Dear Sir or Madam,
I saw your advertisement for a graduate program for a recently graduated mechanical engineer on LinkedIn.
During my degree I completed a 12-week internship program where I got to work with an engineering company and complete a project involving design, assembly, and programming. I believe this experience has prepared me for the variety of tasks required of me in your program.
My commitment to ethical conduct and the highest standards of professional accountability
During my internship we were working on a project involving a robotic arm. In our initial design and calculations we required the robot arm to move at faster speeds to make our program viable within our requirements. When talking with the clients later we were informed that the robot arm needed to be safe for people to interact with while operating. That meant we needed to work within the safety parameters of collaboration mode. This meant we had to drastically change the design to make it safe for humans to be within the robots reach while operating.
Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate both with other engineers and with stakeholders from different fields
During my internship I worked within a group of three to complete our client’s project. Because we only had 12 weeks to complete it we needed to work very effectively to finish the project on time. The team very quickly assigned ourselves in the roles we were most comfortable and had the most experience with. We regularly consulted with the clients to make sure we were within their requirements and on schedule.
The ability to engage with a creative, innovative and proactive environment
In the initial stages of the project, our clients had not given any specific requirements for the direction of our design. The team therefore spent the first weeks brainstorming and designing several different outlines for where we could take our project. We suggested everything from a robot that could draw, act as a bartender, or act as a card game dealer. The clients were most impressed with the card dealer idea and how it was a very interactive design that showed the robots mechanical and software capabilities.
Demonstrated ability to use and manage information
For our project, the team had to figure out how the game of blackjack worked and how to translate it to a program and how it would have to function mechanically. That required us to look up a lot of information on how the hardware of our robot worked, similar solutions and what we could achieve within our timeframe and requirements.
The ability to manage your own performance in a professional environment
I had never worked in a professional environment full time before and was not used to have tasks that was expected of me within a full work day. So during my internship I learned to look for the information and skills I needed on my own while working and making sure to always complete tasks regularly while working to always make some progress even if I was struggling with something new or difficult.
A demonstrated ability to work as a part of a team and to show leadership when required
When working with my team on the project, we all had individual roles and responsibilities. That meant we constantly needed to communicate with each other to make sure we were considering the other team members needs. Since I worked mostly on the mechanical design, I worked closely with my team member who were in charge of the electrical components.
Johan Engineering 