Process Safety and Engineering Governance Undergraduate Review

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the working culture at E.ON. I was met with a positive work environment, a friendly atmosphere and a refreshing focus on work-life balance that remains hard to find across the energy industry.

My input was listened to every day and in each team meeting I was encouraged to share my opinion and find my niche by adding value to the team.

My line managers made the effort to guide my progress over the course of ten weeks and kept me thinking about my professional development by regularly setting aside time to review my goals and set objectives in the short period of time I had there.

There was no shortage of engaging work to do. I was presented with multiple options of where I could best apply myself in order to learn and develop new skills and understanding. Joining a relatively new team who had a high turnover of product specific projects, I was given opportunities to gain involvement in several different business areas. Not only did this grant me with a bigger picture of how the company's operations and strategy, but it also provided me with an insight into the internal politics of working within a large organisation.

As an undergraduate engineer I was given high profile projects and even invited to E.ON's headquarters in Germany to present my work at board level.

I am confident that I will be able to look back on my time with E.ON at many future stages in my career and continue to learn from the experiences I have had there. Through feedback from supervisors, colleagues and peers I managed to address a few key concerns I had about my own ability, and hope that I will now be able to conduct myself in a far more effective manner in the future.

The general office environment was open and friendly. The desk layout meant that each team was focused around one central area, facing each other in a manner that encouraged discussion and communication. The open plan office then resulted in colleagues from other teams being easily approachable, further contributing towards a neighborly atmosphere.

The internship was well planned out to the extent that I was consistently assigned meaningful work whilst at the same time it was left open for me to plan out my ten weeks and work towards personal goals alongside team objectives.

Whilst I gained the most from my supervisors and colleagues sharing snippets of wisdom day to day, the company went the extra mile to give me new experiences outwith my comfort zone. I was encouraged to go on as many site visits as I could, whether that was to a state of the art biomass plant in Scotland or a combined heat and power station in central London, I was given opportunities to really understand what makes the energy industry so vital. For my own personal development, I was granted the incredible opportunity to present my work at the company headquarters in Germany, and even got to travel to the site of a large scale climate and renewables wind farm in South Texas!

Any interns or industry placement students who are nearing their final year of study can interview for a place on the grad scheme whilst they are still working for E.ON. This allows students to attend 'fast track' assessment centres that save you having to write a full application to the graduate scheme - relieving a lot of stress for students job hunting during their final year of undergraduate study!

At the beginning of everyone's internships/placements, we were all invited to E.ON UK's Regional Unit headquarters in Coventry to attend an induction day and general meet and greet with various people from throughout the company. It served as a great way to get to know other students in similar roles as ourselves and there was a real emphasis put on keeping in touch to organise social events outside of work. Combining this with group communication pages specifically set up on the company intranet that encouraged us to connect, many formed close friendship groups with the other students in the same cities and nearby areas.

Nottingham is very well established as a student city, with affordable rent and an abundant amount of cheap food and drinks deals that can make pay day stretch far. Enter a few competitions and you might even win half a gallon of ale!

There was no shortage of bars, live music cafe's, clubs and karaoke that made finding a fun place for a staff night out that much easier! If you do a bit of searching and ask around, there are different venues to suit everyones taste.

If you want to join a sports club or get involved in any extracurricular activities, there is plenty happening in the city. To find activities through work, you have to keep your eyes peeled for any news on teams who hold regular events - my supervisor for example, who organises running and yoga weekends a few times every year.