Sarah Buckley, Plumbing Design Engineer
Previously Plumbing Co-Op for 2 semesters
Wentworth Institute of Technology Graduate, 2020
Sarah Buckley completed 2 semesters of co-op prior to accepting a full-time position at F&T after graduating from Wentworth Institute of Technology in 2020. During her career she’s been on both sides of the co-op experience, as a student and a now as a mentor. Check out Sarah's interview below on her co-op experience.
Did you know what the MEP/FP Consulting field was prior to co-op and were you planning on going into it?
Before starting my co-op at Fitzemeyer & Tocci, I had very little understanding of what the MEP/FP Consulting field consisted of. I knew that it played a role in the healthcare field and construction of hospitals, but I didn’t know the true impact MEP engineering had. When I began looking for a co-op in college I knew my degree had a very wide range of applications, so I designed my search around company culture, morals, and overall goals. This, thankfully, brought me here to F&T where the entire team taught me everything I know in Plumbing, HVAC design, software, BIM and the MEP field overall.
How did this help you transition into a full-time career?
The co-op was crucial to my success transitioning into a full-time career. Before my co-op, I had no experience with Revit or MEP design. I also had no experience in an office setting. Throughout both of my co-ops I gathered an understanding of what the job entailed and how to do it, but more importantly I gained confidence in an office setting, my coworkers and my resources available at F&T. This confidence enabled me to ask better questions, seek out more effective resources and take on more responsibility to continuously improve my work.
What do you like most about working with co-ops and the co-op program at F&T?
The co-op program is an incredible opportunity to gain the much-needed work experience in order to get a full-time career. The program allowed a slower, more gradual, increase in day to day tasks and responsibilities so that every stage of F&T’s process can be understood for the greater goals to be accomplished. In addition to that, working as a co-op enabled me to create very solid bonds with coworkers as they patiently treated every question as a great learning opportunity. I haven’t had the opportunity yet, but I look forward to being able to treat a new co-op with that same patience and knowledge I was given.