DN Tanks Co-op Program Helps Build Next Generation of Civil Engineers
Main photo: Ed Holmes (right) at a DN Tanks’ job site.
DN Tanks, a national water and wastewater specialty contractor that designs and builds prestressed concrete tanks for liquid storage, sees its co-op program, which began nearly 50 years ago, as an investment in young civil engineers who contribute to its business and will make a positive impact on the next generation of civil engineers.
Since becoming a co-op partner in the 1970s, DN Tanks has helped scores of civil engineering students by offering work experiences, technical and leadership training, full-time jobs, co-op scholarships, and three annually awarded endowed scholarships for Northeastern students from underrepresented communities.
“The co-op program has been an essential part of our company’s planned workforce capacity,” says Ed Holmes, E’87, civil engineering, and director of technical training and development at DN Tanks. Holmes started at DN Tanks as a co-op student and is now in his 37th year. “We love the win-win relationship where the students get real-world experience, and DN Tanks gets hard-working students with innovative ideas.”
Since 1975, the company has hired nearly 250 Northeastern co-op students, and more than three dozen have been hired as full-time employees. It has awarded 40 students internal scholarships since the scholarship program started in 2008. DN Tanks believes its relationship with Northeastern has fueled its significant growth. In the early years, it hired one or two students each year, and it now hires about 12 annually, or between five and seven per six-month co-op session. While most students choose to work in the Wakefield, Massachusetts office, others have taken assignments in the Dallas or San Diego operations centers or on project sites.
The co-op program has been smart for business by creating a talent pipeline, bringing stability to the hiring process, and allowing for effective allocation of staff resources, Holmes says. “We give them opportunities to demonstrate their skills and abilities,” he says of the co-ops. “Some really stand out above others, and they often get full-time job offers from us, in some cases even while they are still in school.”
An established co-op talent pool offsets the risk that can sometimes come with a broader pool of job candidates. “Depending on the state of the economy, we might get good, solid candidates and we might not,” Holmes says of hiring outside of the co-op program. “With a co-op student who has already worked here for six months, we eliminate a lot of the hiring risks because our managers already know what they can expect. The advantage for the students is that they have time to assess our culture and the career opportunities to confirm we’re a good fit for them.”
The program has also provided staffing stability for managers because they can count on co-ops throughout the calendar year. “It’s just become part of our overall business process,” Holmes says. “We can rely on talented students coming every six months.”
DN Tanks trains its co-ops with the intent to assign real work as quickly as possible. This approach not only helps the students with their career development, but it also provides opportunity for our full-time engineers to delegate and take on higher level responsibilities.
One key success factor to the DN Tanks co-op program is its willingness to invest time in a student’s success. From the interview process forward, the managers help co-op students thrive just as if they are full-time employees.
Catherine Yates, E’25, civil engineering, recently completed a co-op at DN Tanks and is one of its scholarship recipients. During her interview process, she spoke with several department leaders, many of whom were former Northeastern students who had completed co-ops at DN Tanks.
“They had such an appreciation for the co-op experience,” Yates says. “The first co-op can be scary, but the way they handled it was really comforting,” Yates says.
Students work directly with designated co-op managers to learn technical and leadership skills. Additionally, Holmes facilitates monthly leadership meetings for co-ops, providing an opportunity for them to network and problem solve together.
“From the very first monthly meeting, I tell the students that they are already leaders. They don’t get into Northeastern University without leading themselves at a very high level.”
In 2008, DN Tanks began an internal scholarship program that currently provides three, $3,000 scholarships every six months to recognize students for their outstanding work during the term. The award is also designed to promote writing and public speaking skills for young engineers, so students are required to submit an essay and make a presentation to be considered. Because of these requirements, the process tends to put a spotlight on the hardest working students. d. “Some students will really put in the extra time to submit high quality essays.” Holmes adds. “It’s been a way for us to identify the strongest performers.”
There have been 40 internal scholarship winners from Northeastern University. The company has also established three endowed Northeastern scholarships, the first of which was designated for Black engineering students and set up in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death in 2020. “We wanted to do something, and our employees suggested we work with our university partners and help students from underrepresented communities,” Holmes says.
A second endowed scholarship was created for women engineering students and a third was set up for Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) students.
“It’s a real focus to make sure we are giving back to our community and the students,” Holmes added.