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Summer Internship Program in CEE – Taeyoung E&C

• • Of all the things on my to-do list, I never imagined that internship would be the one to achieve before my graduation. Construction company does not offer many open internship programs as other departments such as material or computer science. As it was, I never thought I would be able to participate in it before I graduate and begin my master’s degree. However, against all chances, I have been spending my last summer vacation as an undergraduate student intern at Yeouido, Seoul. I am happy to introduce myself as Lee Doyeon, a short-term intern at Taeyoung E&C.
    This opportunity was given by the internship program that our civil and engineering department prepared this year. This program offered various companies that correspond to different course directions in CEE, such as architecture design, construction, smart city, water resource management, traffic data science, and so on. As my interest lies in geotechnics, I have applied to a company that offered experience in construction.
    The application method was simple. The internship contact was already made by the department office, so all we had to do was to submit a resume that contains our academic and external activities. Then, the department office selected who would be sent to the company. For Taeyoung E&C, three undergraduate students were selected to work for two months.
    We started our internship at Taeyoung on July 1st. From 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM, we attend to our respective teams in the office. There are many departments that manage various works of a construction company. Among them, we worked at three teams-research and development, construction management, and construction quotation, staying for one month at each team. I had the opportunity to be at quotation and R&D team.
    
    The construction quotation team manages public bidding. There are two ways a construction company gets a contract. The first is to compete with their original construction plan with other companies. This is for large projects over 30 billion won and is covered by the sales team. For smaller projects, the quotation team participates in public bidding. To compete with dozens of other companies, the team prepares a thorough budget list to come up with a credible amount of bid and comes up with a strategy to heighten the chance of winning the bid.
    Contrary to common knowledge of the concept of ‘bidding’, public bidding for construction projects does not simply favor the lowest bidding price. The bidding company must satisfy many criteria and also have the favor of luck and an appropriate bidding strategy. During my time at the aa team, I was able to learn how construction company get their work, participate in a bid myself, and go on a short business trip to investigate a potential project area.
    
    The second team I worked at was the research and development team. Like its name, the R&D team specializes in the technical studies of the construction plan. The members of this team are certified engineers that can legally confirm changes and modifications in the construction plan. As I was interested in geotechnics and construction in general, my time on this team was very fun.
    Unexpectedly, my ultimate expectation was met with a simple task. I had wished to learn how our theoretical knowledge in construction and structure was used in the practical field. The opportunity to satisfy this curiosity came with the work to sort through past construction plan reports. Focusing on geotechnical designs such as slope drainage and support structure, various types of engineering problems were reviewed and solved with familiar equations and approaches I learned during my undergraduate courses.
    There were also other opportunities to learn what researchers in a construction company do. I went on two business trips at the R&D team. The first one was to survey a construction site. The area was surveyed by aerial photography using drones, which is then processed to become a 3D model. The attached photo is of me looking through the 3D model of a construction site using the website that Taeyoung utilizes.
    The second trip was to participate in a PCM(Project Control Management) of a bridge construction site. PCM is a meeting held before a major construction with all related department managers to look over construction methods and details and check if it is the safest way possible. In this meeting, we were able to see which elements are considered in the actual construction and learn how risks are managed during the construction. Visiting the actual construction site of a cable-stayed bridge was a cherry on top of this experience.
    
    These two months has been a great time for me. As a student focusing on my future study at graduate school, I never had a chance to get to know a career path at a company. This has been a perfect opportunity to get to know what people do as an engineer as opposed to a researcher and to meet with those who have made different decisions from me. I am glad to share my time as an intern at Taeyoung E&C.