Student Placement Engineer Review

Variety of data processing, design and admin roles. Very dependent on your team. I did 2 roles which was basically 'engineering admin' where I did quite little new stuff. basically just plotted data and made spreadsheets and moved parts around. My 3rd role was as a materials engineer and this was doing compliance testing, materials advising and presenting infomation to other teams. Also had the opportunity to take part in volunteering activities and environemental focus groups which was great.

data handling, knowlenge of mechanical systems and turbomachinery, materials knowlege, testing planning and delivery. NDT, presenting infomation. Cummins is a great palce to develop and learn new skills. Mostly not academic skills i.e theyre useful for jobs but not the best for achademia. There are lots of systems and processes that the business uses that are pretty specific to the company, though knowing them might transfer to knowing what to expect elsewhere, if you went to another business in the future.

yeah plenty, again sort of depends on the team but in general there is a strong ethos of not just gettting placement students to make tea/coffee. Mostly do useful tasks though was occasionally given a pointless task. Sometimes had lots of responsibility, did a research project which I led on my own and then once I had my findings together I presented it to the wider team and made my recommendation as to how to deal with it.

Can depend on your manager but in general really good. enough support to know what to do but not hand holding to allow individual development. there are placement support networks which are for if you arent sure of what to do in a situation, wether that is specific to your role or an IT issue ect. There are also networks for new startes where they run meet and greets, networking events ect to help you grow.

Nice place to work. Generally people other than those compensated for it do their hours and go home. People are friendly and welcoming and always able to help. No culture of overworking or anything which is really good. the office is a comfortable space, though the air con never seems the right temprateure, either freezing or boiling with no inbetween. The offices are open and bright and there is a culture of 'hot desking'. In some ways this is good because it keeps it fresh and able to move around, in others it is a bit plain with no personal artefacts.

Really has depended on the role. we do 3 roles on placement here. First one I had an engaging manager and enjoyed it, sometimes got bored but there was other things to do. Second rotation was pretty awful. I was in a virtual team so I had really limited contact and help, ended up doing a lot of thumb twiddling and often got the jobs noone else wanted to do. (Imagine how boring doing through the procedure to obselete some parts that never actually existed for weeks on end). Third roation was excellent, really interesting work and important to the teams involved.

Yes

The application process can be pretty long and frustrating but just try to be really friendly and engaged for the whole experience. They are massive on their core values so having a look at those is really important. If you dont know how something works ect dont be afraid to ask, theres not really a culture of shaming the uninformed - its fine to not know everything. It is also ok to apply for more than one role.