting in ethically inappropriate ways such as raising my voice in anger in situations in which the agents of provocation are persistent. On some occasions, I have engaged members of my team in heated arguments whenever they dismiss ideas that ought to be appreciated instead of showing charisma when reacting to negative comments, and exercising self-restraint as required of transformational leaders (Jiang, Zhao & Ni, 2017). As such, I have taken personal initiatives of learning about anger-management, which I believe will be needed throughout my career and personal life. Furthermore, I am an introverted individual who does not enjoy environments that require significantly high rates of verbal interaction with a large number of people. This weakness impacts on my leadership competencies since I will have to interact with many people frequently in my future career. Nevertheless, I have taken personal initiatives of improving my interpersonal relations using a variety of measures including engagement in hobbies that require interaction with many people such as playing football, and attending social events.

Career Possibilities

The internship experience in the MRDGC presented a variety of career opportunities in the field of engineering. Some of the most attractive positions that I would consider to apply for include Security Analyst, Engineering Administrative Assistant, and Engineering Manager. The roles and responsibilities of the Security Analyst include overseeing the planning, implementation, and monitoring of security programs and initiatives. The main roles of the Security analyst include monitoring security systems and assessing the scope of possible threats, identification of weaknesses in the security system, initiating risk mitigation strategies, and application of security-associated risk management software and other resources (MRDG, 2020). The roles of the Engineering Administrative Assistant include providing project engineers with input inform of skills to develop and improve new and existing technological solutions on security issues, and managing engineers’ roles in their absence. The Engineering Coordinator is mainly responsible for developing and managing new and existing security-based technological solutions. These careers are my most preferred since my additional skills and competencies would appropriately enable me to accomplish the roles associated with them.

References

Alshehri, A. A. (2019). Augmenting engineering undergraduates’ generic competencies aligned with ABET outcomes 3 and 5. Global Journal of Engineering Education, 21(3), 171-179.

Goller, M., Harteis, C., Gijbels, D., & Donche, V. (2020). Engineering students' learning during internships: Exploring the explanatory power of the job demands‐control‐support model. Journal of Engineering Education, 109(2), 307-324.

Hoch, J. E., Bommer, W. H., Dulebohn, J. H., & Wu, D. (2018). Do ethical, authentic, and servant leadership explain variance above and beyond transformational leadership? A meta-analysis. Journal of Management, 44(2), 501-529.

Jiang, W., Zhao, X., & Ni, J. (2017). The impact of transformational leadership on employee sustainable performance: The mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior. Sustainability, 9(9), 1567-1584.

Lamb, S., Maire, Q., & Doecke, E. (2017). Key Skills for the 21st Century: an evidence-based review. Center for International Research on Education Systems, 1-71.