Industrial Placement Student Review

Although slow to get going, a role transfer midway through my placement transformed this into an incredibly valuable and enjoyable experience, with a fantastic team of individuals. I was made to feel welcome, given work that stretched and challenged me, but also given adequate support. When I requested the opportunity to improve presentation skills, I was able to to deliver 3 presentations to +50 people, with my confidence growing each time.

'Like Family' is a good description. My team were incredibly friendly, and placed high-value on the skills I was able to bring, and the knowledge I gathered throughout my year. I was given large responsibilities, including delivery of a project delivering several million pounds of profit to the business, and my managers ensured my contributions and successes were highlighted to the wider team. Socially, the team was fantastic, with a good balance between work and socialising, which extended to the wider department.

I experienced different management styles from micro-management to management-by-exception, but was fortunate that my final manager was able to find a balance between letting me deliver work packages, but also providing a good level of support, putting me in contact with the correct people, and catching up with me a near-daily basis to ensure I was kept in the loop regarding changes to project assumptions etc.

By the nature of project management work, there were days where I had a huge amount of work to do, and days where I had little to do, but I was able to take on extra projects which I could pick up on quiet days, and offer support to other managers, allowing me to form relationships with other members of my department. The work was flexible, so I was able to start late or finish early if necessary, work from home etc extremely easily. However, I am aware of other undergraduates at JLR who consistently struggled with being given enough work to do. My opinion is that there is always additional work if you're prepared to ask around and make it clear you're available.

Very little at first, to a frustrating degree. This was partially due to not having 'proved myself' so to speak, but also I feel due to poor management. Things improved massively when I switched role, and I ended up delivering a large project directly worth several million pounds of profit to the business, albeit with daily reporting. I also onboarded several new members of staff who replaced my roles, without manager support.

There's no doubt that the management and 'soft' skills I developed will be hugely important to my future career, but as a Physicist, the skills that directly transfer will be limited. This was due to my choice of placement rather than any fault of the business, and I was able to develop some programming skills to deliver a critical tool to my team as a side-project.

Absolutely spot-on. I was fortunate that my department had an office to themselves, so everyone knew everyone, and there was a perfect balance between a social atmosphere but also a good work ethic, and a good level of respect. I never witnessed any negative or discriminatory behaviour, and really enjoyed working with my colleagues, and socialising with them outside of work.

The placement was well-organised, with good communications leadinng up to the start, and an official facebook page which helped me find some other interns to share a house with. Queries were always answered within a day, and the undergraduate welcome day ran very smoothly. I never had any issues with payment. My departments was less well-organised to receive a placement student, which seems to be common across many other placements. Meaning that my role hadn't been fully decided upon, and for a while I was just a shared resource between several managers, putting me in a difficult situation, as only one of them was responsible for assessing my suitability for the grad scheme.

JLR's company-wide training policy is excellent, and invests a huge amount of money in training courses, which are always run with no expense spared. There are thousands of training courses, although there can be a several month wait for the more popular courses. JLR also sponsor professional qualifications (more relevant for grads) including paying for tuition, and paid time off for study leave and exams!! I wish there had been some events specific for undergrads, however, this has now been acted upon, and future intakes will see a programme of undergraduate events of networking and development.

I've really enjoyed my 12 months with JLR, and am likely to work there again in the future. Unfortunately, the graduate scheme doesn't appeal to me that much, as non-engineering graduates are treated more as a regular hire, with no rotations and limited development opportunities, and a very rigid and slow progression route, with just 1 or 2 (well advertised) exceptions. I would definitely like to return to JLR after developing away from the business, and ideally would return to my home department. Will still consider accepting a place on the graduate scheme, and will weigh up the merits compared with competitors.

Over the summer period, there was a strong social scene, especially with a large number of summer interns all living together, but this died down after Autumn. There is a strong social scene at JLR amongst colleagues, and I enjoyed spending time with colleagues outside of work. Leamington is a good location for nights out etc. most of the JLR social scene is based there.

Pretty expensive, Leamington is not a cheap place to live, but was still preferable to living in Coventry. Rent in Leam is expensive, but thankfully car insurance is about as cheap as it comes (Cov is the opposite). Leam also has a large version of all the supermarkets, so food & fuel shopping is easy and cheap. Nights out are reasonable for the midlands, due to the large numbers of UoW students living in Leamington.

It's ok, mostly as Leamington is a student town, but other than Kasbah in Coventry, for decent clubs you would need to travel to Bimringham. Plenty of bars and pubs, and plenty of people about, but for anyone used to city nightlife, or even a big student town, probably will be disappointed. 3-month interns tend to live in Coventry, within walking distance of Kasbah, which is pretty good and hosts some pretty big names.

JLR allows for 2 volunteering days per financial year, so I got organised a project with my team to lay a canal towpath, which was a great day out using diggers and tipper trucks etc. Even better, every JLR employee get a £200 allowance to spend on an development/learning activity of their choice, with several pre-negotiated courses offering amazing opportunities paid for by the business. I spent the allowance on 2 weekends in North Wales, and the national mountain activity centre, 1 weekend of white water kayaking, another of rock climbing, which would have cost me ~£500 privately. Colleagues spent allowances on driving lessons, supercar experiences, and even a flying lesson! Some undergraduates were able to drive JLR vehicles on the track, or off-road, but I didn't get this opportunity.