Summer Intern Review

Working at BAE Systems in Barrow gave me the opportunity to visit a wide range of activities across the site. I was exposed to all the stages of manufacture from the first cut of steal to the final fit and launch of a submarine. I was lucky enough to see the exit of HMS Artful for sea trails. All efforts were made to ensure that we felt welcome by all the team and the management with it never seeming to be a bother if you wanted to talk to someone for half an hour about what their job entailed. As summer interns we were also taken to lake Windermere for a 3 day outwards bound team building experience. Overall the experience has been massively enjoyable.

During my time at BAE Systems I was given my own work to do which meant that I was 100% accountable. This was great as it offered me the opportunity to show exactly how I worked and experience how it would be to return as a qualified engineer. As a group of interns across all disciplines we were given a research submarine project to work on as well. This was presented to the directors at the end of the project. Support was also given from researchers from other sites. One traveled from Bristol to Barrow to help with the project underlining how important this was to the company.

Any support required throughout the summer was given without question or fuss. Everyone I encountered was genuinely interested in what you were doing and willing to support you. There is a large push to encourage you to come back to the company as graduates. There as several ways in which you can do this and meetings and conferences were organised through out the summer for the group and for individuals to help support you with any decisions.

Having an insight into such a large engineering company has help to guide me towards and end of degree role. It has also improved my skills at conveying complex technical information and working with people on a multi discipline project.

The Internship was well structured with regular progress meetings from multiple levels of management.

The general atmosphere is one of genuine interest in you as a person and as a future employee. Every effort was made to ensure your experience was enjoyed and that you gained useful experience to help with your future studies and future career choices.

I had access to and was sent on all the relevant training courses that I new starting graduate engineer would be expected to attend. Multiple tours were organised where the facility managers spent time with us to explain what happened in each of their areas. We were taken on a 3 day team building experience with other graduate engineers to expose us to those already with in the company.

I was treated as a graduate engineer for the duration of the summer. I now feel like I know exactly how it would be to start with BAE at the completion of my degree.

Again being treated as a graduate has shown that this is a company really interested in developing its people.

Extremely, I was unsure going into the internship what working for such a large engineering company would be like but now feel I have a full understanding and motivation to come back.

I have had the opportunity to work with people from different disciplines and companies as part of my day to day job. I have also met people from other BAE sites as part of the research project given to the interns. Additionally at the end of the summer an interns conference was organised where all the interns from all functions across the country met to share their experience of the summer.

There were many opportunities to be social with pay day meals, Weekend trips, go-karting, bowling, nights out, treks in the lakes and mountain biking being organised. All the interns where always invited and made good contacts from this.

We where spoken to about STEM project that the company engages with and iMechi events that were organised locally.

I would recommend the internship with BAE completely.