Beckman Coulter – “Great internship for Technical People”

Pros

I was an engineering intern and I actually did some cool engineering work. A lot of other internships will have you slaving over paperwork or documentation or microsoft software. While you will do paperwork you will also have the chance to work on actual problems that take thought. We were also given opportunities to present our work to senior management at the end of the internship which was great. I was also able to speak with my managers to decide when I could conclude my internship. They allowed me to work right up until the start of school which was ideal for me.

Cons

I felt like a there was a lot of downtime and no rush to really finish projects. People seemed to take more time than necessary to finish projects because there was no point in hustling. I was definitely the only young person walking into meetings and to that point it was hard to find a mentor closer to me in age. If you don't speak up you can be put on documentation or compliance projects with government agencies which are extremely boring. It is a big matrix organization so it is hard to see your work come to fruition or feel like you made a difference.

Advice to Senior Management

Challenge your interns a bit more