Supply Chain Intern Review

I had my frustrations throughout my placement, however I have felt that it has been a valuable and real experience. The placement in the end was worth the effort and wouldn't have been a realistic experience, if I didn't have my frustrations. There are minor things Eaton could do the make the experience better, which is why an 7/10 is a good mark.

The colleagues at Eaton have been some of the nicest and most helpful people I have met. My expectations were that people wouldn't give me the support and time that I received. Everyone at the company is busy, however mostly are happy to help. They valued me as they would do any employee and the responsibility in my workload reflected this.

There is a split between the support and guidance from management and supervisors. My experience is that my line manager was often too busy to help, which is understandable due to his role however I do feel they could've made more time having an intern assigned to them. The supervisors within the department however provided the support and guidance that I needed. There were times where this support and guidance was lacking, especially at the beginning of my placement which is where it was most required.

There were ups and downs in my workload throughout my placement. The lack of workload did frustrate me throughout the first 6 months of my placement, however throughout the majority of my placement I feel I was busy enough and rarely too overworked.

The placement felt like a real job, I was controlling production for the biggest area in the machine shop and writing work instructions that changed the way that people worked throughout the whole site.

Whilst the skills and training I receive I do not think, will be assisting me much in my degree studies, I however do think that these skills will help me throughout my career. I have been developing valuable skills that help me decide what I want in my future career and how to deal with certain situations in the future.

There was a general good atmosphere in the departments that I worked, however there is a strict "This is my job and these are the times I work and I won't do anything outside these lines" mentality. When going for a placement I expected to work more over-time and enter a more competitive environment.

Upon arrival there were a lot of programs I didn't have access to that were crucial to the job I was supposed to be doing. To gain access to these programs it took quite a while, meaning I couldn't do the job I was supposed to. That initial impression was very bad, but then one you get going it did become better and more organised. Sometimes people also didn't know what to do with the intern, which I feel also could've been better. The training days were however very well organised.

There were a lot of training and development opportunities within the company. There were training days and online courses already set up for the placement students and we were always able to ask for further training/development opportunities.

Having interesting graduate schemes and being such a large company, it is appealing to apply for future employment. I do have my frustrations with how things are done and the focuses, however I do feel that is mainly the way my site is rather than the whole organisation

There was a good bond between the fellow placement students/colleagues, however all the interaction was within working hours and rarely any interaction outside working hours with both fellow placement students and colleagues.

The cost of living and socialising is quite bad in the area I worked, due to this fact I resorted to taking the bus daily for 50/60min to be able to live in the city rather than the village. The choice around the site was limited.

As it is a manufacturing site, it was quite isolated which is why the nightlife was non-existent.

There a few opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, such as football, charity events and yoga which are organised by the company. I am sure there are more opportunities though, however I have not looked in this.