During this past week, I continued to take meeting notes, email subcontractors, create/update building models, and work on clash detective tests within certain projects. A lot of these tasks have helped me get a better understanding of how teams work within a company and how to actively communicate to make the group more efficient as a whole. In addition, I have gotten more proficient with many of the programs associated with my role as I have performed those tasks. I also got to work on some engineering drawings for the first time where I mapped out the mounting hardware layout for a new project. For that job I had to learn how to use Bluebeam, which is a PDF editor to properly scale and mark the drawings.
So far the two tasks that have been the most challenging were emailing subcontractors for the first time and creating new building models. For emailing subcontractors it was a bit weird to send an email to someone who has likely worked in the construction industry for a while and ask them to send in their model updates on time. However, after sending them a few times, it has become a lot easier and I learned how to properly prase the emails with my supervisor's help. The other thing happened this week when I was creating a building model for the first time and was unsure of how to properly section each floor. I ended up uploading an incorrect model three times before I finally got the hang of it. That job was the most challenging for me so far, but I think that its difficulty helped me learn a lot about problem-solving and properly using the resources available to me.
This internship has really opened my eyes to the complexity of the construction industry. I would have never imagined the number of steps it takes to design, fabricate, and install an electrical system. For me, it makes the industry a lot more exciting as there are still a plethora of things that I can learn. These last few weeks have made me a lot more excited about what I will experience in the weeks to come.