Electrical Engineer - Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed the placement I was given. I had a long project that spanned the whole of the internship and it was my responsibility to organise myself. The work was challenging but helped me understand how my degree is useful in the real world. It also gave me a chance to see some really cool engineering projects.

I did feel valued by my colleagues. They provided me with the right amount of support so that I was never struggling too much but they gave me responsibility and trusted me to complete my own work. They included me in all the team activities and really made an effort to help me fit in.

My manager was really approachable and was always happy to answer any questions I had about work, or he knew who to direct me too. Everyone in the team helped in that supporting role and there were many people I could go to for advice or guidance. I had weekly meetings one-on-one to make sure that I felt comfortable and supported in the role.

I always had something to do and if I didn't there was always extra work I could ask for. I had a variety of different on going tasks which meant that I could swap which task I did day to day so that I wasn't getting bored of the task. However I never felt overworked!

I was given a large amount of responsibility, the task I was given was a real piece of work that would have been given to any other engineer in the team if I hadn't been there. I felt that the responsibility I was given was equal to full time employees but I always had support if needed.

I understood a lot how project management plays a much more important role in the real world and that problems can't be solved ideally! There is a lot of compromise in business which I had never considered. I also got to see which parts of my degree were relevant and was surprised at how much was useful.

The general atmosphere was really relaxed, everybody was happy to have a chat and didn't take the job too seriously. They let people work in different ways as to what was comfortable. Everyone was friendly and helpful. The team I worked in got on really well and the good atmosphere made working go a lot faster. There was a huge variety of social activities and sports to get involved in.

The internship could have been better managed, as the HR team didn't have very good contact with the department I actually worked for so sometimes tasks got a bit muddled up. There were lots of people involved in the organisation so sometimes it wasnt clear whose responsibility some problems were.

I was able to attend development courses as a graduate would. I was also set a number of objectives and competencies to aim for during my placement. This was done so that I would not only have technical skills. There were extra resources if i wanted to complete further development

There is a lot of variety in the work and the graduate scheme where you can try out working in different areas of the business seems good. There is also an option to return directly into a role similar to the one I did in the placement. However I found the location detracted from the benefits.

From the start of the placement we were encouraged to get to know the rest of the interns and it really helped knowing people before I started. We had regular social meetings and spent of lot of our free time together. The graduates at the company invited us along to their events and made us feel really welcome.

The cost of living was cheap, being up north meant that the wage went a lot further so we were able to take part in social activities. The only negative was that the short term accommodation was quite expensive as the prices had gone up to take advantage of contractors visiting the site.

The nightlife was average, there were a lot of pubs but not that many bars or clubs. The busy nights were at the weekend and sometimes it could be really quiet in the town centre. There wasnt a wide variety of options for things to do in the evening so I tended to go to the same pub a lot of the time.

Yes, there were lots of social activities run and sport clubs that I was invited too. Other social events in the area were promoted to us and we went along as a group to a lot of public events like carnivals etc. Being close to the Lake District meant that lots of people did outdoor sports