Jeff Dollerschell

By Victoria Farberov, Process Improvement Intern

July 2, 2021

Jeff and Victoria had an interview together to discuss Jeff's past engineering internship with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) in Region 4. 

Can you tell me about your current position? What is your title and your function?

I am currently the resident engineer out of the Sterling residency in northeast Colorado. We have a crew of about 10 people here, between an admin and some techs, and engineers. We do all the design and construction for northeast Colorado. I have been here for two years in this role and prior to that I was a project engineer for 23 years. 

Tell me about your background. What degree did you pursue and from where? What other roles have you had in your career?

I was born and raised on a farm and ranch in a small rural community in southern Colorado. I graduated from Prairie High School in Raymer Colorado. I got my degree, the first 2 years I was at northeastern college and then went on to get my bachelors in civil engineering from Colorado State University. Right out of school I worked as an engineer for Terracon; a testing and geotechnical company. I worked there for about 2 and a half years until a position became open here in Sterling and I have been here ever since. 

Tell me about your internship, what were some projects you worked on?

After my first year at college, my college roommate’s dad was actually the current resident engineer in Sterling. After getting introduced to each other, he mentioned that they had temporary positions that were open for the summer and that they were looking to get young engineering students to fill them. They happened to be doing an overlay asphalt project on highway 14, right through my hometown. It was being run out of the Evans/Greely residency. This is where I worked for the first summer and then I continued on for the next 3 summers as I continued through school. The internship was a great opportunity for me to be able to get engineering experience and also transportation experience close to home. I got my foot into the door at CDOT, met a lot of great people, and gained a lot of knowledge. Thankfully a full time position opened up after I got my degree. 

What are some of the highlights of your internship and why did you continue working at CDOT?

The highlight of the internship was the people I worked with. I got to know a lot of great people that first year out of the Greely area. Being a farm kid I have always loved heavy equipment and being able to get a lot of experience. I worked on some concert paving on the interstate and general construction projects. The work was really interesting and a good time.

How did your internship prepare you for the next steps in your career?

It really gave me a lot of knowledge about engineering. I was taking engineering classes in college, but I didn't really have a clue what engineers did. During the internship I was able to meet a lot of engineers and learn a bit about project management. All of this combined made me want to have a career at CDOT. 

What advice would you give to future interns to maximize their experience at CDOT?

Get your application in! One of the things, as a resident engineer and having had an internship background, I have always looked forward to getting more interns. I think last summer we had 5 interns and this summer we have 3. Being in a remote area in northeast Colorado, we don't have a lot of attraction or draw to get engineers, so we try to get outreach out to the local communities and school and find out if they have kids with civil engineering degrees. And I have reached out with several other engineers in my office and we reach out and try to get those kids some experience, which will help them in the long run. This way, when they graduate they have a little bit of experience and they have some references to put down. My advice to them would be just jump in. Get your application in and come to work. We have had a lot of success with our interns in the last several years. We have had a lot of great kids who have really promising futures as engineers. Hopefully they come back to CDOT or somewhere else within the business, that would be great.  

Final thoughts and comments?

It's a great opportunity being an intern here at CDOT. I like the way CDOT has its internship program structured. Interns have always turned out to be a really good asset to the department.