Instrumentation & Control Engineering Intern Review

The job position I got into is split into 3 main technical categories, which I will refer to as A, B and C. I applied to the internship to gain experience in a specific subject, B, but was put into a job role that did not have any opportunities in B. It only allowed exposure to A. I voiced my concerns that I had absolutely no training in A, and would like more support and possibly do projects skewed towards B. However, my concerns were not addressed, I was stuck with the projects they first set me and had very little support, which was really disappointing. They said that they would not put you out of your depth; this was not true in my case. The work I did was not very interesting, I mainly had to read standards, send emails, call vendors and let them tell me about their proposals and then assimilate something to show to the engineers, basically like a technical secretary. I did not feel challenged, and I did not use the technical knowledge I gained from my course in uni. It was a struggle to motivate myself to do projects that I was not interested in. Also, the flow of work is extremely slow, things you expect to be finished in 2 weeks, takes months or years.

Some of my colleagues were very kind. You can approach anyone, provided that you can get a hold of them, since they are all so busy. Some of them have preconceived ideas about the outcome of something, and it has been interesting to convince them otherwise. I was also patronised by some of my colleagues.

For my summer internship, a lot of the staff had holidays during this period. My technical mentor was away half the time, due to personal reasons. When he was here, he was very busy with a big project he was working on. He mentioned that it was intentional to not give a lot of supervision. I had to scramble to get the information I needed. I did not know what the required formal group practice was in order to progress my projects or how to unpick proposals. So I had to ask someone else for general guidance. Due to the lack of support I received, they made my life a lot more stressful. It was very frustrating that they made it so difficult for me to complete just simple straightforward tasks and procedures.

The distribution of work was very uneven, when you first contact the vendors, you go through a very quite phase. Once they start getting back to you, and you start assimilating the information it gets busy in a small burst. Then it goes back to being very slow...

Responsible for my projects, which are issues that have been around for years, and no one else has had the time to address them.

Teaches me to get work done even if I don’t like it. Does not assist in my degree.

Not much goes on in the office, quite quiet, people sit infront of their computers and pick up the phone.

Did not have information on accomodation, transport and dress code prior to start of internship. Structured for mid-term review after 4 weeks and final review at the 8th week, but did not cover competencies in mid-term review and focused heavily on competencies in final review, which was an awkward arrangement. Structure did not allow for vendor holiday periods, where no response can be attained. Poor social life.

Had presentational skills training, invested a lot, and adequate arrangements.

The group encourages you to openly point out safety concerns, but my experience suggests otherwise. The pace of work is very slow and inflexible structure.

I was on site with 1 other intern. The other colleagues all lived in different locations and goes home to family after work.

Average cost of living. Not much socialising :'(

Poor.

Arranged for my weekend trips.