TEC Engineering, Inc.

Transportation Engineer Co-op

May - August 2023 • Dayton, OH

What I liked

I loved that TEC Engineering is a small company with only a handful of people in my office. I was able to connect with all of them and was treated as a valuable part of the company. I worked on many different projects such as traffic signal design and traffic impact studies. I loved that the work I was doing was being used by the client to build safer intersections in the community. The employees were very caring and loved what they did which made the job more fun and easier to learn from them.

What I wish was different

I wish there was more hands-on work associated with the job and a little less design. I would have loved to see the work I was doing in the field and get a grasp of what I was doing in the design aspect being put to use on the site. Since it was a small company I didn't get to use the things I learned very much because every project I was put on was very different and might not had anything to do with what you were previously working on and learning about.

Advice

I would recommend anyone interested in how the world runs and what goes on behind the scenes of roadway design and safety to learn more. I learned so much about traffic signals and roads that I never knew and it blows my mind how much design and work go into building a road or intersection. I would definitely be well versed in AutoCAD before starting because a lot of the work you will be doing is in CAD.

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Engineering Co-op/Internship

January 2022 • Dayton, OH

What I liked

I liked that it was a small office, and I was able to get more attention and personal guidance. I was able to go to anyone for help or directions on a given task. I worked on about two to three projects per week, occasionally spending one to two weeks on a bigger task. There was also a good balance for me of working in the office versus working in the field. I am also able to listen to music to help me focus and stay on track.

What I wish was different

I wish I could have been a little more familiar with the different programs I'd be using. I used AutoCAD the most frequently, and my only prior experience with it was from taking Civil Computation Lab where we really only go over the basics. Although I was able to pick up a lot of useful skills quickly, it still would have saved me some time having more prior knowledge. Other programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel I had some more experience with, but there were a lot of formatting skills I lacked going in that slowed me down. This co-op was overall very beneficial because of these smaller and bigger skills that I was able to obtain through a lot of repetitions.

Advice

One piece of advice I would share about this experience is to not stress out or feel unsure of what you are doing. Some tasks I was given were very simple and straight forward, while others required a lot of thinking on my part, or even some additional training. You shouldn't be afraid to go to your supervisor or another coworker for help if you are unsure of something. Personally, I knew very little about what traffic engineers did going into this job, but I was able to pick up on a lot of it very quickly. I am grateful for this experience as it has taught me technical skills with AutoCAD and other programs, as well as how to be creative and use my talents to come up with more efficient methods for completing tasks.

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