American Dream Come True

Intro

I’m Victor, I’m 20 years old and I come from the west of France, in Brittany.

To complete my training in a building engineering school (Ecole Centrale de Nantes), and to improve my English, I carried out an internship of two months with Peak Construction.

On the one hand this experience aimed to investigate ways of working with an American company, (alternative design, and construction method) and on the other hand to share our respective expertise.

It was my first time in America and I can say that I was really excited to discover this huge country, to meet the American people, and to see all the things which symbolize NY that even from Europe I grew up wanting to see.

Thanks to the help and a wonderful welcome from all the employees at Peak, I was able to find a pleasant accommodation and be integrated in the team very quickly.

I had a car, and an iPhone, “Welcome to America!”

My internship

During the first two weeks, I was scheduled each day with a different employee of the company which allowed me to understand their job and role within Peak Construction.

After two weeks I had met most of the employees and it permitted me to have a good idea of the kind of work and the development objectives of Peak Construction

ON SITE

I also became accustomed with the units (we use the metric in France)

I went to a restoration site, house damaged by a fire in Yorktown. The fire started because of a defective wire in the attic.

The work consisted of removing all the furniture, then demolishing all the drywall and wood flooring, then we dried out the entire second level (a big amount of water was used by the firemen to extinguish the fire).

My work consisted of registering and taking pictures of all the furniture and I helped Chris Riehle (Project Manager) take all the measurements and create the drawings of the house for the restoration work.

Also, during the two months I followed the construction of a new house in Fishkill. It was an opportunity for me to see all the steps of the construction from the earthwork to the wood frame.

ESTIMATION

For a bid in Yorktown I helped Bill Metzger, the president of Peak, to write the proposal. I wrote the list of the materials needed, and then I contacted the suppliers to get prices.

It was a very interesting experience even if it was difficult for me because of the very technical vocabulary.

MARKETING

I also worked in marketing with Jeff Brust, the marketing manager of Peak Construction.

At the beginning, I worked on Peak’s Facebook page which was already created. I published some pictures of the new sites and posted some articles about my internship. Then I edited some videos with the pictures of the different recent Peak jobs.

Summary

At the end of my internship, I can say that I learned a lot on the one hand about the technical knowledge, the means of construction (wood frame) and how to write an estimate.

And on the other hand I also had the opportunity to see some wonderful things like Niagara Falls, New-York City and West Point. All these experiences allowed me to discover a part of the American culture. The people I met were very friendly and welcoming, also the internship with Peak Construction contributed to an extraordinary experience for me, both technical but mainly human. And that is why I want to thank all these people; it’s with them that I reached the “American Dream”.

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