And so the internship ends...

It has been 5 months since I started my internship at TOPY Industries.

And it has been a loooong 5 months. While some of my campus mates commented on how relax and fun work was at their companies, I had to do work right until the very last day...

Not that I'm complaining though....

Sure, there was a lot of work to do but I gained invaluable experience from the work I've done.

Okay, first a brief explanation of my work. The department I was placed in was in charged of R&D of standard steel wheels. You know how there are holes on the wheels?? My assignment was finding the best conditions on strengthening the holes to prolong its fatigue life so that the wheel will last longer.

Now, the plan for the project was already mapped out before I got there...and I could have had an easy and relaxed life just following that plan....but damn it, Randy have to "speak his mind" no matter what. What a pain in the ass.
Instead of following the planned experiments, I proposed a new idea, i.e. a new set of experiment parameters. After listening carefully to my idea, my supervisor agreed to my idea and allowed me to proceed any way I want. And since it was "my idea", my supervisor gave me full freedom to use the research budget. So, I designed my own experiment and spent a few hundred thousand yen of the company's money purchasing new machine parts.

Well, lucky for me things went as I planned(I did spend a lot of the company's money for this...so, there is pressure for me to produce worthy results)....and my new idea actually sparked a new debate on how to better manufacture that cute little hole on the wheel.

I did my last presentation was last week's Tuesday....finally, my task ended.

I have to say, I gained a very good experience during that 5 month long internship. Gave me a solid preview of what it meant to work in a Japanese company.

I also learned a lot on human relations, presentation skills...and most important of all, to be confident of my own ideas and not be afraid speaking them.

To think that I tried applying for overseas internship...I originally applied for India and Germany. But, from what I hear from my friends who went overseas, they didn't get to do as much. Yeah, getting to live in a foreign country for 5 month sounds cool...but I still think I'm lucky that I stayed in Japan as I got to work in an environment where I actually get to do some solid stuff.

Hah...I guess I did make the right decision to enroll into Nagaoka University of Technology after all as no other university offers the same internship program...

Now that internship has ended, life as a Masters student begins!!!

Crap....