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
It was a great opportunity, not only to work on your own projects but make valuable contributions to other projects: all of business importance. Great community of students and strong support from colleagues to ensure you succeed.
Everyone was so friendly, they were always willing to answer questions you had no matter how silly they seemed. They were so easy to talk to, funny and genuinely interested in what you had to say
Managers and supervisors are always willing to give you guidance, even outside of weekly scheduled personal meetings. Very interested in you project progress and want to give you different ideas to work with.
There were some days where you were super busy and had lots of tasks to complete, or meetings to attend and some the to do list wasn't as long. It is mostly down to you how you manage your time and the projects you are given. When deadlines for reports or results are set, this could mean it gets very busy as you have to coordinate everything to finish around the same time. There was never a day where I had nothing to do as I was in charge of my own project
I was responsible for my time and how it was planned, I had to complete my research project with key milestones along the way but how I went about it was mostly down to me. If I needed help I had to find the right person to talk to, if I couldn't find them I was always pointed in the right direction, you definitely are not spoon fed.
Kraft run a student mentoring scheme which includes numerous workshops throughout the year. These include looking at methods of effective communication, presentation skills, working in a team. Aside from this working day to day along side experienced engineers, and in meetings helps develop technical understand and initiative. A wide of variety of my skills were developed not only my technical ability but my soft skills too, most noticeably the transition from student to full time professional team member.
The Company
Everyone is busy working on their own projects, but everyone has a laugh. Always cakes and celebrations on peoples birthdays.
Quite well organised, a few hitches but nothing huge. Your manager is always there to help if something has gone wrong. Before I started, I was invited to a pre induction day to meet the other student interns and some of the managers. I was also lucky enough to meet my team which was lovely, so i knew the people I would be working with before I started. It made the first day less scary,
People very willing to give time to help you, to improve presentations give guidance. As well as sending you on training courses aside from those given by the student mentoring scheme.
Flexi Time
National Travel
International Travel
Company Parties/Events
Staff Sales/Staff Shop
Above 25 days holiday
Be very interested in going back, I loved my team, my project and the office. Not sure about how many jobs are available.
The Culture
Incredible!!!! So many student interns, we all lived together regularly went out clubbing, cinema, meals. We are one big group of friends. In my year there were 12 undergraduate students and 4 european masters students.
The rent on our 4 bed house was pretty cheap we each paid around 300 a month (including bills), quite hard to find larger houses that accept groups of people sharing. Cinema is expensive but going out is very cheap, especially on a Thursday or Saturday.
banbury is not great but it is what you make it, we always had a great night out as most of the students came out, sometimes for birthdays and at christmas other people from work would be out too. Birmingham and Oxford are close by which are great nights out.
We did our own thing mostly.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
South West
September 2012