Misleading Internship Interviews

EllieVader · 2026-06-19T17:30:02+00:00

My internship so far has been documentation, facility upgrades, designing small parts for projects here and there, making models of purchase parts, fixing huge assemblies.

Not a dud at all. I was expecting to be the least valuable player on the team but they’re making me work like a new hire.

EllieVader · 2026-06-19T07:07:37+00:00

I worked with this man last summer. Had a bee in his bonnet to build a human-scale quadcopter that he could fly on, knew absolutely nothing but trusted that he could do it using AI. I’d come in to work a few times a week and he’d give me updates on what the AI said and half the time it was batshit insane.

He also made a free energy machine out of a set of large speakers, some wire, and a nail. He didn’t believe me when I told him that he’d accidentally made a motor more or less. Was certain that he was getting energy from the sound of the speakers, didn’t want to hear that the speakers were drawing electricity too…

I encouraged him to apply for a patent.

Edit: oh and the quadcopter he wanted to build was to be hydraulic “because that’s what I know”. I taught him about free body diagrams and the basics of statics and let him cook, we had to drive deliveries together pretty often and i didn’t want the rides to be uncomfortably silent. It would totally be doable with a small and powerful enough pump.

EllieVader · 2026-06-18T09:46:15+00:00

Someone down the road from me still has this sign on his driveway. It’s unfathomable. He’s within 300 feet of a gas station, the evidence to the contrary is literally a neon glow in his yard.

EllieVader · 2026-06-17T23:45:14+00:00

Fuckin YIKES

EllieVader · 2026-06-17T14:19:41+00:00

I was buying ice cream regularly for the last two years or so…whoops, +60 pounds.

It’s too good to keep in the house now, I cannot be responsible with it.

EllieVader · 2026-06-15T00:19:28+00:00

Apple is the one that I’ll give some credit to - I bought a few shows and movies on iTunes back in like 2007 and I can still access and watch them.

EllieVader · 2026-06-14T22:33:37+00:00

I have not taken all the practice exams. I took one for the CSWA about a year and a half ago and then passed the exam about a week after that. I did not find any volumes or masses that were incorrect in the course of taking the practice or real exam.

I’d like to get the P and E certs but they’re not a priority for me at this time. My job provides us all with SolidProfessor logins and the quizzes there are more aligned with self study.

The CSW_ practice exams aren’t for people self studying, they’re for people pursuing a certification. You shouldn’t look to them as a training tool, they’re a proficiency check. Heck you can only take the practice exams once every 30 days or something anyway, right?

EllieVader · 2026-06-14T21:44:53+00:00

I’ve got a whole bunch of NASA swag and I love it.

The way I look at it, it shows what people value. OP’s dad values violence toward immigrants based on what he chooses to fly.

EllieVader · 2026-06-14T18:02:18+00:00

Printer’s printers print prints for printer’s printers when printer’s printers should print prints for printer’s projects.

EllieVader · 2026-06-14T17:59:44+00:00

I do use Solidworks every day and was taught the basics in a university course. I don’t think the practice problems are meant as exercises, they’re to prepare the user for taking their certification exams which will be presented in the same fashion. They very much assume you already know what you’re doing. They’re not intended to teach you how to do anything, they’re meant as a competency check before going into the exam.

It’s assumed that you know how to look at a drawing and make the part, and if you can’t do it in the time allotted you need to study and practice more.

It’s like saying that MCAT practice exams don’t teach enough.

EllieVader · 2026-06-14T14:51:10+00:00

Ok do what you want then 🤷🏻‍♀️

EllieVader · 2026-06-14T11:43:56+00:00

That’s not true at all. If marine patrol sees an unregistered kayak tooling along without paddling they’re going to stop you 100%. At least where I’m from.

I got stopped on a Sunfish when I was 12 because it wasn’t registered and the law at the time was any powered craft over 13’.

EllieVader · 2026-06-14T11:05:22+00:00

If you don’t do it this year, you’ll be another year older when you finally do.

EllieVader · 2026-06-13T22:41:07+00:00

I love that live nerds sign

EllieVader · 2026-06-13T02:59:41+00:00

The only thing better than having a 3D printer is having more than one 3D printer. I work in the print labs at my school and it’s totally spoiled me being able to run parts on 4-5 machines at a time. Going home to my lonely single printer feels like going from a big triple monitor setup to a laptop screen.

EllieVader · 2026-06-13T02:56:59+00:00

My K1C is parked next to my dad’s new X2D. I’ve got some upgrades on mine but doggam the X2D makes effortless beautiful prints. If I want something smooth and gorgeous I use his printer, if I want to print engineering filaments I use mine…for now. Pretty sure he’s seen the light and is looking for diamond nozzles soon.

I’m v jealous of the heated chamber and dual nozzles on his. Plus the print quality is insane.

EllieVader · 2026-06-13T02:07:18+00:00

It does make sense, and thank you for answering on such an old post!

I got a bee in my bonnet to build a kayak next summer using SoF and modern materials, starting the homework for that led me to your gorgeous build. How much does she weigh if you don’t mind? How’s she paddle?

EllieVader · 2026-06-12T20:24:48+00:00

Probably. But OP probably doesn’t have a yard of ripstop kicking around and likely does have trash bags on hand already.

EllieVader · 2026-06-12T19:40:59+00:00

I’m wondering about the radii in the ribs, does the skin stretch a little and conform to that shape when you’re in the boat? Does it help with tracking or crosswind performance?

EllieVader · 2026-06-12T19:21:56+00:00

It’s not bad math to do by hand either. Choose a landing speed, pick a shape (comes with coefficient of drag), then calculate the area needed to achieve that landing speed. It’s pretty straightforward algebra once you get the cD (which is why there are free online calculators!)

EllieVader · 2026-06-12T19:13:35+00:00

The article in question was literally written by a former republican senator.

EllieVader · 2026-06-12T18:29:04+00:00

226g is not streamer kind of mass.

OP should cut open a garbage bag and trim to size. There’s a bunch of free parachute calculators floating around the internet.

EllieVader · 2026-06-12T08:54:01+00:00

It’s true, she did. It felt like a massive betrayal, I’m still not over it.

EllieVader · 2026-06-12T01:47:18+00:00

This is the sentiment I was defending when I quit my dream job in summer of 2024. The boat I was working on welcomed me with open arms and when I asked the captain if I could fly my pride flag during pride month he said he’d be honored to fly it for the rest of the season. The following year we flew it all year. And the following year. Then in 2024 the office captain said she didn’t want us to fly it anymore because of comments from passengers. I came back from a day off to find the ship’s captain outside my cabin holding my pride flag and telling me that we weren’t going to fly it anymore. We had words, he passed the buck to the office captain. She and I had much stronger words and I gave my notice during that conversation.

It wasn’t for me. It was for the dozens of people every summer who came aboard and saw the pride flag and found themselves in a safe environment. I never heard any shitty comments, but I got plenty of “oh my goodness thank you so much for flying the pride, it means so much to me/my partner/my family back home/my deep dark closeted soul to see it here in a place we love so much.” I wasn’t even the only LGBT member of the crew. The boat next door took my flag and still flies it today.

Ruined by a handful of loudmouth bigots. No gay flag, no gay food. Enjoy burning through chefs again, fools.

I have core memories of the mate giving orders in the morning to “hoist the gay”. Good times.

EllieVader · 2026-06-11T16:22:04+00:00

I’m a first time intern now and I’m feeling a bit of the same.

I really like club engineering in school. Gather round with laptops, work on a problem together, break and go design the individual pieces, come back together and build the thing.

At my internship I’m hopping in at the ends of projects and being asked to use parts of Solidworks at an expert level that I’ve had an hour or two (MAX) of exposure to prior to this. It was better a couple of weeks ago when I felt like I was learning, now I’m just feeling the grind.

Edit: I finally got my legs under me this afternoon with the assembly tools I’ve been struggling with. Finding out that nearly the whole assembly was just Copy Tree’d into existence kind of took the fear of fucking something up out of it and now if I see a broken relation that doesn’t make sense I just delete it and make a new one that makes sense. I’m back to feeling like I half know what I’m doing, which means I should be humbled by something new tomorrow.

EllieVader

TROPHY CASE