Undergraduate Engineer Review

My placement was both interesting and rewarding. I got the chance to work on great cars and was given enough responsibility to apply what I'd learned at university and during previous placements. My team was extremely helpful and friendly and provided excellent support. There were however some times when the workload was too light and I didn't have much to do.

I found that my teammates gave me more than sufficient value for an undergraduate. I was given important roles and responsibilities and was put in charge of roles an engineer would usually be in charge of. This was helped by the fact that I had done a previous placement at JLR and was already familiar with most of the processes and with many of my colleagues.

Managers were usually very busy so there wasn't much contact with my manager himself. However he was always willing to help if approached about anything and always assisted when a manager was needed to do a task or support with my work. My mentor and team mates were extremely supportive so help was always available when needed.

The amount of workload I had varied a lot between each week and the other. Some periods were extremely busy and I had work to do every hour of the day, while some times were less busy and I found it difficult to occupy my time. Although I was more often busy than bored.

I found I was given a significant amount of responsibility by my manager/colleagues. It was a busy summer for my department and all extra hands were welcome. This meant I was given several important responsibilities to ease the workload. My colleagues also ensured I had enough responsibilities to ensure I got a full experience of the business.

Through the work itself I developed some useful professional skills and grew my technical knowledge. I learned a lot about the component I was working on and by working with other teams I learned a little about other parts and functions as well. There was plenty of training available to sign up for including technical training, software training, and personal skill courses.

Most JLR offices are open plan offices that greatly encouraged interaction between colleagues. Senior management sat at the same desks as employees and everyone's desk was in sight so communication was excellent. The atmosphere was tense due to the workload at the time but everyone was still very friendly and always up for a laugh so the general atmosphere was alright. However facilities at my specific office were poor which affects this aspect.

There was a general structure to the placement that included an induction period, scheduled online training, and a review process in the end. The rest of the placement was up to the team and manager you ended up with. Some had a defined project with milestones while others had a bulk of work to be done over the 3 months with no set structure.

The company takes on hundreds of undergraduates and graduates every year. There is a vast selection of training course available including online training, class-type courses, and driver training, so there's always a chance to learn new skills. Management is also very supportive of employees taking time away from the office to take on training and try to ensure that we're continuously developing.

The graduate scheme at JLR would be a great option for starting off after university. I've spoken to many current/previous graduates who went through the scheme and all reviews are very positive. It pays well for a graduate scheme and has an interesting structure where graduates move between departments in 3 month intervals allowing experience in several parts of the business.

Many of the undergraduates stayed in/around Coventry, where there was a great social scene. Most of us met each other during induction and there was always something to do and plenty of people to socialize with and organize nights out and events. There was also an undergraduate and graduate forum that held events and socials for undergraduates who dont live together to network and get to know each other better.