Summer Internship Reflection - 2 Weeks in Energy Systems Development
Theme: Distributed power source system development centered on power conditioners
Department: Energy Business Division, Software Development Group
Key Insights
1. Industry vs Research Differences
Compared to research, safety considerations, error tolerance, and variation management are critical. Changing one function requires considering safety implications, guarantees, and impacts on other affected areas.
2. Product Development Complexity
For commercial products spanning hardware to software, the volume of design specifications is overwhelming. It's impossible for one person to understand everything completely. Even within the same group, members have different responsibilities and expertise areas, making communication and collaboration essential.
Experience Highlights
💬 Memorable Interactions
I had many opportunities to talk with senior employees. They listened to discussions about work content, job hunting, and casual conversations, which made me very happy. All employees were kind, and I was particularly comforted by the brightness of young employees.
✅ Overall Positive Aspects
- Skill Alignment: Participating in a theme that matched skills learned at university helped me gain a concrete image of how to apply my expertise in the development field
- Real Work Experience: Experiencing actual work content allowed me to understand professional work styles and workflow
- Career Guidance: Through interactions with many senior employees, I gained valuable advice and experiences useful for future career development
🔧 Areas for Improvement
- Learning Curve: Despite the 2-week duration being relatively long, I felt there were many aspects of the work content I still didn't fully understand
- Technical Documentation: Understanding production design documents took longer than expected, making it difficult to work efficiently
- Development Depth: Tasks of updating programs according to design documents often became copying work, with limited opportunities to deeply engage in actual development and design
🤝 Employee Interaction
While there was limited interaction during actual work, events like meals, casual conversations, and study sessions provided sufficient opportunities for employee interaction. When I actively approached people, everyone responded kindly and politely, leaving a very positive impression.
Japanese Original
夏インターンシップ2weeks
テーマ: 分散型電源システムのパワーコンディショナを中心としたシステム開発
部署: エネルギー事業部 ソフトウェア開発G
感想
- 研究と比べて、安全性や誤差、バラツキの考慮が重要であること。ひとつ機能を変更しても、いろんな安全や保障、その機能に影響されるところも考えなければならないこと
- プログラムでもモデルでもハードからソフトまでの商売製品として、開発の設計仕様書の量が違って、ひとりの力で全部理解するのが無理です。同じグループのメンバーでもやることが異なってる。それぞれ得意分野が違って交流とコミュニケーションが大事であること
Why This Company?
Skill Utilization: I believe this is a department where I can fully utilize my specialized skills in control knowledge and programming.
Career Growth: There are abundant opportunities for career growth by being involved in system development from upstream to downstream.
Work Environment: The positive human relationships and the opportunity to work with young employees during the internship were very attractive.
Professional Development Insights
Industry Readiness: Understanding the gap between academic research and commercial product development requirements.
Team Collaboration: Recognizing the importance of specialized roles and effective communication in complex engineering projects.
Technical Skills: Gaining practical experience with industrial software development processes and documentation standards.