Kory Talley

Describe the steps you took to obtain your internship/research opportunity/fellowship. 

I applied for my internship at the MagLab through the InternFSU portal in Handshake. I then scheduled an interview with my superiors who assessed my education and experience. Upon receiving an offer, I was giving online safety training to complete and documentation of the ongoing projects to study. 

How far in advance did you prepare and begin applying for your experiential learning opportunity? 
   
As a frequent visitor of the FSU Handshake, I applied for this job on the first day applications opened. The internship's description was thorough, allowing me to review concepts closely related to required prerequisite knowledge and job duties with plenty of time. 

If you used any Career Center services, resources, or events to obtain your job offer, what were they? How did they support your application process?

My personal favorite Career Center service has been the Career Portfolio. The portfolio allowed me to express skills gained through experience, and provide visuals of projects I have completed. This tool has proven to be a sharp marketing tool, helping my candidate profile become more memorable than a traditional application. 

Describe some of your responsibilities or duties during your experiential learning opportunity. 

As an intern at the MagLab, my responsibility was to integrate in ongoing projects of the electronics shop and instrumentation ream. With the help of my colleagues, I focused on circuit assembly, testing, commissioning, and troubleshooting of in-house developed electronic systems. Throughout my internship, I developed new hardware skills to build a cell voltage measurement system for safety. Along with the measurement circuit, I was also asked to design and build an isolation amplifying circuit to protect the measuring instrumentation from the MagLab's high-scale voltage systems. 

What was a typical day like "on the job?" 

The Electronics Shop is a dynamic environment that makes every day a new adventure. Typically, I would come into the lab and focus on one of many projects. Along with my own personal projects, users who were testing in the facility would sometimes come into the lab requesting parts, repairs or additional resources. If I was able to help, I would assist the users to the best of my abilities in order to maximize the ease of their testing experience. 

What are some major takeaways from your experience? How will these help prepare you for the next step after graduation?
   
My biggest takeaway was valuable knowledge and experience I obtained through my projects. This internship exposed me to several different genres of my degree. I never felt like the stereotypical "intern,” but rather as a key part of the team. I was challenged to develop new electronics and hardware skills as well as extend my base knowledge. This experience will be heavy hitter on my resume, and the projects will become pieces in my Career Portfolio. 

I used my insight gained at the MagLab in order to strengthen my candidacy as a potential candidate for full a full-time career. My InternFSU experience was my main talking point in my interviews, leading to successfully receiving and accepting a full-time offer. After graduation, I will be starting as a Digital Power Engineer with Schneider Electric in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Did this experience help clarify your career path? If yes, how so? 

This internship confirmed my career path in pursuing a career in electrical engineering. This experience has been the bridge between theory learned through curriculum, and real-world application. I am excited to obtain my degree in May, and formally begin my engineering career.