Written by Marketing Intern, Veronica Frystak
I can think of hundreds of reasons why every student should have an internship. Getting real work experience, developing your skills, and getting rewarded for your time and effort are just a few! As the job market continues to become more and more competitive, internships become more and more useful for a student to get ahead in their career before graduating. Believe me, I get it!
Each summer, Clark Dietz welcomes college students from all across the Midwest to immerse themselves in the world of engineering. Interns get access to tons of projects, services, programs, and more. Our internships offer personalized experiences to fit our interns’ interests and needs. Working for us is a great way to kickstart professional development and learn!
But how do you even become an intern at Clark Dietz? Each intern seems to have their own means of making their way into their role, but the process is simple! Although I didn’t get here the “normal” way, we spoke with HR Director, Jon Howaniec, about the typical route a student intern takes to become a part of the Clark Dietz. He explains the process in a linear manner- a process of awareness, consideration, interviewing, and onboarding.
Let’s get you on our team!
Awareness
Clark Dietz places its recruiters where they know engineers will be. Internship openings can be found anywhere online, such as Handshake, Indeed, or the Careers page on our website.
However, for students not fully aware of Clark Dietz as a company, recruiters take part in numerous career fairs across the Midwest. Schools with career fairs featuring Clark Dietz include Michigan Tech, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, Valparaiso University, Milwaukee School of Engineering, and dozens more.
There, students can ask questions about us, what kind of work we do, and our company culture. Following, resumes or contact information can be exchanged, or an online application for a position is filled out, and this student is on their way to becoming an intern!
Consideration
When a student’s resume gets passed along to our team, screening begins. Our HR team closely reviews resumes to find particular interests that the student may have that an internship here could support. Additionally, they look for a student’s proximity to offices in order to accommodate living conditions for them.
HR makes note of any classes, projects, or experiences listed on a student’s resume. Evidence of effort, passion, and curiosity stand out to our hiring team. If a student has piqued the interest of our team, they move on to the next step: interviewing.
Interviewing
Many students fear interviews, but Clark Dietz does their best to make an interview a comfortable, or even enjoyable, experience. Jon expresses that their interviews are commonly brief, taking place either in person or virtually, and are usually held with the local team lead at whatever location the intern will be stationed in.
During the interview, students have a chance to shine and emphasize their skills beyond their resumes. While there’s many things that contribute to a successful interview, some great advice to keep in mind is as follows:
- Make eye contact – Eye contact conveys confidence and professionalism; while it might be uncomfortable at first, practicing good eye contact is a great way to make an interview go from good to great.
- Dress to impress – While you may be comfortable in your sweatshirts and tennis shoes, it’s important to dress professionally and clean for your interview! Attire should follow anywhere from business casual to professional guidelines- collared shirts, dress pants, and dress shoes are always safe choices if you’re unsure what to wear.
- Rehearse beforehand – Like giving a speech, it helps to know what you’re going to say before you walk into your interview. Have a script lined up, which includes things including your skills, accomplishments, strengths, and other abilities you can contribute to the team with.
- Share your skills –Our interviewers love to hear about relevant classes, projects, or experiences our interviewees have! Know what’s relevant to your position, and be sure to bring it up during your interview!
- Relax! – A lot of students get nervous before an interview- it’s normal! Take deep breaths, calm down, and cool your nerves before stepping into an interview. Don’t forget to be yourself and smile!
Post interview, be sure to send your interviewer a thank you card, or email, thanking them for their time and the opportunity. Then, wait to hear back, and…
Congratulations! You’re officially a Clark Dietz intern!
Onboarding
The process of onboarding an intern is pretty simple; the first day consists of introductions to responsibilities, HR training, and other basic information. Our interns get to work very quickly once they’ve started their internship!
Interns should be open minded to their tasks, Jon advises. They can almost always expect to be performing fieldwork and a variety of in-office activities, including Excel, CADD, cost estimates, and more. Those who are more flexible with their tasks often find more success than those who are a bit more rigid.
You should also be excited! An internship at Clark Dietz prepares you for any career you’ll pursue in your future, whether it’s with engineering or not. The best part of an internship is it’s a fantastic opportunity to screen whether or not you enjoy what you’re doing, or if you can envision yourself doing engineering consulting as a long-term career. Plus, for some interns, this opportunity could even lead to you being welcomed as an official staff member of Clark Dietz!
My Story
Unlike my fellow interns, I had a more untraditional route of finding myself at Clark Dietz. I learned about the company first at Michigan Tech’s fall career fair. At the time, I had only been in school for under a month; and given I was a business student at a largely engineering school, I had very low expectations for finding an internship. Clark Dietz’s booth stood out to me, with their banners and visuals, and the two smiling faces running it. There, I got to speak with Tonia Westphal and Connor Dykehouse of the Wisconsin Northern team. They were friendly and eager to tell me about their company, answering all my different questions about engineering and consulting. What was unique to me was how genuinely passionate they were about what they do; they were eager to tell me about their projects and team. Not only this, but they were enthusiastic about helping me understand what they do and were very easy to talk to.
I explained my situation to them, and they took up my suggestion. Tonia tells me now, as an intern in her office, “If somebody comes up to you and is willing to talk to you like that, the least you can do for them is pass their resume along.”
This is how I got in contact with Scott Anstandig, Marketing Director at Clark Dietz. We arranged a phone call to discuss an internship. Although Clark Dietz had never had a marketing intern before, he expressed the team being open minded to the idea. During the phone call, it didn’t even occur to me that this was my interview. It felt so much more casual and welcoming than that, as if Scott already considered me part of his team.
I was offered an internship in December, making me the first marketing intern in Clark Dietz’s history! And, since then, it’s been one of the best decisions I ever made.
Despite Clark Dietz being an engineering firm, the skills and experiences I’m getting here as a business student are applicable and useful anywhere in the marketing field. My internship has helped prepare me for my future by teaching me how to act as a professional, technical skills, design experience, company involvement and community engagement. Clark Dietz took a chance on me, and I’m beyond grateful that I’ve been given such an amazing opportunity!
Why Clark Dietz?
Internships are a great way to make yourself stand out as a candidate and build your experience before you pursue a career. Clark Dietz offers multiple different internships for a variety of students. We take pride in our internship program- over the past 13 years, Clark Dietz has welcomed classes each summer for a total of 88 interns total! With an intern to full-time program, we actively aim to hire our interns after graduation. See and hear some of our success stories over on our Internships page to learn why they chose us!
Most importantly of all, we value and uplift our interns through events such as Intern Day. Intern Day is a day-long event devoted to interns and their involvement in the company. Interns experience professional seminars, a fun outing with their colleagues, and more fun activities to thank them for joining our team.
Are you or is someone you know interested in engineering, consulting, or looking for a unique internship experience? Consider joining our team! You can find open positions on our website on our Careers page.
You can also contact our friendly HR team at HR@clarkdietz.com.
