Summer Intern Review

I had a very enjoyable time there, and the team were always on hand to answer my questions (in detail) and I was treated as an equal. This year I had a completely different line manager and team and I still had as good a time as last year, LR strives to make the workplace an enjoyable environment.

The work my colleagues gave me was genuinely important to the success of their projects and the fact they trusted me with it obviously made me feel valued, rather than other placements I have had where I was Chief Coffee Fetcher. Alongside this, I was often invited sit in on important client meetings (if it was OK'd beforehand) and also asked for my opinion on the matters that evolved during the meeting.

I was not only given support by my direct line manager, but was also supported by just about every other manager within the vicinity. Despite not being their intern, they were more than happy to offer support and ideas with the projects I was undertaking, and always eager to let me get in on any of the work they were doing at that time, and explain it thoroughly.

Based on the supportive culture, I was monitored to make sure I was not undertaking too much work, and reached a happy medium in terms of business. Personally, I prefer to be more busy than less busy, so my happy medium may seem rather busy to others, but I always had something to do, let's put it that way.

Due to me not being qualified there's only so much responsibility I can take on, but I was assigned one project to complete for a completely different department that incurred a high level of responsibility (non-engineering) so I was pleased. Despite not being allowed to carry out the more detailed engineering design appraisals, I was always given detailed commentary on what the engineers were doing.

I feel I am far more equipped than many engineers in my year who did not do internships for a career in both technical and commercial divisions. The training helped me piece together how I should structure my career so I can be where I want to in 5-10 years time, and will give me ample amounts to talk about in any future interviews. I learnt both soft and hard skills via the training and the scheme was very structured to ensure interns receive these skills.

The structure in the office was incredibly flat, and I would often find myself in casual conversation with employees over a coffee only to find out later he or she was the vice president of this and the chairman of that. This lead to a very laid-back or "LR" atmosphere where anyone can approach anyone and resulted in a very enjoyable place to work. Compared to other companies, it was certainly more enjoyable.

The HR department strives to make sure it is extremely organised. Upon starting we were given a detailed timetable of talks from senior management and engineers from all disciplines to ensure we were learning as much about the company as possible during the 8 weeks we had. There was never a moment when we wondered what we should be doing.

Despite not being part of the actual internships, one of the senior employees took it upon himself to offer valuable training sessions on group cohesion and effective project management, which will be extremely useful for future projects at university and beyond in my career. In terms of career development, much information was given on the possible avenues to explore and how to reach your career goals.

Obviously they want the investment in their interns to pay off, so actively try and hire interns into their graduate scheme. Indeed many of the graduates, and indeed senior management, infact even the CEO , was a product of the internship scheme. Once you make it off the graduate scheme, there are various teams you can join in the company based on whether you want to be a technical expert or more of a project leader.

Obviously being london there was an awful lot to do.

Being a northerner, I continue to be baffled at how ridiculously expensive it is to live in London. Although in saying that, the salary is enough so that you can afford to rent should your parents not live in london, and HR are always on hand to offer suggestions of places to rent. Personally I wanted to live near walking distance of the office, and being London there was always places available.

In my first Summer I caught it at just the right time as LR was hosting a sailing trip in southampton for all employees and interns were also invited to attend.Being a traditionally marine company they have an abundance of people interested in sailing and a good time was had by all. There was also a company BBQ this year.