When I first walked into the Office at Environmental Quality Resources, I had no idea what to expect. I figured I would fall into the typical “intern” generalization (i.e. pushing papers, doing busy work, getting coffee, etc.…) I knew what EQR did, but I did not know how they did it. Little did I know that the experience was about to change my life forever. My name is Corey McAndrew, and I just completed my internship with Environmental Quality Resources. Being a Freshman at Frostburg State university (class of 2021) majoring in Environmental Analysis and Planning, I could not have asked for a better company or opportunity than this.
EQR has set up their Internship program so well, that I can fully say I learned more in the short 11 weeks I was here than I did throughout all my college classes combined. The practical and hands on experience is second to none, and everybody in the office truly makes you feel like you are part of the team.
I started in Estimating, where I spent 5 weeks actively learning how to do takeoffs, earthworks, building a bid, sending RFQ’s (request for quote) and learning how to price items and subcontractors. The tasks and skills I listed above still do not bring justice to how much I truly learned in the Estimating Department. I also learned how important it is to fully read the Specifications and plans of a project, how dissecting and interpreting a plan set the right way can win or lose you a bid, and the best part of it all was that everything I did was hands on. I was working on real bids, calling subcontractors and vendors to get quotes, visiting job sites and meeting with the site owner’s; I looked forward everyday to working with estimating, because I knew I would learn something new every single day. Alycia Roberson (Estimating Intern Liaison) and the other estimators were great to learn from, and everybody made sure that I was seeing each part of the process, they even took me to plenty of meetings and site visits!
I was extremely nervous to move down to Project Management, rightfully so, as I was moving into a whole new department. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Project Managers, and although it was on a much smaller scale, I loved the busyness and stress incorporated with the job. A lot of what I did was repetitive from estimating, as I would be calling for quotes and pricing. I also learned how to schedule, make purchase orders, file tickets and even create a budget for a job. Sarah Sander (Project Management Intern Liaison) and Andrew Simansky were awesome to work with, as were all the PM’s. I was able to work directly with some great people and learn different strategies involved in the process, they truly took me in and made me feel like part of the team! My best memory at EQR was working on a project with Chris Redmon (Project Manager) where I got to devote much of my time on scheduling, buying materials, and so on.
I loved every moment of my time at EQR, and I cannot say one bad thing about the company or anybody who works there. Liam O’Meara, the president of EQR would often walk around and check up on us to see how things were going, you can truly tell the company cared. I want to thank all the staff at EQR, as it was definitely one of the best experiences of my life and I would not hesitate to come back!!
Thanks again!
Corey McAndrew