Week 9:
The End

August 4, 2021

Things have really picked up here in my last week. Over these last few days, I have been busy attending training sessions, meetings, company events, and finishing my project.

Early in the week, Microtek hosted a customer service and communication training session for any employee that wanted to attend. I joined in with hopes of learning something about effective communication. During the training session, we discussed experiences with both good and bad customer service and took an assessment to identify our communication style. The assessment was very similar to the True Colors test that I took this year and last year as a member of Cornell’s NSO staff. I am an analytical communicator (or a green on the True Colors test), which means I rely heavily on logic, facts, and data. But the most interesting thing I found from taking the tests was the difference in the distribution of colors at Microtek and on the NSO staff. At Microtek, the majority of the staff are green/analytical communicators. On the NSO staff, there are very few green/analyticals and lots of blue/amiables and orange/expressives.

Also, near the beginning of the week, MyPhuong and Leah helped me get in touch with Dr. Ken Loh, a professor in UCSD’s materials science program. Luckily, I was able to schedule a time to meet with him later in the week, so on Thursday, I left work early and drove down to UCSD. I met with Dr. Loh in his lab and had a great conversation about the UCSD program and grad school in general. He also introduced me to a couple of his Ph.D. students and showed me some of the projects they are working on in his lab. After the meeting, I took a few minutes to walk around campus. UCSD is huge, and just the engineering school is much larger than Cornell. Not only is the engineering campus massive, but the buildings themselves are too. There are six sub-departments within the engineering school, and each one has its own giant building.

As I mentioned last week, Juan and I could get the nitrogen oven up and running, and I was finally able to move forward with my project. I managed to finish collecting data by midweek, which left me just enough time to analyze the data and prepare a presentation.

I managed to sneak in one last hike with Michelle, Spencer, and the dogs this last week. We went back to Lake Poway, which was my first hike here in San Diego. We also went out to a nice dinner at a local brewery to celebrate the end of my summer.

On my last day at Microtek, I gave my presentation in the morning because MyPhuong and Leah planned some fun company events for the afternoon. Once I finished presenting, we threw a small baby shower for one of the lab operators, and everyone decorated a onesie. After that, we left Microtek and headed to Del Mar for lunch and a movie. We voted to see Black Widow, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I’ve certainly learned a lot during my time at Microtek, and I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to learn and work here this summer. Microtek has a great company atmosphere, and I’m glad to have met and learned from all of Microtek’s employees. I’m thankful for Spencer and Michelle and their willingness to take me in this summer. I know I’ll always have friends and a place to stay if I ever find myself back in San Diego. Overall, I’m pleased with my experience this summer. I am proud of what I have learned and accomplished, and I’m so glad to have had this opportunity.