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Critical Reflective Paper
- 1. Chavez 1 Aaron Chavez Business Internship BUSN 460-01 Professor Harman August 17, 2016 Critical Reflective Paper A. Background: Clune Construction Company is the corporation that I had the privilege of interning this summer. This organization specializes as a national general contractor in the renovation of buildings, commercial establishments, as well as college facilities. They have been in business since 1997. Clune Construction has offices located across the U.S. including regions such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, South Florida, Washington D.C., and McLean, VA. Their initial goal is to consistently meet deadlines and stay under budget when it comes to assisting their clients projects with sincerity and gratification from their initial clients. Therefore, I chose this company for my internship because this organization will allow me to obtain skills that will benefit me in achieving a career of owning apartment units, commercial buildings and condos. B. Evidence of Learning: As a direct result of this internship, I have learned numerous business skills that will enhance my abilities at being a better entrepreneur and employee. First, is how essential it is to be organized when preparing a close out book for Clune Construction. A close out book consist of warranties, operation/maintenance manuals, As-Built drawings, and CAD files from each subcontractor working on a project. A subcontractor is another company contracted to work on the same project. The average for each project is around twenty subcontractors. For each As-Built drawing, a CAD file is needed because this will
- 2. Chavez 2 allow the Architect and Engineer to observe/approve the completion of the As-Built Drawings through the Computer Aided Design (CAD) program. Organization is critical when assembling a close out book because if one warranty is missing it could cost the general contractor thousands of dollars and no subcontractor will get paid. An employee name Mario Martinez told me a story of how critical having physical copies of warranties is when preparing a close out book. He told me that an employee in the office forgot to obtain a physical copy of a warranty for Global Construction and since they didnt have the physical copy Clune Construction ended up loosing $50,000 dollars as a result of that mistake. This is why deadlines and having physical and electronic copies are crucial when it comes to acquiring everything that is needed to complete a close out book. As a result, of working on six close out books for Clune Construction Company my organization skills improved dramatically and became an important skill to have. Second, business skill that I obtained as a result of this internship is how to communicate and discuss dilemmas with project managers, assistant project managers, superintendents, subcontractors, Architects, Engineers, office managers etc. Being straightforward and direct when interacting with these employees is one of the pieces of information I have learned during my internship. Even if it is good or bad information, I learned it is better to disclose details pertaining to projects than to keep it to myself. Figure1 The importance of organization.
- 3. Chavez 3 Trusting one another is essential and everyone working on projects depends on one another. Not informing another employee of information means a lack of trust and that is not how Clune Construction operates. They are a family and what do familys do? They trust one another and inform each other of good and bad details relating to projects. This is one of the insights I learned from this company. Each person has a specific role that plays a key role in maintaining and operating this company, which is why informing each other with information and understanding their vocabulary is important. Another skill that correlated with communicating with employees I worked with and from other companies is to understand business terms such as lean, retention, and scope. Being informed by these business terms made it easier for me to understand and communicate with these employees when I had to inform them of information from subcontractors, Architects, and Engineers that I made contact with. Therefore, this internship has enriched my business vocabulary and how to communicate with employees within and from other companies properly and effectively. Third, business skill that I acquired from working at Clune Construction Company is the ability to work the excel program more efficiently. Project Manager, Freddie Elenes helped educate me through the process of inputting submittals through excel. I helped Freddie insert several submittals into excel through my time interning at Clune Construction Company. A submittal is a piece of object such as glass, stones, carpet etc. that the client is requesting for the project. The subcontractor sends a sample Figure2 Communicating with a subcontractor through email.
- 4. Chavez 4 of what the client wants and they send it to the project manager who is in charge of that project. He or she approves whether or not that it is the correct sample to use. Once it is approved the project manager inputs the information of that submittal into excel for future reference. The project manager than sends the submittal back to the subcontractor. Inserting submittals they received from subcontractors is essential because it informs everyone that they have received that sample from that subcontractor, instituting a list of who and who has not submitted a submittal to the project manager. Learning the process of inserting these submittals into excel has made me more familiar with the excel program. Being able to input trade codes, descriptions, dates of when the company received, delivers, and expected return are skills that I learned. Moreover, familiarizing myself with excel through this internship is a trait that I will be able to apply to the next job I receive in the near future. Fourth, business skill is the ability to send projects to the archives. Once a project is complete, the office manager sends them to the archives. It involves data entry through a website called, Williams Data Management. The term archives is a location where all Clune projects are placed and stored. Being able to familiarized myself with business vocabulary helped when it came to inputting project name description within the Williams Data Management. Words such as plan sack, submittals, Job site files etc. This is important because this tool is used to track clients, projects, used for proposals, and retrieve boxes from the archives. Keeping record of all projects is a critical task when inputting through the Williams Data Management program. The process of submitting Figure3 Submittal recorded inexcel for future reference.
- 5. Chavez 5 projects to the archives is long and tedious, so patience and persistence is major when one starts the process of sending projects to the archives. Educating myself with project names, understanding business vocabulary, being patient, organized, persistent, being aware of how to use Williams Data Management program, and scheduling pick up were important skills that I obtained with my time at Clune Construction Company. The fifth business skill that I received from working at this company is filing numerous projects before they are ready to be sent to the archives. This is the second to last step of the completion of a project. It is a record of everything that has taken place when it comes to finishing a project. General Files, Trade Files, and General Condition Files. Filing projects was a major skill that I did while working at Clune Construction because it allowed me to be familiar with everything related to the project. From understanding the importance of building permits to being able to understand the significant of payment applications and accident reports. Filing increased my comprehension and learning skills and allowed me to understand the project as a whole compared to not being aware of what was going on in a project. This will benefit me in the future by allowing me to quickly comprehend my learning in the career that I Figure4 Projects that were sent to the archives. Figure5 Filinga project.
- 6. Chavez 6 choose or jobs that I pursue. Therefore, filing increased my comprehensive and learning skills, thus displaying business skills that are essential in a workplace. C. What did you learn about yourself?: There are several lessons that I have learned about myself as a direct result of doing this internship. I have become more confident in my own abilities to adapt to an environment that evolves around pressure. Since everyone in the office was constantly busy, I had no choice but to learn on the first try, as employees would instruct me on how to do a certain tasks. I had to adapt and learn the assignments quick and doing so has made me become a detailed and efficient employee. I also learned how organized I am when it comes to handling my desk and projects. I am very thorough when it comes to making lists of what subcontractors sent me change orders logs or final contract letters. This makes the jobs I do a lot easier. Lastly, I became aware that I could manage tasks at a job site for a variety of reasons. I had the privilege of being able to shadow a superintendent at a job site at one of the projects Clune Construction Company was working on. I went to the Edwards Lifesciences Caf辿 job site where Clune Construction is working on several buildings there located in Irvine. As I shadowed an assistant superintendent, Jeff McWhorter he showed me what a day is like working as an assistant superintendent. It is a chaotic environment from managing a whole building to being able to making quick decisions when unexpected events occur. His job is difficult, but I realized with the proper training I can perform that job. Based on my own skills and being able to adapt quickly I became confident in myself that I can perform such task as being a superintendent. Consequently, this internship experience has allowed me to view the skills I possess and the ones I need
- 7. Chavez 7 to improve on. Most importantly it has given me self-assurance that I can take on any task as long as I have the right mentality and proper training. D. What would you have done differently?: There is only one implication that I would have done differently after looking back at my experience at working at Clune Construction Company. For one, I wished I were more vocal in the beginning of the internship when it came to asking for work. I was shy and intimidated by the employees. I overcame that struggle and became confident in myself and I started asking the employees for work. I prevailed over that weakness of mine because I wanted to learn as much as possible while I was interning there and I didnt want anything to get in my way of learning. Changing my mindset helped and as a result I learned tremendously. E. How prepared for internship?: I recommend that the Crowell School of Business provide an alternative class that brings in employees from businesses that informs students on what it takes to work at that company and essential skills needed to obtain any jobs elsewhere. I know that some of my business classes brought in entrepreneurs who talked about how they started, but having a class that does exactly that seems to be beneficial in my opinion. Having a class such as this presented at Biola will prepare students who will have internships in the future. F. Connection other Biola Classes?: The class that stood out the most as I interned at Clune Construction Company would be the class, Leadership and Change taught by professor McHugh. In this class I was able to correlate within my internship through professor McHughs book 5 Dysfunctions of a Team. As I worked at Clune Construction Company I was able to
- 8. Chavez 8 observe and realized that this company was a functional, productive, and effective team that trusted one another, werent afraid of conflict amongst another, kept each other accountable, were committed to their jobs, and did not have any egos from any of the employees. They all worked as a team and I am glad that I was part of that team. G. Impact on Spiritual Growth?: There wasnt a whole lot that impacted my spiritual growth while interning at this company other than treating everyone with respect and loving one another as a family. The reason why I say this is because one of employees that I became good friends with was gay. I didnt treat him any different. I respected him and he helped me become familiar with excel. We had fun small talk during work, from talking about movies, music; to what fun events we were going to attend on weekends. I displayed Christ like behavior amongst everyone that I worked with and hopefully through my actions he was able to see Jesus Christ working through my life. H. Your Score: I would give myself a 40 on this critical reflection paper because I applied all the requirements with specific details amongst this paper. I took the time and precisions into making this paper impact my life when it comes to preparing myself with my future career. This paper is professional, well organized, and provided evidence of my learning. With that being said, this gives reason as to why I give myself a 40 on this critical reflection paper.