This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
The work was enjoyable, particularly during the period just after the middle when I was able to move onto more technical and involved tasks. It can be slow to start due to security reasons and waiting for access, but once started the work can move at whatever value you wanted. The surrounding town is not the greatest, however if you are proactive there is a lot to do and the Lake District is very nearby.
Towards the start of the internship, you may feel that you are burdening your team by asking for help, access and advice. However, towards the end of the internship, you can begin to make a real contribution. An employee rating system allows your impact to be reported back to you frequently and you are welcomed by colleagues when you put yourself out there.
This was quite hit and miss. My placement manager was very helpful in setting me up with some tasks and allowed me to get on with what I was doing. He was there to provide assistance when necessary, but due to the nature of work this would not always be immediate. Also, he may not always be up to date with what I was doing such was my independence in performing tasks. My line manager from the early careers department was useful in organising the placement and putting together several meetings. However, much of the support offered was very generic and was not always relevant, lacking a personal touch.
This varied a lot. During the middle third of the placement I was particularly busy, since I had several meetings and was required to do a lot of the independent work for my projects. However, you may have a lot of free time towards the start and end as tasks start and as you begin to wind down. I found that at these points it was important to be proactive and take on some small activities to keep you occupied.
While many of my tasks were not the most important, everything was vital to the overall project. I was particularly involved in one task, where I was the technical lead and source of information by the time that I left the company. This required me to feedback information directly to shareholders.
Practised several skills vital for working, but these had been developed during past experience. Still, it was useful to use these further. Most technical knowledge will not be particularly relevant to my course, however they may form interesting areas of specialism should I wish in the future.
The Company
The office atmosphere was generally quite laid back and you could generally have a chat or tea break with most people if you needed to split up a morning or afternoon. The office may feel slightly more dull if colleagues near you were off or at meetings, but depending on the level of work you had at the time this was generally mitigated against.
Very well set up with very few minor set backs which were corrected very quickly and with little effort from myself.
There was an induction week which was run by past industrial placement students. You could also go on some training courses within the company. Most of the support that I had came directly from my placement manager and people within his network. This also provided me with a starting point to expand my network and meet other people in the business to learn from.
I have been offered the chance to complete future placements with the company, which would eventually lead to a job offer upon graduating. The company appears to be ahead of other major engineering firms in terms of pay and employee benefits and provide interesting work (if you go out and seek it).
The Culture
There was a real onus on myself and two other interns to organise the vast majority of activities. Many other interns would travel home most weekends. However there were a good core group of us tha interacted very frequently.
Very cheap town and area to live in and to socialise in.
Nothing special, mostly consisted of different pubs and then a group of nightclubs which were conveniently positioned all in one row right next to each other. The town has an emphasis on karaoke, and there are also some local bands that tour the area. It can be a good dive with the right group of people.
There were quite a few, but mainly because someone in my extended friendship group had been proactive.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
North West
September 2018