Persistence. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, as my mother likes to put it. I began pursuing an internship this past fall at the SWE National Conference in Houston, Texas. I made sure to read up on all the companies beforehand and target those that particularly interested me. One company that really sparked my interest was Kiewit Corporation. One of the largest general contractors in the world, Kiewit divisions include mining, building, transportation, water/wastewater, oil, gas and chemical as well as power with offices all over the world. I am interested in working with the environmental side of civil engineering, but as a sophomore with such limited experience and knowledge about the civil engineering world, I am open to anything. At the conference, I met a woman who would later be appointed to head college recruiting for the Kiewit Energy division. Over the next five or six months, I would frequently touch base with her to inquire about new openings or positions and continually checked the website job postings. I also kept in close contact with other recruiters in different divisions. When I didn’t hear from them, I would just drop them a little note saying, hey, I’m here, and I’m interested. Sometimes I would follow up with a call as well. Either way, I kept in touch. The result was that I was offered a fantastic internship. I will be working with Kiewit Offshore Services in Ingleside, Texas, a company that has built some of the largest offshore oil and gas platforms in the world. I could not be happier. Hard work really does pay off in the end!
Here is some more information about Kiewit and the offshore division! http://www.kiewit.com/districts/kiewit-offshore- services/overview.aspx
One of Kiewit Offshore’s heavy lifting devices
