Project Intern Review

I feel I did not reach my full potential as when I arrived in the company they were not prepared for me and did not have work for me to do. Throughout the internship I feel I was given odd jobs to fill my time so I wasn't able to get fully stuck into anything. I wasn't really put in a department so I didn't get as involved as I would have liked.

I wasn't really put into a department and when I did some work for them I wasn't invited to team briefs etc. so I didn't really get to know them. I felt I was more of a burden when I asked for help than a valued member of the team. Part of this may have been due to the type of work I was given (to ask them why orders were late)

I didn't have one point of contact to begin with and when I did, my manager was moving between two role so he was extremely busy and I found it difficult to get his support. I only really had that one point of contact to go to for support as I had a supervisor but he was not involved in any of the project work so it was difficult for him to give me any sort of guidance or help.

To begin with I was not busy at all. The company was not prepared for me so had no work lined up (there were 4 other interns under the same management so we all struggled in the beginning.) Although we all asked for project work and explained our issues they were reluctant to give us projects as they had not been assessed properly. After this I became more busy with day to day jobs and running reports (which at first they tried to avoid as they wanted the interns working on projects rather than day to day jobs but gave up with this idea as the projects were not sufficient.)

Towards the end I was creating deliveries for customers which is a big responsibility (although this was only small and straight forward customers because I was only supporting the team while they waited for two new full timers to start so I wasn't given full training.) I had a lot of responsibility in analyzing data, running reports, setting up and running meetings as well as creating and writing processes.

Although the placement was not as expected and I felt like my time could have been better used, I did learn a lot. I have worked a lot with excel and SAP due to the reports I have ran so these are definitely transferable to other role and companies. I also had a lot of personal development as we received 4 days worth of training on this and I was able to take it back to work with me, for example how to be more proactive, communicating with colleagues etc. I had started the job without any experience in this kind of environment (I have had part time jobs but not on this level of emailing / meeting / deadlines etc.) So I have learn a lot about professionalism and the work environment which will help me a lot in the future.

The office was a nice place, everyone was very friendly and willing to help. There was a more relaxed atmosphere than I expected, you can take breaks whenever you feel like you need to, or listen to music, it is up to you what you do to get your work done. But there is also a lot of gossiping about other people which I would expect from any office.

It was really unorganized. There is a central department who is responsible for the interns, they look after the training and review forms. (As there were 30 interns under this department as well as many more apprentices and graduates.) Each intern is put into a department, in my case there were 5 of us under one area, projects. At first the idea was to get us on projects which would mean moving between affected departments and interacting with many people. This did not go as planned because the projects lined up lacked clarity and structure, so often I started things that didn't end up going anywhere (which understandable is the nature of project work but I was not able to deliver anything). At the start for a long time there was a lot of not doing anything and they could have fit training into that time so we would have been ready to work sooner. Eventually the 5 of us had specific managers and were put into departments to do projects and day to day work within that one department. This was better but because I had joined my team so late into the placement I didn't really feel part of it and they didn't see me as a team member either. The company tried to do something different with the 5 of us interns but they were not organised or committed to running it so it fell through, had they had structured it better then it may have worked.

I had the opportunity to go to 4 training days about my personal development using Franklin Coveys 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I felt this was really useful and the skills I learnt I was able to take back to work with me, as I will be able to use back at uni and work in the future.

Siemens as a company are very good to their employees and because of the size of the business there are many different areas you can go into. Although I may have had a more negative experience at this site, there are many more places that I believe will be different, for example the office environment as this can different between departments.

There were a lot of interns between the two sites and some of us were moving to the city for the year so were able to house share. We have found that previously interns are not as close as they are so submerged in there department (which was the case for some) but as many of us were living together we were able to get to know a lot of people. We organised a Christmas meal and a leaving do, as well as many casual plans for weekends. Nothing could have made the social side of the placement any better.

As Lincoln is a student city I was able to move into a student house with other interns. The prices are average and there are many student events going on. Although it is not a big city, there is enough to keep you busy for they year and there is a lot of people your own age to socialise with.

Lincoln isn't a big city and coming from Newcastle Uni the nightlight is quite different. But surprisingly there are a number of different clubs to go to so you at least have a bit of a choice. Prices vary depending on the night, there are mid week student nights and student nights on a Friday, Saturday is more pricey but there are still cheaper options.

I'm aware they have a football club that many of the interns are involved in. There is a lot of volunteering opportunities, for example I have volunteered at a careers fair as well as an internal company event. They also offer school visits and community project work so there is a lot on offer.