Mechanical Engineering Intern Review

I enjoyed my placement more than I thought I would.

Everyone within the business made me feel welcome, with the exception of no one. Everyone had time to help me no matter how busy they seemed.

If ever I had a query, however mundane, my manager as well as my company mentor were happy to answer my question or point me in the direction of someone who could help.

This Varied a great deal, I had lots of tasks on, but a lot of tasks involved me waiting on others, where the work I was giving them was not high up their priority list, so sometimes I had periods of waiting on others.

Towards the end of my placement my level of responsibility picked up, with me being given lead roles on projects and being trusted with company vehicles and making site visits on my own.

The work that I have undertaken, and the amount of responsibility and space I have been given this year has helped me to change, for the better, the way I approach work, and hopefully this will continue into my studies and then future work beyond education.

The atmosphere within the office was very good. People willing to help each other at every opportunity. A good level of banter between all of the employees with the boundary never being crossed. As well as the banter though there was obviously an excellent ethic towards work with the work-break balance being executed excellently.

Other than IT credentials and door access to the necessary departments when I arrived, no access to other systems which I would need to use to carry out my work had been granted, as well as there being no exact work plan for me when I arrived. This changed quickly though with tasks coming in thick and fast once I had settled and had been introduced to other members of the department that were capable of giving me work.

I was allowed to undertake an electrical machines and drive fundamentals course which considered of a three hour lecture each week for 20 weeks with homework also. These lectures were funded by the company as well as the time allowed for me to take the course and complete the homework being allowed during company hours.

The future employment prospects within the organisation are very optimistic, with the company running a number of different graduate schemes within the business all relating to different areas of focus, from HR to engineering. Employees that have worked for the company before usually benefit especially if they have done work previously with a year in industry and the company manager was pleased with their performance.

The social scene within fellow interns was strong. Interns met up outside of work on a weekly, sometimes daily basis, with there being 10 interns in total within the business on site. Sports games were also played on some lunchtimes between the other interns as well as other colleagues and graduates getting involved. The group of us quickly became a tightly knit group of friends.

The cost of living and socialising, with the town being a reasonably small town but not too popular, was very good. Rent came at a very competitive rate to what I had been paying at university, and I could do my weekly food shopping for £20, and I would say I eat a reasonable amount of food.

The nightlife in the area I have been working is very bad. With the town being a reasonably small town, there were very few numbers of bars, with the average age of the occupants in these bars being much older than me. No nightclubs were open as long as I would have hoped.

The company had posts up all around site with details of activities that went on within the community that employees might be interested in getting involved with, as well as details of when and where these activities occurred and also a contact in order to get themselves involved with said activity.