5th+Quarter+Emily+Ferree

=12/12/12=
 * INTERNSHIP REFLECTIONS DUE EVERY SUNDAY BY 12 MIDNIGHT PCT **

My internship with North Bend Building and Remodeling has been full of ups and downs. I have learned quite a bit throughout the past two and a half months. Not only have I learned about the trade itself, but also about the business aspect itself. Going into my internship I was unsure of what I wanted to do in the field. Now that I have completed my internship I know that remodel would not be my work of choice. To me it seems as if there is a lot more complications with remodel. You never know what could come next or where to stop. I think that I would prefer to do new construction over remodel.

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Many times throughout my internship I became very frustrated. I was not happy working for NBBR, but knew I had to stick it out and finish something I had started. My boss was a very poor communicator in my eyes. He did great work but had poor time management. Daily I had to wait for a call or text to find out whether or not I would be working that day. There were even days when I would have to contact him to find out. I feel as if I wasted an awful lot of time waiting around because I had to wait around to find out about work. More than once he told me a certain time, but yet again I would find myself waiting around for him because his time estimate was incorrect. When we went to some of the jobs I was embarrassed to be there because of poor communication and time management. There were times that I would show up at the jobsite and have to wait for him for a half hour. Other times he told clients he would be there a certain day, but then we wouldn’t go to that jobsite. When we ended up going to the jobsite eventually not only would it make the company look bad, but also me. These things among others taught me a lot about how I would not want to run my own company if I were to have one in the future.======

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After working through the ups and downs I still feel as if I learned some things. My boss was good at making sure that I understood the reason behind the things we were doing. The thing that I enjoyed doing the most was the shower tiling. I like things that I can understand the process behind, and tiling is one of those things. I also like when we were able to rip out a window and frame in a wall in its place. Framing is something that I could see myself doing.====== Overall, my internship taught me a lot and I am glad that I stuck with it. I am ready to go out into the real world and make some money doing what I love. I hope and opportunity comes my way in the near future.

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After this week, I have definitely confirmed a thought I have had in my head. All along I have thought that I didn’t want to work drywall and that is definitely true now that I know what it is like. This week and a little bit of last week I was doing the multiple layers of mudding on a project. I found that this is a very boring and time consuming task. The project I have been working on is not a typical project. I have not been mudding a wall; instead I have been doing all the mudding on a beam and post in a garage. Because the inside of the garage is finished, I have not been able to just slap it on and get going onto the next project, as you typically would in a garage. I think one of the most frustrating things to me about this project is that I have had to do it all on my own while my supervisor works on all the paperwork and estimates for the company. It is hard for me to understand why you wouldn’t have two people working on the project to get it done in a timely manner. Each day that I work on this project I ask myself, would this be a different scenario if the work being done was for someone other than his mother-in-law? While filling out my time sheet at the beginning of this week I figure out how many hours per week I need in order to make my 300 hours by the end of the quarter. Once I determined this, I informed my supervisor so that he was aware. I am frustrated because he had told me that I would be able to make my hours per week in order to meet the time requirements, and then when I added my totals for the week, I was below my need. Now with six and a half weeks left in the quarter I am 189 hours away from the 300 hours needed. With one of the six and a half weeks being Thanksgiving I am beginning to wonder if I will be able to make my 300 hours by the end of the quarter. Only time will tell. I will continue to communicate with my supervisor as to what my needs are and hope that everything turns out right.

=10/22/12= The window replacement job ended up taking a bit longer than expected. Part of this was because of the weather. We worked a couple long days to get the project finished so that the painter could come and paint the interior of the house and then the exterior trim that we had installed. Once again, time management was a bit out of sorts again this week. I learned that my supervisor spends hours every day pushing paper and getting estimates out to clients. I think that instead of doing these during our daylight hours, he should do more of this in the evening. I know that it is hard with a family, but as the days are getting shorter, so are our working hours on the jobsite. I feel as if I am wasting time each morning waiting for him, when we could be on a jobsite. I know that he has quite a few contracts signed so it is all about getting the work done to follow through with the contracts. In the near future I can see a time when we are so slammed because all of a sudden we have new contracts coming in as the previous ones have not been fulfilled. The only way I see for this to not happen is to spend more time on the jobsite now during the daylight hours.

=10/15/12= This internship has been a really big eye opener. Last week was a bit frustrating for me. The more I work the more I learn about the company and operating procedures. Although the company does good work, I feel like there are many aspects that are very unprofessional. There are times where I don’t feel like I am an intern. I get frustrated easily because it is assumed that I know things that I really don’t. I think that my supervisor often forgets that I have never worked on a job site before. I know that every job site is not going to be the same, but I do know the difference between an organized and non organized jobsite. Like I said in my previous post, I feel that I waste a lot of time simply by just looking for tools. We cleaned the truck before the new job this week, but it is as if we never did because of poor time management. Instead of planning the day out days in advance, it is always on an hour to hour basis which is hard for me. I am the type of person that needs to plan things and stay organized in order to stay on top of things. I am doing my best to keep my composure as I am only in a temporary position. I need to remember that this is a time for me to learn and to grow; both as a student and as an individual.

=10/09/12= Last week was another short week because of life occurrences. I ended up only working three days out of the five, and within those three days I didn’t work full days. I am beginning to realize why everyone is saying the construction industry is so bad right now. Right now our company is doing any work that comes our way, just to stay afloat. Last week I worked on million dollar homes just doing simple repairs. A lot of the work that I have been doing could have been avoided if things would have been installed correctly in the first place. I am taking pride in the work that I have been doing because I know that I only get one chance to prove what type of worker I am. Working with NBBR has been good for me. It has opened my eyes to see how construction sites really are. It is hard for me to understand why things aren’t organized or why there is no schedule sometimes. I have found myself wasting time because I have to stop and look for things or clean up because it was not done to begin with. This has helped me to picture how I want my jobsite to be organized in the future. = = = 10/02/12 = After a long wait and numerous obstacles I have finally started my internship. I signed an agreement to do my internship with North Bend Building and Remodeling (NBBR). This company is run by Rick Webb who was a former student at BTC. When he was in school he went through the building construction program, although it was called something different when he was enrolled. I have only worked two shorts days with this company and so far it has been a good experience. At this time, Rick is the only guy in the field, with his wife doing the books. NBBR was once a company with two crews working full time, but with the economy they were forced to cut back on their crews. So far I have been working in real estate punch lists and other small jobs, but have already learned quite a bit. I am excited for where this is going to take me. I really like that Rick is willing to take a second to stop and explain why we are doing things rather than just giving me direction and sending me on my way. I can tell that he wants me to get the best out of the time I spend with him. Even during travel time we are talking about construction. Whether it is our current jobs or the industry as a whole I like that I can relate to most everything that we discuss. The only thing that I have not liked so far is that I don’t have a set schedule; I always have to wait for the call or a text each morning or night before. This is because he is in a transition period and is also just getting back into the process of having someone else working with him. There has also been a family emergency that has slowed us down and halted our work, but I know that it is just part of life and I will always have the possibility of running into these situations. I am looking forward to getting back out onto the job site to continue learning and improving.