Internship Overview

Image of an article written by a Kittelson Intern about her experiences over the summer of 2005

Read about MacKenzie Nicholson, a previous intern with Kittelson's Portland office, and her experience as an intern over the summer of 2005.

The first-year internship plan gives the intern broad exposure to our firm and profession. The "breadth" approach covers five elements:

  1. Technical Skills
  2. Project Management
  3. Business Consulting
  4. Outside Interaction
  5. Acclimation

A mentor from KAI is assigned to work with the intern throughout the course of their internship to guide the intern through the five basic elements identified above. The mentor works closely with the intern to provide oversight, review progress, teach, ensure adequate workload, and help identify learning opportunities.

The daily interactions and learning experiences come in various forms:

  1. Project work
  2. Site visits and client presentations
  3. Lunch hour "tech sessions"
  4. Individual teaching sessions
  5. Daily/weekly interaction with mentor
  6. Meetings with outside professionals

We try to make sure interns understand the relationship between three basic areas of technical analysis: traffic operations, transportation planning and traffic/functional design. It is important to recognize that no one can be outstanding in any one area without understanding the other two.

In addition to project experience, we strive to expose interns to basic project management tasks including:

  1. Initializing a project
  2. Estimating person hours/project budget
  3. Scheduling staff time
  4. Preparing proposals
  5. Preparing monthly invoices and progress reports
  6. Tracking accounts receivable

Some of the Business Consulting elements interns are commonly exposed to include:

  1. Monthly financial report review
  2. Office Manager's meetings
  3. Management Team meeting
  4. Market Services meetings
  5. "Day in Accounting"

There are a number of outside activities that provide great learning experiences. While not required, interns are encouraged to take advantage of activities of interest, including:

  1. Client, jurisdiction meetings and public hearings
  2. Meetings with professionals in related disciplines
  3. Professional society meetings (ITE, WTS, ASCE, etc.)
  4. Business travel
  5. Office exchanges