Benjamin Ruohoniemi
Benjamin, a Cabinetmaking and Wook Technology major, interned at Lezzer Lumber this summer.
Lezzer Lumber is a building supply materials company, one of the 50 largest retailers of its kind in the U.S.
How did you find out about your internship?
I learned about the opportunity at Lezzer Lumber through the College Central Network, a job-posting site Thaddeus Stevens College maintains, in February of last school year.
What does your day-to-day look like at the internship?
I clock in at 6:30 a.m. and connect with the shop foreman on what I will be managing for the day. Throughout each day I will either have several small jobs to work on or a few larger ones. I clock out at 3 p.m. with mostly everyone who works in the millwork shop.
What is something you were surprised to learn in your time as an intern?
What I found most surprising was how fast we could get jobs done. I guess I didn’t truly realize how fast jobs went when I was in my first year of the Cabinetmaking program.
What has been something challenging about your internship?
Getting enough sleep at night and adjusting to the schedule was a challenge for me.
What has been the best part about your internship experience?
The community of everyone working together at Lezzer Lumber was the best part of my internship experience!
Tell me a story about something that happened one day as part of your time as an intern?
One day I went with another employee who works on CAD and reviewed a house that needed some porch renovations. A van had driven up off the road as it tried to around a car and damaged the corner of the porch. A column broke off and the porch floor had been damaged, along with the roof now sagging. We measured how much flooring we needed to replace and the railing and columns that needed to be replaced as well.
Would you recommend seeking out an internship to other students at Thaddeus Stevens College?
I would recommend to other students to work in their respective fields in an internship as it gives real world experience, and you also make more at a technical skills internship than you might make elsewhere.
How do you think this experience will help you for your future?
This experience will help when I look for jobs in the future and employers see this on my resume. It will help me with having more experience for when I actually step into the field.