Applications Engineer Review

NI UK and Ireland has received the award for being in the top 50 best work places in the entire UK for six years now, and with very good reason. The culture of the colleagues is just as valuable as the work on the placement itself.

The work force at NI UK is very well described as one big family.

Support and guidance was always present when we needed it, but a big part of the placement was the idea of self drive and self learning - I had the flexibility to learn about what interested me and work toward the goals in those fields rather than being regimented on a strict program of learning.

There were times during the year that got busy and other times that were quite relaxed, just like university. During the busy times you really learnt how to manage time and prioritise what was actually important and what wasn't.

During my time in the Marketing Department I really was running my own show, with goals I had help creating by myself which lead to a great deal of satisfaction. As an applications engineer things were very similar, bu goals were set more by customer needs.

This placement year has been more valuable to my development as a person than my past 3 years in university.

Again, referencing the 50 best places to work in the UK award for six years running, the atmosphere was great. As an undergraduate, it was very nice to work in a deprtment where all of work force were still in there 20's.

The internship program is a well oiled, tried and tested machine at NI UK. We even had some cross over time with the previous year's interns which was very beneficial and let us swap a lot of experience and opinions.

I have been put through training in engineering and programming completely free of charge, that would have cost nearing £20,000 if I had waited until after university. During the entire year, the training and learning never stops, and the more experienced full-timers still say the same of there job positions.

I have already been given a scholarship to return to university as well as fully paid work the following summer break.

Yes, and not only down the pub. We got up to loads of different things on the weekends, including all the usuals like paintballing and go karting, and even traveled around the country to different night-life hot spots.

Newbury was remarkably expensive in comparison to my home town - Cardiff, and even that atracts the costs of living in a capital city. My rent went up 50% for a place half the size of where I moved from, and the cost of beer and food also rose around 50%. Being so close to the M4 motorway, we often escaped Newbury on the weekends.

Again, in comparison to having moved from Cardiff, prices were high and choice low. But there was enough to enjoy.

Yes there were many. We even attempted the three peaks challenge one weekend.