How I did an internship at a chemical plant
Important disclaimer
This text may sound a bit like whining, this is truebut I just want to share my impressions of the internship. All coincidences are random, the whole story is fictitious and invented by a neural network. This text does not have the purpose of insulting and/or presenting the company and its employees in a bad light. I admit that I also made mistakes during the internship.
Who am I anyway?
My name is Nikita and I am a 3rd year student (already 4th), studying at the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, specializing in Machine Learning and Data Analysis. I have forgotten ML and Python a bit, as I have completely switched to Rust (for general development, I wanted to learn the 2nd language, but I liked it so much that I completely switched to it).
Introduction
This is a story about how I got into a zombie apocalypseI did my internship at a chemical plant with a blue-green emblem. In the city where I study there are 2 very large plants, one metallurgical and the other chemical. Initially, I wanted to do my internship at the metallurgical plant, but one of the teachers recommended the chemical plant, since they give very interesting topics for the diploma, so I chose it. There were 3 of us doing the internship, one was sent to the information technology department, and your humble servant and his friend to the data analytics department.
Some dates and deadlines
Date of passing (official): 03.06.2024 – 13.07.2024
Date of completion (actual): about a month, since on July 11, 2024, the report and diary must be submitted, that is, we should allocate 3-5 days for writing, plus while we receive a pass, protective glasses and all this will also take some time, in the first days we passed test tasks.
First week
03.06.2024
The plant consists of two complexes – nitrogen and phosphorus, located outside the city limits at a distance of approximately 10-20 km. Free buses for workers go to both complexes. cars for 20 million (Ferrari)buses.
On the first day, we had to get passes and protective glasses (without them, you can’t move around the territory), which are given at the phosphorus complex. We got passes, went through instructions, got glasses from HR, but one of us (who was in the IT department) was not given glasses, since he would be working remotely. My friend contacted his manager, reported receiving the necessary documents and clarified the need for a personal meeting, to which he received an affirmative answer. Upon arrival at the nitrogen complex, we met with the manager (not mine) and asked clarifying questions. At this stage, we were only required to provide the serial numbers of our laptops, without mentioning the mice and keyboards (which is important for the further story). We were told that we needed to arrive at the office the next day by 7:00 (working day from 7:00 to 15:30) to start work.
I started to figure out what time I needed to wake up to get to the office by 7:00. The bus arrives at the stop at about 6:10, I need to leave the dorm at 5:40, and I need to do all my morning chores like wash up, make breakfast, have breakfast, etc., so it turns out that I need to get up around 4:00 – 4:10.
04.06.2024
I woke up at 4:00, did all my morning chores, left the dorm at 5:40, came to the bus stop, got on the bus and went to the office. We met a friend at the checkpoint and went to the office. They showed us where to set up in the office, got out the laptops, connected everything and asked for the password for the wi-fi.
It turns out there is no Internet in the office (or rather, there is, but it is a corporate network, to which we will not be connected), we have to distribute the Internet to ourselves using a mobile phone. My friend and I exchanged glances spark, storm, madnessnonsense, absurdity, bewilderment. With words, doubtful, but okay, they distributed the Internet.
They asked for a task. Initially it was a test, you need to solve 6 problems with LeetCode (2 easy, 2 medium, 2 hard). We coped with the test and received feedback the next day.
05.06.2024
In the absence of specific assignments from the manager, I was asked to take a course on SQL on the Stepik platform. That same day, I contacted my immediate manager, who, as it turned out, works remotely.
The situation has become paradoxical: I need to wake up at 4:00 in order to come to the office, which is not equipped with the Internet, and interact with the manager remotely (apparently, letters from the messenger arrive faster from the office). After getting acquainted, I inquired about the possibility of remote work. The manager expressed personal consent, but noted the need for approval from higher management.
At the end of the day, I was told that remote work was not being considered. I began to explain the absurdity of this situation to the manager. Despite my arguments, the manager only expressed sympathy and offered a compromise in the form of changing the work schedule to 8:30-17:30. However, this did not solve the main problems – the lack of Internet and the physical presence of the manager in the office.
I was given another test assignment, I did it that same day and handed it in right away.
07.06.2024
The manager told me approximately what task they would give me, but for now I should take a course in SQL.
Second week
10.06.2024
Was in the wrong place at the wrong time
There was a cockroach extermination planned in the dorm, and I decided to take my keyboard and mouse to work. I didn't want to leave them in an open room, you never know what might happen.
As luck would have it, a new security guard showed up at the checkpoint that day. Guess what happened next?
End of the working day, I go through the checkpoint, show the pass for the laptop. And then a surprise – it turns out that you also need a pass for the keyboard and mouse. Who would have thought?
The security immediately started drawing up papers on me, saying that I was stealing equipment from the factory. Technically, they are right – there are no passes. But the funny thing is that my entire setup is gaming: laptop, keyboard, mouse.
It must have looked funny from the outside: supposedly I stole a gaming keyboard and mouse from the factory. Especially considering what kind of keyboards and mice they actually have there.
I immediately contacted my friend's manager because there is no point in writing to mine at all, she responds in a day or two.
11.06.2024
My friend and I went through another briefing because your humble servant had broken the rules. But in the end, everything was hushed up and agreed that it was a total misunderstanding.
I was told that for this they can even kick me out of practice, since it is a gross violation. Perhaps this would be the best option, considering what will happen next.
14.06.2024
I asked my manager if I could not go to the office for now, since there is still no assignment, and I can take the Stepik course on SQL at home.
15.06.2024
She told me no, because on Monday I would already be given a task with a dataset, and went on vacation. With all questions they told me to contact my friend's supervisor.
Third week
17.06.2024
Well, the day has come, today I should be given a task and a dataset. They should, right??? As you understand, they didn't give me anything.
19.06.2024 or 20.06.2024
I recognize my task (without official wording), there is no dataset.
21.06.2024
I sign the NDA.
Week four (from the absurdity that was happening, my nerves were starting to give out completely)
I started asking questions like: why should I go to the office at all?
There is no Internet.
I can contact my manager (not my own, mine is on vacation) remotely.
There seems to be a task, but there is no dataset, and without a dataset nothing can be done.
Well, I didn’t go to the office this week, because there was no point in it.
25.06.2024
Oh my god it happened, they gave me the dataset, a week and a half before the end of the internship (timely, however).
26.06.2024
Took on the task. Perhaps this is the only real plus of this whole practice – the task turned out to be very interesting. The gist is this: there is some equipment with tags and restrictions for each tag. It is necessary to predict when in the coming week one of the indicators will reach the maximum. This is important, because when the limit is reached, the equipment stops, and downtime begins.
In the end, there are 2 datasets: one with tags and the other with restrictions on these tags. The tags were sent to me, but I had to request the restrictions myself (which I forgot, I don't argue that it's my fault). In general, I sat down to do the task incorrectly.
Week 5
1.07.2024
The manager set a deadline of 3.07.2024, let me remind you that the data was given to me on 25.06.2024. I say that I won’t have time to do it, she says no big deal, send what you have time for.
3.07.2024
Submitted the assignment.
4.07.2024
Got feedback, the task was done incorrectly, because I forgot about the restrictions. It turned out that in the data set, the equipment states are represented by numeric codes instead of understandable designations like “ON” or “OFF”. And here it is not entirely clear whether I should have figured this out myself or they should have told me about it. I started reading the feedback from the manager and then my nerves gave out, and I said too much to her (I admit I should not have done this, I am terribly ashamed).
In general, I sat down to redo the task. At the end of the working day, the man who sent me the dataset calls. He starts asking why I skip practice and don’t show up at the office. To which I “start the same old story”. He started explaining that when I go through the checkpoint, the system reads me (as I understood, the time of entry and time of exit) and if I don’t go through it (that is, don’t show up at the office), they’ll get into trouble.
The picture is that the company cannot provide me with the conditions for completing an internship, but it also cannot let me work remotely.
I voiced this idea, to which the response was, we only found out about the interns a week ago, the process is not established.
This explanation raises doubts, especially when you can’t provide internet in the office, then you probably need to let interns work remotely (and here, it seems, an established process is not needed, especially since the guy in information technology was given it right away).
5.07.2024 – 7.07.2024
I do the task again, I understand that I do not have time to do everything properly. As a result, I had to exclude a significant part of the code responsible for preliminary data processing.
8.07.2024
I'm handing in my assignment and diary.
9.07.2024
I get my diary back with a review, of course a grade of 3, I skipped classes, handed in an incomplete assignment, was rude to my supervisor, in general I'm a bad person.
You might ask me, what happened to the others???
And everything is great with them, whoever was at the metallurgical plant, received an assignment for the 2nd or 3rd day from the beginning of the internship and of course, full remote work. In the end, everyone got 5 and there were no conflicts.
What are the obvious conclusions that can be drawn from history?
You shouldn't skip practice, even if you think it's useless.
You shouldn't be rude to your boss.
Be prepared for the fact that you may be given an assignment at the last minute.
Be patient.
Think twice before taking an internship at a company that is recruiting students for the first time.
What non-obvious conclusions can be drawn from history?
A one-way feedback process, only the company evaluates you, and you cannot evaluate it. The logic here is both simple and stupid.
What is simplicity?
Supposedly, only you need the practice, you also have to write the diploma, etc. Therefore, you can ignore the students a little (whether intentionally or not is not important), and they will endure it, because they need it.
What's stupid?
The university pays money (as far as I know, I could be wrong) for students to do an internship in your company. That is, the staff comes to you on their own wherein with a specialized education (some even have work experience), which you will have for a whole month. You take and forget about them (I repeat, intentionally or not, it doesn't matter). Although after practice (or graduation) they can go to work for you, they won't have to waste time on adaptation and go through a trial period, everyone remains in the black. But apparently companies don't understand this, and prefer to vacuum the hiring market, spend money on it, and so on.
Subsequently, we come across headlines like “There is a shortage of specialists in the labor market” and similar. Although this is not the only determining factor in the hiring sphere, its role in shaping the current situation cannot be underestimated.
This is the story that turned out, I hope you liked it. Thank you for your attention. By the way, I am looking for a company to work for and write my thesis (Python | Rust [HFT | ML]), if you have any suggestions, write to email (niktimf@gmail.com) or tg (@niktimf).
P.S.
I know that in reality readers always scroll down the article to subscribe to the very useful (not) TG channel as soon as possible, but to your deep regret it will not be here (for now).
Let's leave it for now.
