Radar Engineer (summer intern) Review

The work was challenging yet not too difficult so as to put me off. I thoroughly enjoyed the internship as I felt that I was contributing something tangible to the company and had the right support when guidance was required.

The interns, year in industries, grads and apprentices all had the chance to work together on 'stretch assignments' designed to build teamwork and project management skills and everybody chipped to make a great team. Everyone was very friendly and often offered guidance and support when appropriate. There is a good sense of equality within the company between seniors and newer recruits and I think the open office plan helps this.

My manager provided me with just the right amount of support - careful not to solve problems for me but instead guide me towards making the correct decisions for myself and expected my independence to improve with time over the course of the internship.

I always had something to do and even fell behind on some of my targets which I feel were set to high due to the lead times required of each - the deadlines seemed to be set with no tolerance for unexpected difficulties such as the bugs and mathematical problems which occurred when writing code and the long lead times taken in obtaining IT resources and security clearances. Depite this I was never bored and never felt pressured as I knew that all that was expected was my best effort.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility and the opportunity to make independent decisions based on the work I was doing, yet always had support and guidance available if requested.

The programming and mathematical skills will likely come in useful in both my degree and future career, and the understanding of project management and business politics will be very useful too.

Quiet and relaxed. There was never any tension between colleagues and all the staff tried to make us feel welcome. I feel that we could all have benefitted from a little knowledge of what each other were doing though and an attempt to get to know each other better - especially between the older and younger generations whom were shy of each other.

Very well, structured targets set in week 2, mid term review in week 6 and final review in week 11. There was also a welcome conference with icebreakers and introductions to various parts of the company in week 1 and an end of internship conference in week 11 with HR and half of the other interns from across the UK. The only negative I can think of was the long lead times in getting IT support and software installations which is an ongoing problem that must be fixed.

I was invited to meetings within the company and with its partners and made to feel welcome and asked my opinions on the matters that concerned my work. I also attended a 2 day training course in radar fundamentals - although this came at a stage a little late in the internship. I was also given time out of working to read up for myself and develop my understanding of the engineering involved and had frequent one-to-ones with my manager who would go out of his way to further my understanding of the business and role itself. Finally I was given the opportunity to engage in various 'stretch' assignments such as the Qinetiw industry powerboat challenge with a generous budget from BAE and 2 charity events.

Good - the business has a wide range of interests with many sites across the UK and abroad and a reputable graduate scheme with ample opportunity to switch business sector. The graduate scheme offers 4 six month placements and diversity in position in encouraged. The only downside is the comparitively low pay compared to both some other defence competitors.

The social scene was minimal on the isle of wight where I was based due to small site size and age demographic - not many young people. Nevertheless the company encouraged networking with other interns, especially in Portsmouth.

There is a cheap local supermarket by the site, but the cost of rent on the island is sky high and as such I ended up living in a caravan!

Poor.

I am interested in rock climbing and there is nothing local to the island without getting a ferry to southampton for the climbing wall or the nearest outdoor climbing is in Swanage which you need at least a weekend for really. I tried surfing on the island which was great and cheap too but again only really suitable for weekends as the public transport on the island is slow and regular enough. I personally struggled to find something i was interested in and thus didn't have a very exciting social life outside of work.