Professional company with a good reputation. The company is employee owned and takes care of its people. Even as an intern, I was treated as an employee with access to 401k, medical/dental insurance, free accidental death policy etc. They also send you to professional certification courses that are fully paid for, and company trains you in their lab. You’ll start by receiving exposure to all the aspects of testing they do and after a few months you can choose to specialize in a particular area, start working toward becoming a special inspector, or become lab personnel. Another benefit for students needing to make summer money is that there is no limit on the overtime, I was generally on overtime by Thursday. There is also a lot exposure to employers in the construction field and I was able to network with a variety of companies and was even being recruited by one. The company hires people from a variety of fields and does their own training, however, for summer work they tend to get students from Engineering and Engineering Technician programs and you get a chance to learn from each other and you go through training. They also have employees who are teachers doing summer work along with various former construction tradesmen who can teach you a lot about this field.
What I wish was different
You do have to provide your own vehicle that can handle driving over construction sites. They have limited vehicles for those that don’t but without it you’ll be stuck working in the lab and not be able to enjoy the great outdoors. The good side is they pay $0.15 per mile and it’s paid monthly resulting in an extra $150-$500 dollar check. I also wish the job was less physical because I have previous injuries which stopped me from doing field work and there is not a lot of desk work to do at the company.
Advice
Strong documentation skills and a good attitude toward work will take you far in the company. If you are going into construction or engineering realize that your documentation will be read by many higher ups in companies all throughout our area and if it is good they will remember your name, likewise poor documentation skills will leave you a bad reputation.
