Internships crucial step into engineering field

This story first appeared in Engineers Week 2026, an annual special section that showcases a variety of local engineering topics to celebrate all that engineers contribute to our world.

Interning with Shive-Hattery “jumpstarted” the civil engineering careers of Claire Recker and Luke Mulholland.

Recker and Mulholland, both 23 years old, interned for Shive-Hattery before joining the firm full time, demonstrating how an internship can be a crucial step into the engineering field.

The architecture and engineering firm, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, has offices throughout the Midwest as well as Washington and Arizona. Each location works with local colleges and universities to offer internships, job shadowing or other outreach activities for students.

“It’s about building a strong, diverse pipeline of talent and creating purpose-driven and fulfilling careers,” said Connor Moellenbeck, Shive-Hattery talent partner. “Almost all of our design offices hired interns last year with nearly 90 percent of our interns accepting full-time offers to join us post-graduation.”

Recker, a 2025 University of Iowa graduate, is a design professional on Shive-Hattery’s transportation team. She works on projects involving trails and roadways, designing and drafting plans for projects, some of which are in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area.

She began interning for the firm in 2023, working two summers before coming on full-time in July 2025.

Shive-Hattery came highly recommended by Recker’s professors and professionals in the engineering field.

“Through those conversations they had nothing but good things to say about the company and work culture,” she said. “When I looked more into the company I saw they put a huge emphasis on mentoring which is something I was looking for.”

Recker was also looking for her niche. She said she wanted to know where she fit in the industry.

“Civil engineering is very broad, so one of the big challenges in school is just figuring out where exactly you fit in, what you like best and what you don’t like,” she said. “I chose transportation, but I really didn’t know. It wasn’t until I had my internship in transportation where I was really able to see what a transportation engineer does on a day-to-day basis and whether it was for me or not. In my case it definitely was.”

The problem-solving aspect of designing for transportation is what solidified Recker’s decision. She said she enjoys putting the pieces of the puzzle together to make a project compliant with code and suitable for the client’s needs.

Transportation projects are also impactful, Recker added.

“Roads and trails are needed everywhere, so there’s opportunities to work in a lot of different cities and towns and countries even,” she said.

During her internship, Recker was part of the Court Hill Trail project in Iowa City. That project has been completed. She is now working on another trail project in Iowa City near Highway 6.

Recker was excited and relieved to join Shive-Hattery full time. The day after her second internship ended she received a call from her supervisor asking her if she would like to return.

“I felt like I fit in well with the people and with what was expected of me,” she said. “I thought it would be a great transition.”

Working as an intern, then becoming a full-time employee allowed Recker to pick up where she left off, having already become familiar with her colleagues and the way Shive-Hattery approaches projects.

Mulholland found this transition to be beneficial to him as well. He is a design professional in civil engineering at the firm, focusing particularly on site design. The site design team develops land before building begins.

Shive-Hattery was not Mulholland’s first internship. He had done internships in construction and construction management. He began his internship with Shive-Hattery in May 2024 and continued during the following fall semester while he attended the University of Wisconsin.

Mulholland said his internship with Shive-Hattery taught him what it means to be a site designer so he could swiftly get up to speed when he returned full time.

“Everyone I worked with was very talented and knowledgeable about their jobs,” Mulholland said. “I learned so much more than I could have imagined as an intern. When I started full time there wasn’t a month- or two-month period of getting used to the company, how to draft plans, how plans are supposed to look. I already knew that and I could start with more advanced work right away.”

The internship ended in September 2024 for Mulholland. He accepted a full-time offer the following month. In June, he started full time in Cedar Rapids after moving from Madison, Wisconsin.

Mulholland said the internship experience was key in him finding the best opportunity and best fit after graduation.

“Particularly in civil engineering there are so many routes you can go down,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of field experience, and it really helps me see how things are built in the field and how I can design plans to meet these field expectations. I feel like that’s the biggest thing is you’ve got to see how things are done firsthand. The things you learn in school, the internships really cement those down for real world application.”