Project & Sales Interns Review

I enjoyed the work for as much as there was available in my department. Unfortunately, the year I joined the company was a quieter year in regards to Orders with there being a high president on renewable energy, rather than fossil fuels. The work I was able to undertake was extremely interesting, provided me with a great understanding of the product and gave me the chance to interact with multiple departments and customers.

At times I felt very valued, being able to lead customer tests, working directly with heads of departments and always having the time of day to answer questions on products, processes or general queries. Unfortunately, not everyone is so keen to have an intern give their opinion to a subject, even though it may be seen as an improvement, because at times there still is a slight stigma because of the age difference and experience difference.

My manager was very supportive in my development during my internship with Siemens, between the mandated review sessions, we also looked to have catch ups on a bi-weekly basis as well. My manager was very willing to answer any questions I may of had, and was always on the look out for opportunities for me to develop and meet new people.

On a daily basis I was not as busy as I would of liked, as mentioned, there has been a lack of business across the whole range, so in a project facing role, this affected my daily work load substantially. I therefore looked for alternative projects to fill my time and this was happily allowed by my manager.

For my day-to-day role I was given marginal responsibility, in my role there is not the opportunity to given high levels initially as it falls under categories and you must of completed years of experience in the role and become certified, before you can take on more responsibility.

I believe the skills and training will aid my degree completion significantly, as I have learnt more about organization, preparation, structuring letters, composing proposals, presenting to large groups and had the ability to gather initial data be used for my dissertation that I have already looked to start before returning to University in September.

I was very lucky to have a very enjoyable office. Everyone was always very happy and would be willing to have a laugh, but at the same time be able to give you the space you needed to focus if you were on a call or structuring an important email,

The overall internship was set out quite well, with trainings being organized as well as reviews being timely. I believe this is only the case because there was a specific intern who helped manage all of the entry level talent trainings on our side and made sure we were aware of upcoming events and trainings long in advance so we were able to clear these with out managers.

The company invested well in our training and development, with us being sent on 4, day long training sessions to better improve our knowledge of the products, to better improve our effectiveness as a worker and creativity, all the way through to career anchor points and what area's of work should we look to go into to best suit our characteristics.

The prospects of future employment are appealing within Siemens. With Siemens being such a large organization, there tends to be a lot of opportunity to move into separate area's. The problem is that the number of spaces are diminishing, as too many people have been brought in for the same roles and now there is no room, or budget to bring in younger talent with new idea's. This is leading to a lot of entry level talent prospects leaving.

The social scene between all of the 20 interns in Lincoln was and is absolutely perfect. We have become a very close knit group of friends, we spend most nights together after work, play sports, go to the gym, out for drinks and also set up and raised £2500 for charity as a group.

Lincoln is quite a cheap city so the cost of living was not too high, and with it not being the largest, there is not normally a need for public transport to and from events in the city center. Working for siemens also allowed us to use their perks at work scheme, which got us reduced cinema tickets as many times as we wanted to go.

The nightlife in Lincoln is quite good for the size of the city. It benefits from being a University city as there are many bars open every day and 2/3 clubs that are open on weekends. There is also the option of being able to walk from work to the town center to enjoy a drink after works on Fridays.

There were a few opportunities that came up during the year to get involved outside of the office, for example there was opportunities to get involved at the RAF100 day in Lincoln, working at a few schools in the local areas. On top of this, there was the SPARK festival held in the Cathedral to get local school children excited about engineering.