In order to fully understand my Internship experience that I have written about below, click on the Link above to learn about some key terms, phrases, and concepts, that I reference throughout the paper.
My Summer Internship at Newport News Shipyard
Introduction
For the last twenty years of my life, I have listened every night as my father would come home and talk about his day at the Newport News Shipyard. The older I got, the more he encouraged me to follow the same route he took and to pursue a career in IT (information technology). When it was time for me to pick the college I would be attending, ODU stood out to me for its excellent cybersecurity degree and I began to walk towards the future my father and I had imagined and planned for. Interning at the Newport News Shipyard has always been a part of that plan and to me, it is as important as attending college and getting my bachelor’s degree. I decided to intern at the Shipyard because it is a great first step towards the workforce, it looks great on a resume, I would receive a lot of unique knowledge and skills, and it would get my foot in the door at the Shipyard, a place I want to work at someday. So, when the opportunity arose to intern there this past summer, I did not even hesitate to apply.
The contents of the rest of this paper will go over the ten weeks I spent at the Newport News Shipyard, including details about the management, my duties and projects, and my overall experience, as well as what I have learned and the major takeaways from the internship. I will go into more detail about the nature of the work done at the Shipyard, as well as the type of organization that it is, but I must issue a major disclaimer at the forefront of this paper. Much of what is done at the shipyard, including much of what I did, is either classified or on a need-to-know basis, meaning I will not be able to give as much detail as I would like about certain topics. Regardless, I will make it my endeavor to give the most informative description of my time at the Shipyard, as well as what I have learned while interning there.
Beginning and Orientation
This summer, I am interning at the Newport News Shipyard, the largest shipbuilding company in America, the largest industrial employer in Virginia, the only shipbuilding company in America capable of building nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and one of only two shipbuilding companies in America capable of building nuclear-powered submarines(NNS). The company was founded 136 years ago, and has built more than 800 ships since then, for both commercial customers and for the U.S Navy(NNS). As the largest shipbuilding company in America, its major product is ships. The company has recently been awarded a 48-billion-dollar contract, to build a new fleet of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for the U.S Navy, their largest and main customer. The Newport News Shipyard is responsible for building, refueling, and maintaining much our Navy’s fleet and has played an absolutely critical part in maintaining the peace and winning wars (NNS).
My first day was not at all how I expected it to be. The interns were instructed to meet at an off-campus site, to receive orientation and training. For about 5 hours, we went through orientation and had a crash course on all things NNS. I learned a lot and expected to spend the rest of the day there and was surprised when that was not the case. In fact, after we had had our lunch, members from our respected departments came and picked us up and took us to our offices where we would be working for the rest of the summer. My OTJ (on the job) training started as soon as I arrived at the office. My mentor Nathan took me through multiple PowerPoints and gave me in-depth descriptions about what our department does and what roles our specific group has within NNS. Initially, I was a little overwhelmed by how much information was being thrown at me. Thankfully, I was able to write down notes with the supplies they had provided me, and everyone was so nice and welcoming to me, which made the situation less stressful. Towards the end of the day, I was given an oral quiz to test what I had learned, and I was even able to work on some equipment that I had been briefed about earlier. I came into the internship very unsure of what I would be doing and how much I would enjoy it and ended the day very thankful that I had been placed in the PPPY squad (Propulsion Plant Planning Yard) and understood why my father had enjoyed working here for so many years.
Management
I have worked multiple jobs in the past but the management in my specific group was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. My boss was a retired Airforce veteran, who has been working in cybersecurity longer than I have been alive. Despite this, he was the most easy-going, nice, flexible, and laidback manager I have ever had. Besides him, I had a mentor I reported to, and I also had to answer to my boss’s boss and his boss’s boss, the director of our department. My boss expected me to get my work done but I did not feel any extreme pressure or stress to perform perfectly or do an insane amount of work. My boss was also extremely knowledgeable, so he was able to help me with any problem I had and even assist me in my projects. Lastly, we had monthly “all hands” meetings, in which our director and our M3 (boss’s boss) would speak to us and talk about where we are at and what are goals should be. This kept me feeling at least somewhat connected to the higher management and made me feel like an important part of the team. Overall, the work environment was great, in large part due to my supervisors. They were never overbearing but they also kept me on task, while teaching me along the way. I was even able to meet the president of NNS and speak to her for a few minutes, which was a great honor.
Assignment and Duties
As previously mentioned, I will be unable to go into great detail about all of what I did, due to the nature of the work, but will endeavor to describe as much as possible. Too, I also do not have any work samples that I can include for this paper, because they are now the official property of HII and require a need-to-know to see.
My tasks and projects varied over my ten weeks at Newport News Shipyard. I came in expecting to have one major problem to address over the summer but rather dipped my hand in a lot of differing tasks. One thing that I did not expect to do and yet did much of, was writing procedures. I wrote three or four procedures and was even actively working on one my last day there. These procedures would detail a necessary process, that was too complicated for it to be self-explanatory. There are many non-cyber related employees who needed to do the tasks but had little to no computer background, so I was tasked to write long step-by-step procedures, to detail and explain certain processes, with specific instructions and pictures to go along with them. Not just that, but the PPPY squad is fairly new, so not all of the things they do are documented. Writing procedures also helped document what the group does, which will make life easier for new employees down the road. I also worked on and created databases.
The department does a lot of technical writing and continuous monitoring, both of which requires the storage of massive amounts of data, via Excel spreadsheets and databases. I created one such database for the purpose of continuous monitoring, where the database would grab information from an Excel spreadsheet downloaded monthly and would update the existing records with that new data. These databases were a great asset to our team because it would store all the important data in one place and automatically update them. I also wrote a procedure on how to update the database with new information, even though it was done by the clock of a button. This was also vital for legal reasons, as the department could now show its customers their efforts to do continuous monitoring and give them one central location with all of their important continuous monitoring data.
I also did research for different topics such as URGENT 11, a set of eleven vulnerabilities that affects VMware products, so that our group would get a better understanding of how to hack into our components and test them when they got the cyber test lab and running. The last major task I will discuss is programming related. My coworker had written a program that would take STIG data and plug it into a checklist in STIG Viewer. Not all of the desirable data was showing up on STIG Viewer, so I learned visual basics and SQL in order to edit the code and add the right information in, formatted correctly. I worked on the same program to consolidate two different STIG checklists into one, which saved my coworkers a ton of time having to go through both checklists every time. Either one or both of these tasks had been given to other interns and employees without anyone being able to solve them, so they greatly appreciated that I was able to fix their problems and save them a large amount of time.
Skills and Knowledge
This internship revolved around work I had not had much prior experience in. My group, the propulsion plant planning yard, is devoted to securing system components. This is done by using RMF (risk management framework) and continuous monitoring of said components. While at ODU, the closest thing I can equate this to, is the time I have spent learning about SCADA systems. I was able to use my knowledge of SCADA systems to understand better what we do. I used what limited knowledge I had and then learned a lot of skills, such as Nessus scanning, STIG reviews (Security technical implementation guides), benchmarking, continuous monitoring, and VA’s (Vulnerability assessments). These skills all had to do with SCADA systems and the upkeep and monitoring of system components found on the aircraft carriers. I also came into the internship pretty comfortable with multiple programming languages such as C++, Java, and Linux. I was able to use these skills to work on multiple databases and to problem solve. One on specific project, there was something missing in the code, that was keeping certain information from appearing. Since I knew how to program and had had much experience with it, they put me on the job, and I was able to fix the problem with a little help. However, the databases I worked on used SQL and Visual basics programming languages, two languages I was not familiar with. I had to quickly become familiar with them in order to work on the databases effectively. Lastly, I was a pretty good writer before the internship, but I had not done much technical writing. Within the department, there is a lot of technical writing tied directly in with cybersecurity. They write a lot of letters and enclosures, which meant I had to get used to writing in a completely different way. Also, I wrote multiple procedures, which forced me to write in a technical manner I had never previously done before. That took a little getting used to, but I was very proficient at it by the end. My on-the-job experience has completely changed and grown my knowledge about SCADA systems and cybersecurity as a whole. I always viewed SCADA systems as an old system used in factories or power companies and cybersecurity as something to secure networks. Now that I have used cybersecurity to secure and monitor components as part of system that is continually monitored, I now understand a whole new world of cybersecurity that was foreign to me just a few months ago. My understanding of cybersecurity as a whole has changed and grown dramatically, as I see it as so much more than just keeping people from hacking into networks and that is all because of the knowledge and experienced I gained while interning at the Newport News Shipyard.
ODU Curriculum
As mentioned in the last section, ODU had prepared me mostly for network-based cybersecurity. I learned how to hack into a network and how to keep others from hacking in. I also learned the basics of cybersecurity in an organization, such as the CIA triad, vulnerability assessments, and how to use Linux. My internship focused more on physical components and how to secure the images of the components. After securing them as much as possible, whether that be through firewall rules, STIGs, VAs, or penetration testing, we would then continually monitor them and update them with new security patches To be honest, ODU had not really prepared me for this work. I had learned some about it and about cyber hygiene, but nothing to this extent. The little I learned about SCADA systems and the good bit I learned about programming turned out to be extremely useful, but besides that, it felt like I was having to learn everything from scratch. One of the things that ODU did prepare me for, is how to write procedures. I have taken classes where I had to problem solve and then document how I did it along with screenshots. This is almost the exact same process I had to go through when writing procedures. This experience really enforced what I had learned in school. However, I never had to hack, penetration test, create firewall rules, or monitor a network while interning, so those skills did not connect to my skills used on the job. I did multiple Nessus scans, STIG reviews, SCAP scans, and used benchmarks to create golden images. Most if not all of these skills and techniques I was not previously familiar with and revealed new concepts that I have not yet encountered in school.
Initial Goals Met
My first and greatest desire of the internship was to learn what cybersecurity looks like in an actual business setting. As I explained, all the work I have done has had assignments and instructions to go along with it and has been done in virtual environments where nothing can go wrong. I wanted to learn what real cybersecurity looked like and how it is used within a business, especially such a unique business as the Newport News Shipyard. I was not at all disappointed. I worked in E70, which is the engineering department of cybersecurity, where we worked on securing and monitoring system components that will be on the future aircraft carriers, as well as updating the images used for the components on the current carriers. Department T51 is where the more typical cybersecurity is done and they defend the company’s network, but I still got exposed to real-world cybersecurity used in an organization. I got to see a side of cybersecurity I had never seen before, learn about new technologies, software, and processes, learn how the military used cybersecurity, and see how it interacts in the business world. I got to do meaningful work on real components and that had actual impacts, as well as make procedures and create databases that real information would be stored and manipulated on. This experience has definitely helped to show me which direction I want to go in career wise and it has given me that invaluable experience that I could never had attained by only attending college classes. So, my first goal was definitely accomplished.
My second goal was to learn how cybersecurity interacts with the Navy and their ships. Since I was able to work at a shipyard for the last two and a half months, this goal was accomplished every day. Over the course of ten weeks, I was able to work with, learn about, and work on different components used on the aircraft carriers, as well as take classes to learn how the different ships work and the different components within the ships. My group alone worked with about 5 components critical to the nuclear propulsion of the aircraft carriers and I was able to work with other engineers who designed components for the ships. For example, I was able to work on an image for one of our components and work with the engineers upstairs who built the image and got to be in a class to see how that specific component was used on the ship. Also, I was able to sit in or listen to a lot of conversations my superiors were having with our point of contacts in the Navy, our customer. They would also explain to me what was going on and I was able to edit letters before they were sent to the Navy. This same process happened often with different components and different conversations. So, my goal of learning how cybersecurity interacts with the Navy and their ships was definitely fulfilled.
My last goal was to work with and use actual and proprietary software that is only accessible by organizations as large and important as the Newport News Shipyard. Once again, this goal was met. As previously mentioned, I was able to use software on the job to secure and monitor systems and components that I have never used before. For instance, in order to create a STIG checklist, one must acquire a working image of a system or software, use a program called SCAP to scan the image against a benchmark to create a golden image, then use the output file in STIG Viewer, to create a STIG checklist. Within that one process, I was using two or three new pieces of software and I was doing that on my first day. Over the next ten weeks, I used Microsoft programs I never had access to before, as well as other programming and cybersecurity programs I had never even seen before. I was able to use Wireshark and Microsoft Word on the job, which I had prior experience with, but besides that, most of the software I used was new to me and specific to the work done by the Shipyard for the Navy, due to their strict regulations and guidelines.
Source of Motivation
My time with the PPPY squad of department E70 was so much fun. I was expecting to come into a stuffy quiet office, with a bunch of older guys wearing suits, and have a miserable time. Instead, I was able to meet and interact with some of the nicest, smartest, and surprisingly funniest people I have ever met. Although we had a lot of work to do, some of which was very serious and pressing, I still found myself laughing so hard at times that I was crying. The most motivating aspect of my internship was by far the people I was able to work with and the atmosphere I was able to work in every day. I was excited to come to work because I knew I had meaningful work to do, objectives to accomplish, and great people to hang out with. We would have breakout sessions where we just talk about whatever and I was able to learn so much about the Shipyard and life in general. These talks made the day go by so much faster, and it made the work more enjoyable. The people and the meaningful work were the two most exciting and motivating aspects of the internship, and it makes me look forward to returning to hopefully a co-op position and eventually a fulltime position after college.
Source of Discouragement
While the people were fun, the atmosphere was energetic, and a lot of the work meaningful, the most discouraging aspects of the internship was how specific the work was. I consider the procedures I made and the databases I created to be meaningful to my team, but overall, the work they do is very specific. There are entire teams dedicated to securing and monitoring one single laptop, or a few cameras, or two monitor screens. While each of these components are necessary, the work involved around them just feels very specific and at times insignificant. I know that sounds like a contradiction to my prior statement, that the work felt meaningful, but what I mean is, the work I did was meaningful, but it was going toward hyper specific onbjectives. I came into the internship wanting to secure networks and hack into components, but instead spent my weeks assisting the team in writing papers or securing very specific components. Due to the nature of our overall purpose and work, the work became a little discouraging at times, leaving me board or even without work for days on end. The people helped me make it through those times, but it was still discouraging to not have anything important to do or anything at all to do.
Most Challenging Aspects
The most challenging aspects of my internship was the acronyms, sharp learning curve, and the demand placed on me to problem solve. Firstly, both the Shipyard and the Navy speak a different language than I am accustomed to. They speak in acronyms and lots of them. Sometimes, their acronyms are made up of different acronyms, which makes things especially confusing. I found myself writing down every new acronym I heard in my journal and did my best to always ask the definition of something I did not know or was unfamiliar with. I was able to understand more and more as the internship went on but even on my last week I still felt completely lost while listening to some conversations. There were times that I wanted to help or add to a discussion, but I was unable to do due to my lack of acronym knowledge. That was a very challenging aspect of the internship to get used to.
Secondly, besides having to learn a ton of acronyms, there was an overall sharp learning curve. On day one, I had already filled pages of my notebook up with information. I was going over PowerPoints, learning the name of components, processes, supervisors, and how everything works. I was basically sat in front of a firehose of information and forced to take it all in quickly at once. What made it even more challenging, is that my coworkers expected me to retain most if not all of the information being thrown at me. I was given random oral tests to test my knowledge, starting on day one. I did many of these throughout my time there and though I did learn a lot and am much more knowledgeable because of it, I have to admit it was challenging to get used to the fast and frequent influx of knowledge and it made for a sharp learning curve.
Lastly, there was a great demand on me to problem solve, especially after they figured out what I could do. For example, I was given a task to fix this major problem they were having with their database, that was affecting the program they used the most. The database was written in a language I had never used and was written by someone who was going to be out that entire week and they put it on my plate to learn the language, figure out what was going wrong, and fix it before he came back. Needless to say, this was very challenging. Similar events like this happened throughout my time where I was given a problem and had to research other aspects of the problem before I could even tackle the main problem. I learned how to effectively problem solve and use the knowledge of others, but it was challenging and took a while to get used to it.
Recommendations For Sure Interns
I have very conflicting advice for any future intern who wishes to intern for the PPPY squad, in department E70 of Newport News Shipyard. My first piece of advice would be to become very proficient at a specific aspect of cybersecurity. Yes, it is very helpful to have a large basin of knowledge about many different aspects of cybersecurity, but in order to excel and succeed, you need to be able to sell yourself as someone who is very good at a specific task. I learned that everyone there is good at multiple things, but they all have a specialty that makes them invaluable and more importantly irreplaceable. You need to bring something to the table that is irreplaceable, because the people that work in E70 are extremely smart and know how to do a lot of things because some of them have been working there for longer than I have been alive. So, pick a few languages or skills and become very proficient at them so you can market yourself accordingly. On the other hand, be ready to learn a lot and do not think or act as if you know it all.
Regardless of your specialty, always assume that the person you are talking to knows more about something than you do and make it your goal to learn. Cybersecurity has so many faces and is a very broad word. You will never be able to know everything there is to know about cybersecurity and will be constantly learning new things, especially in a new group such as the PPPY squad, where they are still trying to figure out exactly how they need to tackle problems. So, be willing to listen and learn, take good notes, and pay attention. This alone will take you farther than any amount of skill you can obtain from college. Lastly, learn how and prepare to network like crazy,
In a place like the Newport News Shipyard, where there are hundreds of departments and even more jobs and opportunities, you need to network to be successful You need to learn people’s names, their positions, their specialties, and you need to become good friends with them. Something I learned is that things move slow in the Shipyard and if you do not know anyone who has enough influence or power to speed up certain processes, you will spend a lot of time waiting. So become good friends with the people you work with, you supervisors, other high-ranking officials, very smart individuals, system admins, and even the janitors, because you never know when you are going to need someone to help you out and it might even land you a better job. Truly, it is not what you know, it is who you know, so if you want to be successful, network.
Conclusion
I loved and am extremely grateful for my internship experience. I was truly able to learn a lot. A lot about the Navy, military, ships, cybersecurity, and life. I was able to receive on the job experience and training unique to the Shipyard and I was able to get my hands dirty with actual cyber related work. I would do it all over again and do not regret my time spent interning at the Shipyard. I would say some of the biggest things I learned are the following: I learned it matters who you work with just as much as what you do, I learned the importance of note taking and networking, and I learned how to problem solve like never before. My main take away thoughts from my experience are that I loved my time working for the shipyard, I am glad that I was moved to the department I was moved to, and I hope I can come back and work with the same people full-time.
This internship experience has greatly influenced the remainder of my college time. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, I now know what interests me. I have had hands on experience with some of the processes I have learned about while at ODU and I now know what I want to continue to learn about and what bores me. This will affect what classes I take and what topics I pay special attention to me. Also, it will help me succeed in college. Before, when learning about new concepts, I just had to read the book, listen to the lecture, maybe try it out virtually, and them move on. This does not really provide the necessary experience to truly learn the topic. Now that I have such experience, I will hopefully be able to grasp certain concepts better and understand much more of the material, more in depth than ever before. Lastly, my manager told me a few classes to take that would be extremely useful, and he told me what not to take, as it would be a waste of time. I was planning on gaining certificates through ODU and potentially going on to get a Master’s degree, but I was informed that the Newport News Shipyard would pay for my certifications when I got back and that a Master’s degree would not be that helpful in my field. Knowing this will greatly affect how I spend the rest of my time at ODU.
This internship experience will have a profound influence on my future professional path and planning. I did not know how much I would actually enjoy doing cybersecurity or how much I would enjoy working for the Newport News Shipyard, but now I know that I enjoy doing both. Also, I have already been offered a full-time position where I was working at once I have gradated college. That was made possible by my internship. I also learned about different opportunities at the Shipyard as well as different government opportunities that are available to me. Once I have some time underneath my belt at the Shipyard, these opportunities will become readily available to me and will allow me to move up or change jobs. I learned about these opportunities and possibilities while working at my internship. Lastly, something that will have a major impact on future planning for my career, is the importance of people and what you do over how much you make. I would love to make a lot of money to be able to support my family and live comfortably, but after interning for ten weeks and hearing stories from my coworkers, I realize how important a good work environment is along with meaningful work. Money can not make someone happy, but those things can. I will keep this in great consideration as I plan my career.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time interning for the PPPY squad at the Newport News Shipyard. I was able to learn to so much about cybersecurity and maritime engineering, while gaining specialized knowledge and experience that would be hard to find at any other business in VA. I loved the people I worked with and was able to meet some special characters like Larry, who taught me so much about governemnt work and life. I was able to find what path of cybersecurity I want to continue down and what I want to stay away from. Lastly, I have been setup with a full-time job because of this internship, which takes a lot of stress off of me, especially in the current economy that we live in. I would like to thank ODU for preparing me for the internship and playing a large part in me obtaining it and I look forward to obtaining my degree in May of next year and to start my career as a shipbuilder.
Works Cited
“About Newport News Shipbuilding.” Newport News Shipbuilding, 12 May 2020, https://nns.huntingtoningalls.com/who-we-are/.
“Brand-Newport-News-Shipbuilding.” Huntingtoningalls, Huntington Ingalls Industries , https://huntingtoningalls.com/media_category/brand-logo/. Accessed 3 Aug. 2022.