Mechanical Engineer Review

Fantastic placement year, a very good balance of fun and work. The company has a real appreciation of the student placement program and employed 15 students during my year which was great for the social aspects of placement life.

A small close-knit friendly team who always made time to help students. While working you were always treated equally to a regular full time employee.

Visteon have a large drive to support the placement scheme and therefore management were always supporting and creating new opportunities for placement students. Department manager has regular contact with you and is always willing to help.

As expected, the first 2-3 months were spent becoming accustomed to company policies, procedure and software. Also learning CAD to a higher 'industry' level, during this period I had an average work load, but it acted as a great way to introduce you to the company and working life. After this period you will gain real projects and responsibilities, I was never bored and had many jobs to juggle.

After the introduction period you were given responsibility equal to that of a full time employee, working on real, live projects with tasks that could easily influence timing of the project and the end item. The Visteon students were also given a 'Student Project' with complete free rein and a budget.

There is truly no comparison to the knowledge and skills you gain in industry as opposed to at University. I feel it will greatly benefit me through my remaining time at Uni and I have no doubt I will carry the knowledge into my future career. Visteon especially helped this by providing many industry standard courses for the students to attend for free.

The atmosphere in the office was, again, a perfect balance of work and fun. It was quiet when you are working and equally no one minding having a chat or joking around in between. Everyone on the team had a good sense of humor and I had some very good laughs at work.

The student placement program was very well organised, throughout the application, interview and starting placement I was in constant contact with someone from the company and was never left in the dark. During the first week we had a comprehensive introduction to the company and the previous years students spent the best part of a month getting us settled.

A syllabus was given to us on day one outlining recommended goals and expectations of training and development over the course of the placement year. We used this list throughout to monitor development and ensure that we covered a vast range of skills and areas. There was also a great range of free industry standard training courses to attend. Furthermore every colleague always found time to answer any questions you had and help you if you needed it.

Visteon have employed many 'ex-placement' students in the past but I cannot comment on the likelihood of being employed post-graduation. I was told any relevant potential job opportunities would be emailed to placement students as a priority.

There were 15 placement students in total so there were great opportunities for nights out and social events. The department also had two nights out over the course of the year, the infamous Christmas Party and also a Mid Year Bash which coincides with the student leaving period!

Standard prices on nights out, did not live in Chelmsford so cannot comment.

Nightlife in Chelmsford is very good, bars and clubs are very close together, everything seems local. Had some great nights out over placement year.

Visteon is very charity conscious and there were lots of opportunities to get outside of work and help. There were events to help at local schools, charity bike rides and other various money raising events. The company also takes part in football and badminton tournaments available to all and a few people in the department go rock climbing weekly.