KA’s 2021 interns reflect on their summer: Part 1
As the world continues to bounce back amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Kraus-Anderson was able to welcome 12 college interns this summer. The group gained hands-on experience across several KA departments, offices, and jobsites. As the summer comes to an end, some of the interns reflect on highlights over the past few months, lessons learned, and career goals.
Jack Grubish, Project Engineer Intern – Minneapolis
“My biggest takeaway from working here at KA is that honesty will take you a long ways.”
School attending and major: University of Wisconsin – Stout, Construction Management
Highlight from the summer: The highlight of the summer from working here at KA is seeing my projects come together. These projects started from not much more than a pile of dirt and became buildings/places that people can use and enjoy for decades. It was an amazing process to see.
Biggest challenges: There were many processes, terms, and items that I simply did not know or understand yet. This made it hard to follow along with conversations that were happening around me. So even though I was technically “in the loop” with things, I didn’t always understand what was happening.
Any advice to a new intern: Take initiative in your work and ask as many questions as you can. If you don’t understand something, ask questions or simply say you don’t understand.
Jane Korsh, Marketing and Finance Intern – Minneapolis
“Ask questions, get exposed to as much as possible, and try to meet new people every week. Everyone I have talked to has been kind, uplifting, and had a lot of great things to share.”
School attending and major: University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Finance
Biggest takeaway from working at KA: My biggest takeaway from working at KA is the importance of working in an uplifting and collaborative environment. I was able to learn about KA through different people every single day because of their willingness to be helpful and to make deeper connections.
Biggest challenges: One of the biggest challenges for me was speaking up and asking questions if I didn’t understand something. Right away, there were a lot of words and abbreviations that had no clear meaning to me. For example, I found myself on the first day thinking “What’s a PM?” Well, if I were to not learn anything else, I am proud to say I know what a Project Manager is.
Anything that surprised you throughout the summer: What surprised me most was the complexity and process of creating a building. Each project is completely different and comes with its own individual challenges. There are so many different departments that specialize in each step of a project and they are able to create so many amazing things!
Derek Golliher, Project Engineer Intern – Rochester
“The family aspect of this company is phenomenal. Everyone has welcomed me with open arms and no matter who they are they will always take time to answer any questions that come up.”
School attending and major: University of Wisconsin – Stout, Construction Management
Highlight from the summer: The learning aspect by far. Each day there is an immense amount of information out there to learn whether it be from the Field crews or the Project Managers. Just being able to work with a variety of people on a daily basis has taught me so many valuable lessons as well as information I probably wouldn’t get sitting in the classroom.
Any advice to a new intern: Everyone says to ask as many questions as possible, and it is 1,000% true. No question is a bad one as an intern. I encourage interns to sit in with PM’s and Supts as much as possible as these meetings and conversations are the time to ask questions as well as learn the details as to why they do what they do.
Biggest takeaway from working at KA: The people in the Rochester office, as well as the Minneapolis office, have been nothing short of amazing. Working alongside them has been the best thing to come out of this internship and I can thank each of them enough for taking the time to talk through tasks, teach me what they know from experience, help if there is an issue, and even ask how my weekend was the following Monday. It was truly an eye-opening experience that helped me realize my decision to start the construction career path is the right one for me.
Anthony Kriens, Estimating Intern – Minneapolis
“Great family atmosphere – it sounds cliché but there are a lot of people who have known each other and worked together for a lifetime. It feels good to be part of such a longtime team.”
School attending and major: Dunwoody College of Technology, Construction Management
Biggest challenges: Seeing many conceptual-level drawings and making budgetary sorts of quotes means I have to estimate on things that are not yet drawn. Therefore, many assumptions and clarifications had to be made!
Any advice to a new intern: Set some goals and meet with your mentor often! Meet like once a week for a coffee. Ask questions and make mistakes. Get to know people.
Anything else to share about your experience: It was fun to watch people come back to the office, when I first started COVID was starting to wind down and the office started to open back up. I was a new guy but so was everyone else in a way, many people haven’t seen each other for over six months to a year so hairstyles changed, weight lost, kids born, so many new things. It was fun to watch people reconnect and it helped me not feel like such a ‘new guy.’
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