Undergraduate Review

Initially I struggled with the fact that I couldn't get as involved as much as I would have liked, which meant that I had to a lot of shadowing and independent learning to give me sufficient background knowledge so that I could deal with the work that my office regularly received. I would say that this was for the first two to three weeks and then this allowed my workload to increase and enabled me to keep myself busy even though my manager went on holiday for two weeks during my placement which was really satisfying as I had been given small projects to take a lead on.

I felt that I contributed some improvements to business processes during my placement, notably looking at a couple of sets of metrics that I worked on. This was highlighted in my placement performance review which explicitly stated I had "delivered benefits to the business". There was regular formal contact with my line manager and feedback from other colleagues who I was working alongside on projects which was extremely valuable and is let you know that you were on the right path to hopefully receiving a graduate job offer.

I had a extremely good relationship with my manager, whom after my initial two - three weeks I expressed my frustration at my workload and that I often felt uncertain what I would be doing each day at work. He allayed my fears and explained that this is due to the nature of the work and office I had been placed in, where you have to be extremely adaptable. We had daily informal contact and regular reviews of where I was with projects and workload etc. On reflection it was the nature of the work in my office which required me to be extremely agile and flexible rather than following a set structure something that I have naturally done in other work environments.

Generally I had tasks and work everyday, there would be an odd day where my workload was low due to other factors outside my managers control such as other people's schedules, but at no time did I feel overloaded. I felt that I had a great work-life balance for the short duration of my placement. Fortunately due to the online learning platform available to all employees I could fill time learning about specific business skills relative to my business area.

I personally felt I was given a lot of responsibility, with one project which I took full responsibilty for to design a set of metrics to analyse the performance of a specific business area along with smaller projects which were to help my manager. The larger project developed into a weekly task which would be completed and reviewed by my managers colleague, and their senior manager. This project evolved constantly with the different requirements for the senior manager as he needed to justify a specific business decision.

Even though I initially thought during my first two - three weeks of my placement were unnecessary but this period of time lead me to developing larger skill set useful in a business environment, notably the use of standard SAP, SAP BI and the end to end P2P process which were essential for the remaining portion of my internship to enable me to help colleagues with tasks and queries. The use of SAP, SAP BI will be extremely valuable skills to take into future roles at other large corporates as it is so standardised and it is used worldwide.

The atmosphere was generally positive within my office but there were occasions when I noticed that previously morale had not been so high due to certain specific business decisions. I attended the employee satisfaction survey results for my office which were higher than other business areas and were higher for Jaguar Land Rover when compared against the averages across other companies which was pleasing to see. It was clear that in my office there were no specific friendship groups and cliques, and that all staff interacted with each other on a daily basis due to the fact that they often required each others help on projects.

I would say that the placement was extremely well organised from start to finish with a clear structure. On the first day you have an induction day where you get to meet your fellow placement student and also have presentations for senior managers and HR staff explaining the process to you. You then have regular formal placement reviews with your line manager where you can outline your concerns about how the placement is going if you feel necessary, and they will ensure you are happy and content with how things are going. There is then a placement performance review conducted near to your leaving date where if your line manager believes you have demonstrated the competencies needed to work at Jaguar Land Rover then you can arrange to receive a formal graduate offer subject to the the graduate scheme being ratified for the following year.

As you are only their on a short term placement, the company will not arrange for external training. There is a large online e-learning platform available to all employees which include some compulsory training around company history, ethos, procedure and policy which is standard across most large corporates. I was lucky enough to attend one of the standard employee induction days for my business area which was really enjoyable as I got to drive some of the company vehicles. I also found that when I opened up my e-learning platform there were already modules specific to my business area available for me to complete which gave me a comprehensive background and foundation to enable me to take part in discussion and also answer queries. This was invaluable and also a good way to keep busy if I was waiting for someone to get back to me before I could move on to the next part of a task.

In my opinion the future employment prospects are extremely promising at Jaguar Land Rover, it was clear from my short time there that graduates are seen as managers and senior managers of the future and that is why they encourage and monitor your personal progression so regularly. As previously mentioned there is an opportunity to convert your placement into a graduate scheme offer subject to your line managers approval and ratification. Jaguar Land Rover has a specific internal scheme which looks at identifying young talent who are deemed to have the prospects to be a future manager and senior manager. It is is encouraged to change roles every two years internally to ensure that you do not stagnate in one position and you maintain your passion, drive and motivation which I believe is a really strong and sensible business principle.

There was a good social scene amongst fellow placement students, often organised by the student staying in Liberty Park (where most students stay during their placement, equivalent to university halls) which included nights out at weekends and other social activities including weekly six a side at the Lucozade Power League in Coventry which I attended. There was also the "Graduate Forum" which organised events for graduates to attend but all undergraduate placement students had the opportunity to attend these events which included bowling. I know that one graduate who worked near to me, actually attended a social event over the weekend in Wales through this scheme.

The cost of living was very reasonable, and the price depends on location and how much you are willing to spend, there is a range of accommodation available. If you live in Coventry generally the rent is cheaper whereas if you live in Leamington Spa it is typically more expensive. The cost for living at Liberty Park appeared reasonable although I didn't stay there myself and was easily covered by your salary and included all bills, which is an option recommended by Jaguar Land Rover HR on the Facebook Page which all undergraduate placement students are part of. The cost of socialising varies again depending on where you go out, but you can go to example Kasbah where entry is £5 and the drink prices are reasonable.

With Coventry being a city which Liberty Park is based this is where the majority of placement students went out, and being a local university student there are several good options in terms of nightlife both at weekends and mid-week. If you want you can make the effort to travel and go out in Birmingham at somewhere like Gatecrasher, there are several options including Smack and Neon in Leamington and Kasbah in Coventry where entry is typical £5 and drinks are reasonable.

Answered previously.