Every year, students from across Texas come to Cleary Zimmermann Engineers to learn, contribute, and build relationships through engineering internships. Our firm facilitates across many disciplines, including mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, commissioning, marketing, accounting, administration, and more!
We sat down with Jason Bourassa, Mechanical Engineer at our Houston office to learn more about his time interning with CZ and how it shaped his subsequent career with the company. Bourassa interned with Cleary Zimmermann back in 2016 and joined us as a full time Mechanical Engineer this year.
Hi Jason! First off, can you tell us how you heard about the internship program at Cleary Zimmermann?
“When I was studying mechanical engineering in college, my cousin, David Bourassa had been working at CZ for two years at the time. He put me in touch with Danny and Wade. From there, I began my internship at Cleary Zimmermann Engineers.”
Can you tell us a little bit more about what you did during your internship? What team(s) did you work with?
“I did a rotational program in my internship. I was able to work with the engineering team, the marketing team, as well as with the construction administrators.
The engineering team specifically taught me from the ground up. They taught me how to start jobs, as well as showing me the design process. I would shadow the engineers using a variety of different programs, as well as watching the process of starting a project.
I got to see how engineering worked in the real world compared to what I learned in school.”
During your internship, which project was your favorite?
“I worked on a cooling tower replacement project at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi. That project was different than anything I had seen. We weren’t designing a whole new project, but instead figuring out how to replace the cooling tower basin.
This project really stuck out to me because there was so much that went into the project than I had previously thought.
Another project I had worked on was close to the end of my internship. This was a K-12 ground up project at a high school. I was able to start the project on my own and I had the most independence on this task.”
What did you learn during your internship at CZ?
“The internship helped me the most when it came to professionalism. Before my internship, I had only worked part time jobs. I was able to learn how people interacted with each other the workplace. This was the most helpful for my professional growth.”
What other skills from your internship did you bring into your current position?
“That summer, I gained a lot more knowledge in Excel. It was also my first introduction into Revit.
This gave me an insight on how the buildings were modeled in the programs. It was also interesting to see the buildings in a 3-D perspective.”
What made you want to return to CZ? Tell us more about the transition from your internship to a full-time job?
“When I graduated college, there weren’t any job openings in the Houston area. This was before CZ had a Houston office. Right out of college, I had worked at a local MEP firm. However, when the Houston office opened and were wanting to expand, I came back to CZ.
The scale of projects at Cleary Zimmermann also interested me. They were bigger and more complex than I had worked on in my career thus far. I really wanted to take the opportunity to work on bigger projects at CZ.”
How have you grown professionally at CZ?
“From my internship to now, I have been able to focus more on being responsible and accountable between projects and other disciplines.”
