The Campus Ambassador Program allows interns hired by EOH and its subsidiaries to work at the different office locations during the summer. Hydraquip had a total of four (4) talented students join the team over this summer. Each of them received a hands-on experience through this program. Harper Carr, an intern at our Houston location, shared her experience with a PVG valve project and how it impacted her career path:
“This summer I had the opportunity to work on a project in the Valve Build Center at Hydraquip. This project was a rush order that consisted of 29, 1-section PVG valve builds for a customer. Considering the worldwide supply chain shortages and prolonged lead times, we try our best to provide as much value-added service to companies in need to keep our exceptional reputation.
During the assembly of this order, I worked alongside Bert, who is the valve expert at Hydraquip. Bert and I were able to complete this order in 2 days’ time with a lot of teamwork. We set up an assembly line, where I built all the PVG valves and Bert tightened all the parts and tested them.
Interning this summer with Hydraquip has exceeded all expectations I had coming in. It has been such an amazing learning experience from day one. I can confidently say working in the valve build center has been my favorite part so far. During this project, I got a great understanding of how hard it is to build PVG valves. Working on an order of over 29 assemblies was intimidating, but with the help of Bert, each build got a little bit easier each time. Being hands on with these parts and seeing how they work also gave me a greater understanding of the application they serve, whether it be in the oil field on a rig, or on a grout machine for dewatering services.
My favorite part of this project was the trial-and-error process. Building a PVG valve is just like building a puzzle. Although there were many steps and tedious processes, I was able to immediately acknowledge when I made an error and back track to fix it without any permanent issues. The most challenging part was time management. I am a perfectionist and quickly learned that I could not spend an excessive amount of time on one build; there were 28 more to follow. Additionally, being completely new to the world of hydraulics, I had countless questions. I quickly learned that asking questions is appreciated and has expanded my knowledge more than I ever thought it would in just 2 months.
I think this project was a huge factor in my decision for choosing a career path. I am a very technical-minded person and show great attention to detail. Being able to work hands on with parts and assemblies has shown me how much I love the operations side of things. Production and Operations is all about day-to-day tasks and being able to identify problems and provide solutions. I believe that working on the managerial side of projects in the warehouse would fit me perfectly. Being a part of the rotational internship with Hydraquip has given me amazing industry experience. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with managers in different departments and get a good understanding of what a day in their position entails and how they got to where they are. I am excited to see where my industry experience takes me in my future career!”
