Shane O'Neil

Internship Placement Name: United States Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, PA

Internship Title:   Co-Op/Developer, Decision Support Team in Business Intelligence

How did you find your internship?
My internship is one of the most highly recognized internships for Computer Science. It is offered twice a year when US Steel employees come to Cal U and administer tests and applications for employment. Dr. Novak had asked me to take the test because this is one of the best internship offers to date. I thought long and hard, and after careful consideration and deciding to postpone my graduation, I took the test and passed. Many students try for this internship every time it is offered and very few receive the opportunity that I have.

What are your primary responsibilities/day-to-day activities?
I started my internship in many training courses. After the completion of those, I was given many tasks that used an older database system, still used by most other departments; however, my department has been working on changing over to a newer system. My tasks were to create programs that would redirect users to the newer system, and by making it impossible for users to use that older system, I was able to get rid of the older programs.
I am currently working on the Inventory Applications section of our team's main projects. This is the process that keeps track of all of the steel coils that are at all the plants. We have recently changed from an older database system to an Oracle 9i system using SQL. I have been given the task to write a Java program that gives the user an option of which plant they wish to look at and when executing, a formatted excel document will be generated to give all the necessary information for that plant and comparing many different fields giving several spreadsheets and a total sheet. After I am finished with this, I am sure I will continue with SQL and Java programming.

What is the best part of your internship?
This is probably the hardest question because I like everything about my internship. I have learned so much; I met new people, whom are all very welcoming. If I had to pick one thing though, I would have to say it's how everyone works together as a team; not only our team and each individual team but also all teams intertwine and help one another out. If you don't know something, chances are someone else does or they know how to help find the solution in a reasonable amount of time. I learned to not be afraid to ask questions or get help because everyone one needs help.

What are the top two things you have learned?
The first thing I have just talked about and that is how to ask questions and not to be afraid of getting help when you need it. The second would have to be how to program in Java. During my internship, only being here two & a half months, I have learned many Programming languages I did not know before, such as: Java, SQL, NATURAL, ORACLE 9i database implementation, JSP and JAVASCRIPT. I believe that Java was the most important thing I have learned out of everything because, 90% of Pittsburgh Area Company's and over half of other company's in the United States need and/or use Java programmers. This has almost been the gateway to my future.

Would you recommend this internship to someone else?
I wouldn't just recommend this internship to someone but everyone. As I have said before this has been an amazing experience and it's only been less than 3 months. I have learned so much and according to all of the current employees, I will learn a whole lot more. It is a wonderful real world experience. You are not just simply an observer of how things operate. They make you an employee that works on projects with the rest of the team; you fill out the paperwork necessary for auditors to pass their audits. You get a huge idea of what to expect after graduation, not to mention it pays very well, not only with the paycheck, but with the training, knowledge and experience I have gained from everyday at my internship.

What is a quote regarding your internship experience?
"Hard work and dedication pays off. Teamwork is the key to your future. Do not give up or get frustrated; just ask for help. Following these simple steps a great career is bound to follow."