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As a third year student in Civil Engineering course, I was very fortunate when I had a chance to become an intern at Taisei Corporation which is one of the largest construction companies in Japan.
Taisei was established in 1873, since then and until now the corporation has done many huge projects not only in Japan but also around the world. I worked in the Noi Bai International Airport Terminal 2 Construction placed in Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam which is also my hometown. This construction project was not the first time Taisei Corporation coming to Vietnam. Taisei was the main contractor for “Can Tho Bridge” finished in 2010 which was the longest main span cable stay bridge in South East Asia at that time. The new terminal in Noi Bai International Airport will have a capacity of 10 million passengers annually, and it is expected to contribute tremendously to the development of Vietnam.
During my two-week internship in Taisei, I trained my skills as well as involved in real civil work. I frequently visited the construction site. The approximately 1000 m² construction site overwhelmed me by the amount of work happening within it. Although I had opportunities to visit buildings in construction process during the field work when from Kyushu University, I still felt somewhat lost with what I saw during my internship. It reminded me how big the gap was between study and real life. Hence, I know that I should work harder in order to fulfill my dream. In addition to the construction work, I got to know the management work behind which was very complicated because it included many sides such as main contractor, sub-contractors, engineering advisor, legal advisor. Even though it was sometimes hard to understand and follow all the daily meetings I joined, I enjoyed the new knowledge and admired how the international cooperation was established among different nationalities.
The internship gave me a unique opportunity to have an insight of the construction work. It drew a realistic picture of a civil engineer’s job to me. Through the two weeks of my internship, I developed not only civil engineering abilities such as construction management but also soft skills such as organization and communication skills. It built up an important first step for me, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

By Nga (Civil Engineering Course, Class of 2011)