Internship (3)

It has been about 8 weeks of my internship. Another 4 more weeks and it will be the time to say goodbye.

What I can say about my internship is it wasn't as good as what I have expected. It wasn't fruitful so far. Sometimes I feel like I am wasting my time. I mean, although I have thing to do... and the people there are treating me very good, somehow I feel like perhaps it would be better if I found some other thing else to do...something different...but I am not sure what the thing is...traveling perhaps? take special term and clear some modules perhaps? I don't know...

For the past 8 weeks, I have been doing documentation which I have to download the documents from the online filing system, namely Aconex. This is something new to me as I have to familiarize myself with the system and my role is to create a file directory for the Project Managers so that it is more convenient for them to search for drawings and documents. It is perfectly fine for me with this task...the only thing that I feel uncomfortable is I can hardly see them read the drawings. Sometimes I wonder what is the point of asking me to download if they won't be seeing it in the first place? So, this is what I meant with wasting my time... :(

There are some fun parts, for sure. The task that I deem to be challenging so far was tracking of cash flow projection and the cost and budget allocation for each packages in the project. Through this task, I learned how a cash flow projection is being done in actual case. It is totally different with the method that we learn in school where most of the time we are given all the information like the percentage of cost is needed in each stage of construction, and the cost needed is then worked out from the total project cost. While in real case, cash flow is projected base on S-curve. Project Manager has to manage in such a way that there will be enough money to be used in each stage and the overall expenses is kept within the budget. And I tried to make it as "S" as I could, but it was really hard. My supervisor said that it was a good try. :) I relieved, knowing that it was not perfect though... :P

I had a chance to go down to the site with the Resident Engineer to see piling works of conservatories this morning. I got this chance, finally, after procrastinating for weeks. The RE is very experienced and he taught me a lot. I had a chance to see how test pile and boring works are being done. There are many types of piling such as bored pile and driven pile. Many kinds of test pile will be done to make sure that the pile has enough capacity to carry the design load. The static load test was on-going on site and the work was really massive. Hundreds of rock blocks were loaded onto a single pile and the rocks were sitting on a huge metal platform. They were just finished testing and were unloading the rocks from the platform. It was really exciting to see the busy on-going construction at site as everyone was busy and rushing here and there, the supervisor giving command to the workers, the excavators digging the earth, etc... A good experience to understand how the site works. =)

Another person asked me the question that I have been answering for 1001 times. The RE asked me on our way back to the office : Why did you choose Civil Engineering? I think many people are wondering why a girl like me will choose this tough job as my first choice rather than other job else like banking or accounting, which suit girls more. My standard answer will always be "Interested lor... :P". In fact, I am still not sure whether my choice is right or wrong and I ever thought of changing my course once before...but now I think my interest in this field has grown if compared to before and I guess exposure has given me a greater feel for this career. Right now what I hope is that it will not be too late for me to graduate in 2 years to come. The industry is now in booming period and lots of projects are coming up. I hope I will be able to catch the boat on time and sail on my big ship. Hahahahah :D