Blake Fitzgerald
By Blake Fitzgerald on June 09, 2016

Stepping Up To the Plate: Starting My Internship at NEC


black fitzgerald intern NECYou ever feel like the batter on deck, just waiting for your shot to step up to the plate? Well that’s what I felt like ever since I got my internship offer letter. I waited and waited just to get my shot at the plate. I’m staring out looking out at the field, man on first, and a man on second. The guy ahead of me gets the 3-1 pitch. Ball 4. My turn.

Walking into the office on the first day I’m excited but a little nervous. I’ve never had an internship before, so I don’t know what I’m doing. Do I walk in and go right to the back or do I stop at the front desk? Me, being the nervous wreck that I am, gets there 15 minutes early and there’s a meeting going on so I just sit there waiting. Eventually, it’s time to take a tour, so I walk around the building with Mike. Trying to memorize everything I’m being told, my mind is in a million places. Finally, it’s time to step into the batter’s box.

On just my third day of work, I’m sitting in on a client meeting. I’m looking to my boss George to help me take notes because I’m sitting here listening while people throw out these words I’ve never heard: “backline, frontline, millwork.” I’m so lost, but George makes sure to walk me through while taking his own notes, so I’m not hopelessly lost. By the end of the meeting, I’m pretty much all caught up. I’m sitting there praying the notes I took live up to one of my managers, Amanda’s, expectations. Later that day, I’m all ready to go home, and George says, “Why don’t you go check out Ferrari?” Again, I’m just a 20-year-old college intern that is dying for some extra cash in my pocket. So, I go to the Ferrari dealership to check out the lay of the land. Waiting there is team member Ron who tells me he hasn’t gotten more than 2 hours of sleep the past couple nights. Despite his fatigue, he did not skip over even the slightest detail when explaining the project to me. He made sure I was completely caught up and understood everything going on around me. So, I’m feeling a bit more confident and comfortable knowing all these people are helping me to get accustomed to this new world. I tighten my grip on the bat and lean back in my stance awaiting the pitch.

So, my second week rolls around. At this point I’m much more confident than when I first came in just a week ago. Thursday was going to be my first full day on a job site, and I was curious to see what it was going to entail for me. On Wednesday before the meeting, Amanda entrusted me to type up our meeting packets for the trade meeting. I swear I must have read over the pages about 100 times trying to make sure I did not screw anything up. I was so nervous I would do one thing and immediately ask Amanda if I did it right because I kept having this image of me screwing up the whole meeting. Three copies later, I finally had the packet up to speed and Amanda approved of it. That was a huge relief that I could help Amanda out with something like that, and that she had approved of my work on the packet. So, I took the packets home with me that night to bring to the meeting the next day. The pitcher is in his windup and here comes the pitch.

Of course, being that it was going to be my first day on site, something had to go wrong. I woke up 45 minutes after my alarm went off and realized I only had 20 minutes to get there. I hopped up out of my bed and sprinted to get ready. I checked the clock and when I pulled into Ferrari – it was 8:05 and I was panicking. I had the meeting packets and everyone was going to be waiting on me. To my surprise, I walked in and there were only five people there. It was such a relieving feeling. So, I attended the meeting and after, I shadowed Ron for the day at Ferrari. It was so nice to be working in the field and actually see the product of the company’s work rather than just some schematics and drawings. Ron even taught me something on the computer which he will never let me live down because I was the one who was supposed to be teaching him tricks and shortcuts. Being on site was a completely different experience for me because even without being able to do actual construction work (because I lack the insurances) I still felt like I was a part of what was going on. I felt like I was a part of remodeling this car dealership. It was a surreal feeling for me to think that I was doing anything to help this place look better. I even stayed a little later than Ron just to make sure everything he needed was set up so that he did not have too large a burden on his shoulders. The second week was overall a success for me, and a lot less stressful than the first, especially with more experience under my belt. The pitch is coming in. Ball 1.

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Published by Blake Fitzgerald June 9, 2016
Blake Fitzgerald