Engineering Summer Intern Review

My placement was a great opportunity to build on what I had already learnt at uni and use it on real projects for Siemens customers. I also got to learn how to use a similar CAD software to what I had used at uni, and built up on the use of Matlab for data analysis.

I have felt welcomed from day one both from colleagues from my department and other departments. They were usually happy to help or answer questions when not too busy, and would reschedule or direct me to other useful sources if they are. Internal emails have also been of great help to ease communication and arrange meetings when needed.

My placement consisted of a two parts. The first one was directly linked to the work done in my department (mechanical). I got enough help on the CAD software I was using (Autodesk Inventor), and was initially given tutorials to do to get used to the basics. The second part consisted of writing a script on Matlab to automate some of what CAD does. So I had to do more individual research on that as it wasn’t something colleagues from my department were specialised in.

My placement consisted of my main automation project that I was researching, but also other project deadlines that I helped with in my department. So I was busy every day of my placement since when there isn’t a project deadline to meet, I would go back to work on my main project that had been ongoing throughout the placement.

I have been given enough responsibility that linked back to my background and what I had learnt at uni. The work I have done built up on what I had already learnt and took it further to make use of it on real company processes and projects. I took part on multiples projects in addition to my main automation task.

Automation and programming is a big thing at the moment that is really useful even for non-field specialists. Mechanical engineers have always relied on CAD software for most of their calculations, but programming has becoming increasingly more important to handle more complex data. I had the opportunity to experience that through this placement. This will help me with my coming group project in my final year at uni, but also in my mechanical engineering career afterwards.

The team I was working in was a small team of 5 people including me. But we had Hardware and Software departments in the same working space. The atmosphere was generally friendly especially around lunch time and the odd small breaks. Many parts of the work involved colleagues from different departments working together on the same project which further increased the team spirit.

The internship was well organised in terms of the main deliverables but didn’t initially go through the specifics as they weren’t known at the time. My project was about finding where automation could happen in one of the processes they do that involve work from many different departments. So it was more of a research work initially to find the problem I will be working on, then to go and solve it. So the internship wasn’t organised in a way where I knew what I would be doing every day of the placement from day one. But it got clearer as the placement progressed and my research yielded a good a problem to work on.

I was given a new computer and laptop when I arrived. I also had Autodesk Inventor 2012 and Matlab 2015 installed on it to use for my work. As my work progressed, I had relevant Matlab toolboxes purchased as well to work on my script. I also received online training relevant to the Siemens business.

Siemens offer a 2 years graduate scheme that can include rotation placement in different department and businesses. I got to know about the scope of work done in my department via our weekly meeting where every colleague presents a summary of their work. Lots of that links to the modules I have been doing at uni, so the prospect of working on that kind of projects looks interesting as part of a graduate programme.

Due to the placement only lasting for 3 months, the focus of my placement was more on the work for my project. The other interns were all from other departments and mostly living outside the Poole area which didn’t yield a basis for more socialising. However, during the time of my placement, I have lived with 4 other flatmates who I made good friends with.

My university city is also in the south east. So Poole was not much different in terms of living costs which I would describe as average. I have managed to get some cheap rent in an area further away from my workplace which lengthened my trip to work, but made it more affordable overall.

I can’t talk for that as I have spent most of my weekends back in my uni’s city with friends from back there.

Due to the short length of my summer placement, there wasn't opportunity for that at the time.