Najilah Jones

Great Basin Internship

Najilah Jones
Las Vegas, Nv.
Engineering Technology
Leadership Edge Track

    For this project I interned with my father’s company, Great Basin, an engineering firm in Las Vegas, NV. During the internship I ran small errands, such as going to get prints and delivering prints. Also, I helped with different plans, and began training my father in the computer program AutoCAD. AutoCAD is a program that engineers are using more now then when he was in school, so it is what I am currently learning how to use for professional jobs. My most important task was to learn how to run the business, and to learn new skills that will help me inside and outside of the classroom.

Beyond this, I learned the several different tiers involved in the company, all the way from the bottom to the very top. I helped clean, but I also got to do a project alone, just checking in with him every time I completed a portion to make sure it was completed correctly. The thing about running a business is that you have to be able to work every position, in case there is a vacancy at any point in time. Since it is my family’s company, I will be worked harder and have higher expectations than a stranger would anytime I work for him, yet it is an exceptional opportunity. All in all, this was a very hard internship, but it will be very beneficial for my future.

    The inspiration for my project came from my dedication to my future career. I know that at a certain point it will be expected of me to know exactly what I am doing without guidance. Since I want to be there by the time I graduate from Southern Utah University, I decided that each summer, a portion of it should be dedicated to an internship/project related to my field of interest. It might seem like I have it easy because my father owns an engineering firm, but in the next few internships I will work with other companies to get various perspectives.

    While completing this project I realized that not every internship is perfect. First, I had to tell my dad what I was doing that day, because he would not work me at first. That proved to be a struggle, because I needed to get paid, learn as much as I could, and complete the internship. Secondly, my father was very hard headed. Everytime I made a suggestion on an easier way to complete a task, he would fight me on it, until I ended up doing it his way. On one project specifically, it took me about twelve hours to do it his way, when it would have been about fifteen minutes to do it my way. Lastly, there were a lot of things that I was supposed to do for my internship that my dad did not end up helping me with. I did not take the class I was supposed to take, I did not make the money that was supposed to be my summer salary, and I did not get to run a client meeting. All in all, it was not a walk in the park, but I am proud that I completed it.

    The main people who were affected by my internship was my father and my sister. My father learned some modern day views, mostly in the computer program AutoCAD. Beyond this, I helped him to create a system to keep his office more organized, so that if clients do go in there, he will not be embarrassed. Also, my sister was affected by it, because at the end of the project I felt confident in designing her bus renovation floor plan to fit her needs and wants. All in all, although the amount of people I affected was scarce, it still made me feel accomplished in the end.

    In the future, I will make myself more available to my employers. I will ask if I can do a task, so that they do not have to delegate to me constantly. Also, I realized not every internship is an amazing one, so I will try to take internships from as many firms as I can, since each one is different and teaches different lessons. This job taught me that you cannot always do the fun stuff, sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to help get the job done.     

    Every project requires time management, so I will pull all nighters if I need to get a job done, because that looks worse than lying to the client about the speed of your skills. On the other hand, I will not work with family, at least until I am seen as an asset. I believe that despite how I feel about working with family, I have learned the importance of knowing your role, working to the best of your ability, and knowing when to ask for help. Although it was my first internship, I learned a lot that I will use in the future.