Product Management Review

I really enjoyed my work placement in Product Management over the past 12 months, both from a personal and professional perspective. Everyone in the office is extremely approachable and happy to help, this made everyday an enjoyable experience. In addition to this, it was a great learning experience as I could tailor my placement in the direction I wanted it to go.

I felt very valued by my colleagues, especially as time went on and people started giving me more responsibility. Even though this is a placement, people treat you like a real colleague and look to you for help and guidance. Colleagues value your contribution to the business and the impact you make day to day.

The work environment is extremely supportive and you manager wants to see you grow. At the start of placement I received a lot of support and guidance, my manager was always happy to spend time with me explaining anything I had difficulties with. This was extremely beneficial at the start to get me up to speed. As the placement went on I didn't need to receive as much guidance as I became very autonomous in my work and people trusted me to the job. Nonetheless, if I ever had a question managers would be help me.

Due to the nature of the product management role I was involved in big projects over a long course of time rather than small urgent daily tasks. This meant that it was up to me to organise my time effectively to get projects completed by the deadline. Consequently, I had periods that were quite relaxed while others were stressful. This made the job very interesting as I enjoyed the variation.

My responsibility increased as the placement went on. At the start, the business gave me smaller projects so that I could understand processes and structures. However, as I gained knowledge and trust from my colleagues bigger projects were assigned to me. I felt that my responsibility increased if I asked for it, it wasn't going to come to me, I had to be proactive about looking for bigger tasks.

Eaton has extremely good training throughout the year covering soft skills such as time management, project management and presentation skills. These training days were very interactive as most of them involved working on group projects with interns from other sites. From a skills perspective I think it is more about the mindset and maturity that you develop over the year that will help both at University and my future career.

The office atmosphere was fantastic, everyone is happy. Nonetheless, the office hit a good balance between work and fun.The office atmosphere really changes depending on where you worked. For example, the R&D department was a lot more focused and quiet whereas the product management team was more talkative and fun.

The structure of the overall work placement was very well organised as Eaton has been taking on interns for numerous years now. My role however was new to the site, this meant that I had a lack of structure, but this is exactly what I wanted. This enabled me to tailor my placement year to where I wanted to go which was very valuable to me. Every intern can do this to some extent because managers are very adaptable to what you want to experience.

Eaton has a very good training scheme in place that organises multiple training days across the UK to help with your development. These training days are very well taught and engaging. From a manager perspective, I think it is in the company culture to invest in you, they want to help you develop and grow.

After having spent a year in the manufacturing industry I am interested to explore other industries to increase my exposure as much as possible. Having said that, Eaton operates in many different industries from electrical to aviation, so I would be keen to explore another part of Eaton in the future.

The other interns were very nice and approachable. As you work with them everyday you get to know them very well by the end of the year. We often did regular activities together from squash to football, but also none sporty activities such as going to the cinema or a night out.

I had to commute to work everyday as the area I worked in was in a small town. However, the town I lived in had a reasonable cost of living. Socialising in the area felt expense at first, but I think that was because i was comparing it to student prices.

Again, as indicated in the previous question the nightlife happened in nearby cities rather than the small town where we worked. The nightlife was surprisingly good even though prices were slightly higher than at University. In addition, the other interns and I often traveled to different nearby cities for nightlife, that variety was enjoyable.

At my office there are typically 3 events (often sports related) organised a year, these vary from casual football to workout classes. However, I would still suggest that most of the opportunities to get involved outside work happen between interns instead of work related events. Outside work with the interns all the usual actives you would find in cities are available.