Carly NYU Engineering Internship Interview Notes

Candidate Information: The candidate, Carly, is currently a student at New York University (NYU).
Academic Timeline: Carly is enrolled in the School of Engineering and is expected to graduate in the year $2029$ .
Geographic Background: * Carly was born in Hawaii and lived there for $12\,\text{years}$ . * She subsequently moved to Washington state, where she attended Tahoma High School and lived in Maple Valley. * She moved to the East Coast to attend NYU, citing a desire to experience a different, fast-paced environment.
Career Interests: While currently pursuing engineering, Carly expressed a specific interest in eventually entering the cosmetics industry, noting that New York is a significant hub for that field.

Company Reputation: Carly researched MasterCraft and noted the company's reliability, having been established for $35\,\text{years}$ .
Professional Development: She seeks to work with professionals to gain a "backbone" of experience in project coordination.
Specific Learning Goals: Carly aims to learn more about industry-standard scheduling, estimating costs, and overall project management.
Interest in Electrical Trades: Despite being a chemical engineer, she finds the engineering process behind electricity interesting and believes the communication and scheduling skills required for real-world projects are universally valuable.

Transition to Higher Education: Carly noted that her first semester of college was a significant shift from high school, particularly regarding the complexity of working with others in an engineering context.
Haptic Directional Guide Project: * Concept: A project for an introductory engineering class designed to assist visually impaired individuals. * Technology: The device functioned as a GPS guide using vibration motors to provide directional cues. * Role: Carly served as the Project Manager. * Team Composition: The team consisted of three people, including a circuitry lead, a coding lead, and an individual responsible for $3\text{D}$ printing.
Leadership and Conflict Resolution: * Carly monitored task completion and had to address issues when team members were not "pulling their weight." * She learned the necessity of confrontation to ensure deadlines were met, specifically regarding the final technical report and prototype development. * She handled pushback and excuses by emphasizing shared workloads and the high standards of an engineering school.

Time Management: Carly currently participates in a work-study program. To balance work and her engineering curriculum, she uses "time blocking."
Tools: * Apple Calendar: Used for color-coded scheduling and visual organization of her day. * Notebooks: Occasionally used for supplemental organization.
Technical Self-Learning: * Carly taught herself circuitry in a short period because she had no prior experience from high school. * She utilized online tutorials to learn Computer-Aided Drawing (CAD) to complete project requirements.
Problem-Solving Approach: When faced with abstract or unclear concepts, such as in her first college physics course, she breaks questions into multiple parts to digest the information systematically.

Program Growth: Last year, the company had one admin-level intern. For the upcoming cycle, they have developed a robust plan for three interns: one in Marketing and two in Project Engineering.
Duration: The internship is designed to last between $10$ and $12\,\text{weeks}$ .
Project Engineering Intern Responsibilities: * Interns will be paired with current Project Engineers (PEs) or Assistant Project Managers (APMs). * On-Site Exposure: Interns are expected to be on-site approximately $1$ to $2\,\text{days}$ per week to observe material ordering, equipment installation, and to meet field crews. * Tasks: A mix of individual work, email management, and utilizing project software.
Mid-Internship Project: * Around week $4$ to $6$ , interns will select a specific area of interest or a process that needs improvement. * Interns will dive deep into this topic and present their findings/solutions to company leaders at the end of the summer. * Potential Project Areas: Scheduling (e.g., using Smartsheet), estimating, or developing productivity tools using AI.

Academic Observations of AI: Carly has observed high usage of AI in coding at the university level, though she noted frequent mistakes in AI-generated code.
MasterCraft's AI Utilization: * Reporting: Combining multiple reports into a single consolidated document using automated formulas. * Contract Review: Steve mentioned using AI bots to simplify "legalese" and technical language into easy-to-understand terms for contract changes. * Productivity: AI is used as a supplement to professional knowledge and research rather than a replacement for it.

Carly's Question: What does a typical day for an intern look like? * Heather's Response: Days vary between office tasks and site visits. Interns follow a purposeful task list to gain exposure without being overwhelmed. There is always a resource available for support.
Carly's Question: What qualities make someone successful as an intern? * Heather's Response: Dependability, reliability, curiosity, a willingness to ask questions about acronyms or unknowns, and taking control of one's own development. * Steve's Response: Cultural "fit," a sense of humor, being detail-oriented, having above-average analytical skills, and being a "consummate observer" who can identify gaps in efficiency.
Carly's Question: How has AI changed the company's approach? * Team Response: It is used for specific research and streamlining reporting/contracting rather than transforming the core nature of project management.

Start Date: Carly is available to begin around $\text{May } 18$ .
Decision Notification: Heather and Steve aim to get back to all candidates by the following day or Monday at the latest to allow for summer planning.