I interviewed with two companies, American Bridge and PENNDOT.  They both offered me a position to work there as a co-op.  I did not work at American Bridge because they wanted someone who could work four rotations and obviously, I could not fulfill what they wanted.  I accepted a position at PENNDOT working in their Information Technology department.  I knew that most of the programming done for PENNDOT was done in Harrisburg before I accepted the offer.  At the time, I felt pretty comfortable with writing code and wanted to experience new options.  By working in PENNDOT's IT department, I knew I would be exposed to the basic operations, planning, and coordination that occurs in most IT departments. 

    Besides computer support, I helped create and maintain an inventory of all computer equipment and software for the district which would later need RFID tags put on them.  I also got to learn how to surplus materials and how purchasing works in the department. 

     The last batch of computers on contract were having a lot of trouble.  The hard drives were failing and the mother boards kept going bad.  These were problems that kept us busy on our last rotation.  Eventually, we had to replace all of the computers since we kept having all of these problems.  We had to create another inventory of all the new equipment and we had to re-install certain software for different departments.   This kept me busy for the most part of the semester. 

     During my second rotation, I also learned a lot about networking.  I helped wire two brand new buildings for two of the county offices in Monroeville and Bridgeville for the phones and network.  I pulled Cat 5 and 3 cable and put connectors on them.  After Verizon put their demarc box in the building for a T-1 line, I helped wire everything to the router and make sure all computers could access the LAN.  I also had to connect all of the phone lines for each office in the building to their appropriate numbers.

     Eventually, I want to be in management in my career.  This experience has helped me realize most of the responsibilities and problems that can arise in any company and how to handle them.  I shared this with my boss and he showed me other practices more administrative that has to be done in management.  Working for PENNDOT was a good experience for me and has helped me determine where I eventually want to end up in my career.