Production Engineering Intern Review

It was fantastic. A really good way to understand what truly working in your chosen field is like, rather than just studying it. Adjusting to the 9-5 life is hard and there can be a fair amount of boring admin tasks but this is the best way to get a realistic view of working in your field.

At first, I was struggling but as soon as I got into the swing of things it was great to be asked questions by colleagues in all areas of the company and being able to genuinely help them! I also expressed an interest in one particular area and immediately my line manager found a way to use my skills in this area and assigned a fantastic individual research project to me which allowed me to fully show off what I can really do.

At all times there were people around me who could help me with any task I was assigned. Some parts of the job were difficult and required a specialist knowledge of the company's own systems but I was never without support from a supervisor, colleague or company wiki / learning materials.

Typically, the schedule of project work is always worked out with you, allowing you to see the schedule in advance and work with the project management team to spread out work, eliminating 'crunch'. There is also a well maintained backlog of tasks to be completed whenever you have the time, giving you a good way to fill any spare time.

For some projects and services, I was the sole point of contact for my team. This might sound daunting but there was always someone else to tell me how we do things. So while I was given a lot of responsibility, I was never without the tools to handle that responsibility.

I have probably learned more about working in my chosen field here than I have at university. It's interesting to see how certain 'rules' go out the window, information you need for your job wasn't touched on at uni and you just start with a base familiarity with the area in which most of your tasks reside. Throughout my placement I have learned amazing things from the high-level, like industry practices, to low-level, like useful programming functions and modules.

Fantastic. Full of great people having a really fun time working. If you're interested in music, you're just playing with / making toys all day! Not to mention the table football and pool at lunch. You're also encouraged to be creative so there's a great environment where people constantly share things they've made or even collaborate.

At first it felt a little disorganised but I quickly fell into a good rhythm. It was also nice to be pre-introduced to the other placement students to organise housing and get familiar with one another, not just being dumped into a new city with new people, which can be daunting.

I was taught many useful things on the job, but these were mostly informal talks with especially helpful colleagues, not organised training. I was afforded the opportunity to work in other departments though, to get a taste of other positions I might wish to take up in future, which is great!

A lot of placement students here are offered opportunities to continue working with them while finishing university. Since my position allows for some remote working, the company are great with offering to delegate non time crucial remote possible tasks to me so I can work at my leisure while continuing to study.

Placement students here are put into contact with each other so they can live together, we often hang out together (and with other placement students at other companies in the same town) and there are a ton of company social gatherings which we all enjoy going to. Placement students are integrated really well into normal workers.

I managed to find a really affordable accommodation, shared with other students. There are also a good variety of cheaper and more expansive bars and pubs (yes, there's a Spoons) so socialising is easy enough without spending a ton of money.

Social occasions here tend to revolve more around bars and pubs than anything else. You can go a little further afield for some great clubs and such but there are plenty of good pubs. There's also a brewery which opens up once a month or so for a really great night out that a lot of people here go to!

I managed to find some really good opportunities both through the company and without the company to do good in the community, branch out socially and generally get involved with the company and wider community through activity not based solely in work, or based in work at all. It's very easy to find these things here if you look and ask.