150 Hour Experience: Intern at TAP Electric / Forte Construction Corp

During my 2022 Summer, I worked as a project engineering intern at TAP Electric / Forte Construction Corp. Forte is a general contractor that takes on several projects in the public domain in the New York metropolitan area, especially in New York City. In NYC, they are contracted by many different government agencies, such as New York City Transit, to complete projects throughout the city. These projects frequently take place at locations like the subway or at Port Authority. They have many different types of engineers, including mechanical, electrical, and civil. I also worked under Forte's "sister" company, Tap Electric. Both Forte and Tap are listed as subcontractors when the other is given a project, such that all of the resources from both companies are available for every project.

Overall, I collaborated with engineers and project managers to support the development of a $50 million project installing passenger identification CCTV cameras at 88 stations throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx. I was tasked with reviewing and developing electrical plans and construction drawings as per requests of project and quality control staff. I also communicated with owners and subcontractors to make edits to drawings, plans, and logistical paperwork/submissions.

I pursued this experience to be exposed to various engineering disciplines all at once in a fast-paced setting. My ability to work with mechanical, electrical, and civil engineers on a daily basis taught me invaluable lessons about communication and accountability in team settings, and I only saw this by working with so many different types of individuals and engineers working together in one setting.

I realized quickly that the process I was initially told to use in editing drawings was rather cumbersome. I couldn't efficiently complete my work and determined a better way was possible. After some research and discussions with other interns and employees, I decided to use a different type of software that could enable me to more quickly edit the drawings and plans assigned to me while still maintaining the quality and accuracy of my work. I realized the editing process could be streamlined by questioning how it could be done better.

At one point in my internship, I was assigned a time-sensitive drawing to check over and comment on. I went about completing the assignment and submitted it to my superiors. I was told later on that the drawing wasn't fully correct, and some information was still missing. This caused the team's timeline to push back slightly, which something I regretted. The key lesson I learned from this failure was the importance of paying attention to detail. While it is important to get assignments done efficiently and quickly, the accuracy of doing something is even more significant in many cases, and this falls back to the idea of attention to detail. I realized that this separates the the low from the high performers in any industry, and thus is important in entrepreneurship as well.

Through my experience, I was able to see how a relatively small company (where Forte only had around 50-60 employees) was able to effectively manage millions of dollars and complete massive projects, where this relates to how small startups can be working with millions of dollars in funding on large projects despite only having a dozen employees. Each employee at Forte thus had a lot of responsibilities, and they all had to perform in several different roles (i.e. they had to perform outside of their job description). I've learned in I&E how this is often the case with early stage startups, where employees at these companies have to wear many different hats on a daily basis. I realized that the experience relates to my selected technology and design pathway because I had to utilize many design principles in my projects, specifically with how the clients would want the designs to meet specific criteria.

The following is an article written when TAP Electric / Forte was awarded the NYCT design build services for the installation of passenger identification CCTV cameras.

https://www.tapelectric.net/post/awarded-nyct-cctv-pid-contract

I am not permitted by TAP / Forte to share any of the tangible work I contributed to, primarily due to the fact that the project is not nearly completed yet. On a higher level, I supported the full-time engineers in completing and editing drawings. These drawings laid out the locations of the CCTV cameras in each of the stations, in addition to the other relevant features, such as associated electrical components.