Engineer Review

The engineering summer internship was within the Fleet Development Team, in Derby (Civil Aerospace). Although on the whole the placement was ok, I wouldn't say it was extremely enjoyable, just a standard 9 to 5 style job. The work wasn't particularly inspiring nor did it have a creative aspect, but consisted mainly of administrative tasks and project management.

I felt as though I was just another member of the team. If I had any questions everyone was happy to help, and vice versa. It was however apparent that there was a divide between myself and the rest of the older staff, which makes sense since this was my first internship and clearly lacked experience in a business environment.

I and my manager worked very closely, I ran things by him constantly to check I wasn't making any mistakes. Although at times he was very busy (was only able to see him once a day), whenever he was present he was happy to help answer any queries I had whether it be administrative or work related.

This varied quite a bit, at some points in the placement I was extremely busy and didn't have enough time to finish everything; whilst at other times I found I wasn't under any time pressure. This was as a result of resources (e.g. people) only being available at certain times, having compulsory intern related activities to attend and other training courses.

Since the work was mainly project management (minutes for meetings, using Microsoft project, risk management...) the knowledge gained didn't directly help with my studies which were mainly technical and maths based. However, the skills developed certainly helped with further placements and internships, and in particular the project based coursework during my final year at university.

The atmosphere in the office was rather mundane, it was an open floor with hot-desks, and people generally just got on with their own work (on PC/phone). Meetings were held in specific meeting rooms and so there was little communication between people as to not disturb the rest of them. This meant there were few jokes or non work related conversations which could have affected morale.

As with many of the interns, the organisation of the placement could have been significantly better. Because Rolls Royce take on many students each summer it means very often in particular the IT side of things are poor. Logins for programs or even basic things such as mail access could take weeks to obtain, restricting the ability to get on with the job straight away. Despite this, some other parts of the internship were well organised, such as the events specifically for interns (general knowledge about the company, networking and information about future opportunities).

Rolls Royce generally like to take on students who have done a summer internship with them on the graduate scheme, as they already know how the business functions and don't have to learn the specifics of an entire new company. There is an end of placement performance review where you are ranked based on how well you performed during the internship and if you did well enough the supervisor can recommend you for future employment.

Although the interns are dispersed throughout different buildings in Derby, the intern events (maybe about 3 of them during the 3 months) organised by Rolls Royce meant you were able to meet other similar interns and stay in touch. The particular place I worked have very few interns but those that there were hung out regularly. It was also mentioned that there was a grad/intern/apprenticeship club for sports etc. but there did't seem to be a large attendance.

Instead of renting in Derby, I traveled to work daily, so didn't have to pay accommodation. However, many of the students rented in the university halls/private accommodation and it is relatively cheap because Derby is not a densely populated city. Food is standard cost in shops but the canteens weren't subsidized so were quite pricey. Socialising is relatively cheap because of the location.

Unfortunately, there were little opportunities outside of work, other than organizing something with fellow interns. It didn't seem anyone form the team met outside of work to socialise, so the only options were to meet other students in Derby and go out to town or for a meal. There was a gym which some people went to but the vast majority of people have time to.