Cameron is spending his summer as a production intern at Janicki. He is studying mechanical engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and first heard about the company at a spring career fair. He started in May and is a couple of months in.

His days start early, with a coffee and a team check-in on which projects are active before he gets to work. No two days look quite the same. Depending on what is on the floor, he might be drilling, working with composites, or fitting parts together. Much of his work is building large assemblies from the ground up, combining machined metallic parts with carbon fiber composites made in house, a full build that comes together over roughly six weeks. What he values most is the hands-on side. Rather than imagining how a design will behave on a computer, he gets to build it and see what works.

The culture is what stood out most. He compares his team to a sports or project team where everyone cares about the outcome and about each other. Coworkers across engineering, manufacturing and project management have taught him well beyond his job description, and he says his manager treats him as a capable contributor, not just an intern.

That hands-on streak runs through his life outside work too. At school, Cameron is part of Mines Pack Mules, an electric vehicle club at the Colorado School of Mines. Off campus, he spends his time snowboarding and working on cars.

His advice to anyone considering applying is simple: what is the worst that could happen? Apply. He points to the value of real hands-on experience over classroom theory, and to being trusted with real problems from the start.

Written by Turner McIalwain, Marketing Intern

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