Civil Engineering Structural Internship Questions

[Jon1770]

I have 2 years left in my Civil BS. I plan to do my emphasis in structural engineering. I am currently enrolled in my schools co-op program and have completed the first of my 3 terms. The office I am working in does environmental work. I am learning allot about project management, communication skills, and team work, so these skills should transfer over. My questions is should I stick out the co-op even though it is not structural engineering? Its at a huge company in a small office. The company does allot of structural work just none in the office I am in. I have talked about transferring offices. Here are my options I am considering:

1. Stay where I am for one more co-op term. Try to transfer offices for my final term. I have been told this can be done fairly easily. This leaves me with an open summer before my final semester that I can do whatever with.

2. Just finish school and start working. This leaves me with one summer I could try and find an internship.

3. Two more terms where I am.

 

[PhanthomJay]

Transfer into structural as soon as you can. Your experience in management, communication skills, and teamwork, is invaluable (as in extremely valuable). Now its time to move into the structural field, where you will not only gain more communication skills and more working as part of a 'team', but also gain experience in the field of structural engineering as well. With a structural degree and some limited structural experience, your job opportunities in that field will be enhanced, perhaps even at the same company where you are doing the internship.

Incidentally, you mentioned communication skills. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is in any field of engineering (or any other field, for that matter. Good Luck!