Helix Electric hosts immersive training experience for interns
BY NICK FORTUNA
It’s a three-day trip to sunny San Diego with all expenses paid, but for the new interns at Helix Electric, it’s anything but a vacation.
Each summer, Helix Electric, a member of multiple AGC chapters, hosts first-year interns at its corporate headquarters for an immersive learning experience aimed at introducing them to careers in electrical contracting. This past June, about two dozen college students, fresh from the spring semester, showed up for Intern Foundations Training, which includes hands-on technical training, mentorship from executives and team-building activities.
In a classroom setting, interns learn the basics of bending conduit and pulling wire, and they pepper the company’s executives with questions about their career paths. While visiting jobsites and interacting with experienced project managers and superintendents, students gain practical insights into project lifecycles, renewable energy and construction technology.
To Boris Shekhter, president and chief executive of Helix, nurturing the next generation of electrical construction professionals is a vital part of the job.
“Helix Electric’s intern program represents our commitment to developing future industry leaders by providing them with real-world experience on some of the most complex electrical projects in the country,” he said. “By investing in these talented students, we’re not only strengthening our workforce pipeline but preparing them for careers in electrical construction.”
Over the past eight years, Helix has hired more than 80 former interns to fulltime roles, mostly as project engineers, Shekhter said. The program serves as a “try before you buy” evaluation period for both interns and the company, he added. Interns get a close-up view of the industry so they can make an informed decision about pursuing a career in electrical construction. Meanwhile, the company gets to showcase its values, culture, expertise and opportunities for advancement to talented young people.
“We want them to be on the jobsite, to get their boots dirty and to understand that this is what we do,” Shekhter said. “We’re not managers; we’re doers. We install the work.”
Founded in 1985, Helix has 10 offices spread out across California, Nevada, Utah, Hawaii, Arizona and Virginia, with almost 3,000 employees. Typical projects include data centers, renewable-energy systems, infrastructure, health care, education, commercial developments and transportation systems.
Great Pay for College Kids
Each year, approximately 50 interns work for Helix at offices and jobsites across the country, earning well above $20 an hour, depending on region and experience. Some interns also qualify for relocation assistance and housing stipends, and they accrue benefits such as paid time off and sick time.
Helix has established relationships with professors and career counselors at a number of universities and regularly attends campus career fairs to recruit interns, Shekhter said. Additionally, Helix conducts outreach through resume workshops, industry informational sessions and electrical construction labs.
Over the years, Helix has held electrical construction labs at the University of Cincinnati, Purdue, Virginia Tech, Colorado State, Chico State, San Diego State, Cal State Fullerton and Fresno State, among other schools.
While some interns are just working a summer job, others stay with the company for up to six months as part of their college curriculum, earning credits toward a four-year degree. Most interns major in electrical engineering, construction management or a similar field.
Helix’s first-year interns spend a few weeks at their local offices before heading to San Diego for Intern Foundations Training. They stay at a hotel near the company’s headquarters and are well fed, with catered meals, networking dinners at local restaurants and reimbursement for meals bought while traveling. There’s also an axe-throwing contest for team building, Shekhter said.
During the two main teaching days, students get classroom instruction and tour a jobsite for a realistic picture of daily work. This past June, they visited an affordable rental-housing development in San Diego, gaining insights into construction practices and community-focused projects. Helix’s head of risk also educated interns about the importance of safety in everything the company does, including creating pre-task plans to identify potential risks and the tools needed to perform the work.
In speaking with interns, Shekhter said executives emphasize that both the company and the broader construction industry are growing, so for ambitious, hardworking young people, the sky is the limit. Shekhter serves as a prime example of what’s possible, having joined the company more than two decades ago as a project engineer and steadily climbing the ladder.
“I talk about where I see the company and the industry going, but mostly, we let them ask questions, and that’s often the most interesting part,” he said. “They want to know about my career path, how I grew into this role and what their own careers could look like.”
Gaining Practical Experience
The three-day boot camp prepares interns to hit the ground running back at their local offices. Working alongside project engineers, project managers, leads and superintendents, they learn essential skills such as how to review electrical drawings and how to write a request for information (RFI) to the general contractor. Submitting an RFI is a formal process used to clarify uncertainties or missing details in construction documents.
Interns gain exposure to the company’s virtual design team and all the technology that makes a modern jobsite flow, Shekhter said. They also sit in on construction meetings to learn how the different trades collaborate. Before heading back to school, interns give a presentation to executives about what they’ve learned, and some even share examples of process improvements they’ve helped to make, which Shekhter said is especially gratifying for the company.
“We want them to have the same kind of experience they would have as a project engineer working for us,” Shekhter said. “We all have an obligation to attract young people to the industry, and we’ve got to do a better job with that. Our intern program is one answer to that challenge. This is a great industry, and we need to show people how wonderful it is. I think that’s very important.”