EC&I Intern Review

The placement allowed me to appreciate a completely new area of work and interact with a very friendly team. Also, socialising with many other interns at the same company meant that the whole placement was particularly fun. I was also fortunate to be allowed to attend various site visits, which really broadened my experience of the work. The work I was helping with was interesting and gave me a useful insight into working at the company.

Working in several groups within my department, I always felt welcome and could ask for assistance from anybody in the office when I required it. The whole office had a very friendly atmosphere and it was easy to fit in with the teams. I was also collaborating with several other interns at times, which provided another social aspect of the work in a slightly more informal way.

My manager was always keen to help and teach me when she was available, but was often busy with meetings etc. To ensure that I could work on schedule I received most support from other senior members of both my team and other teams. However, everybody was very helpful and always willing to spend time with me.

My work level varied throughout the internship. Most often I had a reasonable amount of work on, allowing me to keep busy without being rushed off my feet. However, occasionally the work load would reduce between projects. I was never left without anything to do, but sometimes I did actively go to other teams to find additional work to keep me occupied until team members returned.

For the area of work I was in, I was given a fair amount of responsibility over the projects I was working on. Quite often, I was tasked with a project and allowed to develop and research my own ways of doing things without much interference from other members of the team. However, there were always people around if I needed advice or guidance.

The projects I was working on did not particularly require knowledge that I'd learnt at university. Consequently, I had to learn new skills in order to complete the tasks I'd been set. These skills should hopefully help me at various points in working life, although not especially on my degree due to the nature of the work, mainly based around project management rather than pure engineering.

The office I worked in was always very friendly and fairly chatty. The other members of my team were very happy to help me out with any questions I had surrounding work, and would show interest in my work. The atmosphere was relaxed and not too formal, but led to a pleasant working environment.

The interns were always given work to do, although there was no particular project set out at the beginning. Also, it would have been preferable if the work had been more involved with engineering rather than project management and time planning. However, I was able to interact with other teams to find different types of work to do.

I felt as though the company invested a lot in me in terms of development and personal training. I was encouraged to complete various training courses and given tours of the other departments in the business. I was also allowed to attend an external conference with several of the other interns, and taken on site visits with contractors.

I would be keen to return to the same organisation at some point in the future. The whole experience was particularly enjoyable and I could see myself employed there some day. I might like to explore different areas of the business though, so I might not necessarily return to the same department immediately.

The company employed many interns this summer, and we were all housed at university halls. As a result, there was a very good social scene with many activities and sports occurring on a regular basis. All of the interns were very friendly. We lived in small flats of about 7 people all working at the same company, and the flats bonded well including group meals and nights out.

The halls we were living in were over-priced for what we received. However, Derby is fairly cheap (especially compared to London!) so we could still go out fairly regularly.

In general, the nightlife was fairly good fun and reasonably cheap. Nights out were always good fun, especially as we were in a large group of interns. Work finished fairly early so we had plenty of time to socialise and do sports etc. and there were several events organised by the graduate association.

All of the activities outside of work were organised either by the interns themselves or the graduate association. There were occasional events and nights out with my work team, and I attended several of these. Many of the interns were involved in sports and there were regular trips to things like the gym and climbing centres.