My Journey Into the Internship
July 2, 2013 10:33 am Leave your thoughts
My name is Connor Vale, and I am excited to now be a Green Dream Intern as well as part of the Millar Western team! My home is in Bowmanville, Ontario, and I am currently a student, studying toward a Bsc in Forestry at the University of British Columbia. My experiences thus far at Millar Western have been amazing, and I am very happy to accomplish what I had originally set out to do.
For me, getting the internship came about differently than other candidates who were selected. Millar Western initially contacted me not with an offer as an intern, but for a position as a summer student employee at Millar Western’s Whitecourt sawmill. Eager to be a part of the forestry sector this summer, I gladly accepted the position. My first two weeks as a summer student were spent at the sawmill, where I began training and gained what I view now as a valuable insight into how forest timber products are produced. I learned about how the sawmill operated, from the debarking of the logs right down to the finished product being sorted and stacked. After those two weeks, I had nearly completed my training as a conveyers operator at the sawmill.
It was on one of my days off from the mill that I received a call from Jane, our Human Resources manager, about an opening in the Woodlands department. She asked if would like to come in that morning for an interview. I raced over with anticipation; I was keen to become a member of the Woodlands department and jumped at the opportunity. I was then told that I would be on Millar Western’s Helitack crew and that I would start the next day! A few weeks later, Jane asked me to come by her office, and told me that I would now be one of the interns for the Green Dream Internship. I was very pleased to say the least, and these events reinforced my belief that I had made the right decision for this summer.