Mechanical Engineering Intern Review

It was a very enjoyable and gainful experience at Centrica with the summer placement I spent there. It was very enjoyable in terms of work I carried out, the available trainings, the team I was in and the office environment in general. Only thing that held it back from 10/10 was the occasionally unnecessary travel, but it did offer new areas of the business to see.

I felt very valued by my work colleagues. This was in part due to the level of responsibility that I was trusted with which was very high. They allowed me to work on safety critical work, but also valued by opinion and input on work which made me feel like I was part of the team.

My manager was always happy to answer questions, as well as check up on my throughout my time on the placement. Would encourage me to get involved with training sessions and tasks, but also keen to see my personally progress and gain valuable skills for my future career. Helped provide effective and useful guidance through my tasks, but did not hold my hand and allowed for me to work through it on my own which was valued by me.

I was often quite occupied with a number of different tasks, training sessions and meetings in a day. However, some days would be relatively slow as I had to wait on other colleagues and external vendors to get back to me. However, in general I was kept at a reasonable level of work day to day.

I was entrusted with a large amount of responsibility from the off as I worked on projects that were safety critical and the results of my findings were taken into effect. There were a few instances however where my LM would jump in at the start, however as the placement went on I was trusted more and more.

This placement has equipped me with a number of valuable skills and training that will stand me in good stead for my future career. Developing a technical understanding as well as training in excel and personality profiling and building rapport will be very useful to me as I progress into my career.

In general there was a very warm and welcoming environment in the office I was in, often with lunches together for example. People were always happy to chat and would be interested in speaking to you. However, there was a lingering anxiety over the future of the company as it was going through a tough spot.

Often very clear what my schedule was and would be told well in advance what I would be up to. In general, there often a clear understanding of timelines for when things should be produced as well as when training occurred. For example, excel happened early on to allow for it to be used during, while presentation was at the end to help with the final presentation in the last week.

The company put on plenty of development opportunities such as lunch and learn sessions on personality profiling, building rapport and networking. There were also half day sessions on excel and presentations which often involved bringing in specialists to help provide a really valuable and informative session on the topic being taught.

The graduate salary and signing bonus are some of the best I have seen, and also the potential locations both in the UK and internationally are again very impressive. Also, opportunites for development and progression are clearly laid out. However, with the issues with the company there is some potential uncertainty behind working for them.

As they had all 6 of us based in the office we were in staying at the same house this led to a really enjoyable and sociable experience with the other interns. It made organising plans very easy and also meant that it was easy to interact with others quickly.

The location where I was staying was exceptionally cheap for high quality food, as well as often having very interesting and affordable events being on in the local area. It was very easy to go out for food as often places had great deals like 50% food on a Monday.

Nightlife was very cheap and easy to get to, as well as being very good fun. There were a great mix of pubs and clubs in the local area that would cater for a wide range of people. However, sometimes venues would be a bit quiet as the student population who normally populate them were away.