Applications Engineer, Sales Development Engineer Review

My placement at NI was very enjoyable. One major factor in this was the awesome corporate culture, which is very open and casual. The environment is friendly and quite relaxed. I spent time in both the applications engineering and inside sales departments, and there was a large contrast in culture. AE was very laid back and a bit less mature, whilst inside sales was much more mature and hardworking while being just as much fun.

NI sees a high turnover of interns each year, and this definitely shapes the culture of the AE department. Logically, interns receive less training investment by the company compared with those in the graduate scheme (though the initial 6 week training period is the same), and the role they do is definitely different to that of the graduates. The graduate AE role places importance on events, teaching, and projects, whilst the interns tend to do the bulk of the day-to-day customer assistance responsibilities of the department. What this means is that how valued you feel depends heavily on the people you work with and the department you work in. I did find that there were a couple of people who had quite a poor view of interns and did not seem to value them, but for the most part their experience is respected and they are treated equally. This was especially true in the inside sales department, where you are given a great deal of responsibility and you are valued as an important member of the team.

As with before, this varied greatly between departments. Inside sales was very supportive and the leadership team took an active role in everyone's personal development, meaning that self improvement became a habit. Applications engineering simply does not have the leadership resources to effectively foster employee growth, so most of your learning and development must be self-driven. However, the nature of the role makes this fairly easy.

For the most part, you are given the responsibility of dictating your own workload. This means that it is easy to find a good balance and you can work at your own pace. Sales favoured a much faster working pace, whilst applications engineering tended to be quite relaxed.

It's difficult to make a comparison, but I was impressed with the level of responsibility I was given. I suspect that it would be hard to find a placement which a company of comparable size which allowed its interns this degree of responsibility. You speak with customers every day and are, from time to time, given the opportunity to represent the company at events or impart your knowledge on a wide range of professionals.

The skills I've learnt will be invaluable in both my degree and in future jobs. I gained an extensive knowledge of the use of NI tools in engineering applications, as well as programming and troubleshooting skills. My time in the inside sales department gave me an even wider range of soft skills which allowed me to improve my communication and better interact with others. I have a far greater degree of confidence and have gained an understanding of sales techniques.

The atmosphere in applications engineering was very fun and relaxed. If anything, it was perhaps too relaxed and not conducive to hard work. This meant that a certain degree of self discipline was required to stay focused on work. This is definitely one of my weak areas; I'm easily distracted if I overhear an interesting conversation or see something cool. A more businesslike feel would probably help the department to achieve better departmental results. The inside sales department was a perfect balance, with a lot of focus placed on the work and the value we offer customers. Whilst AE can sometimes take on an unhappy or negative atmosphere if you're dealing with a lot of unhappy customers, the inside sales department was much more upbeat and was very conducive to working hard, I enjoyed this more disciplined environment a lot more both due to the more positive attitudes and due to the constant culture of self improvement.

The ELP programme at National Instruments is clearly the product of years of experience and tweaking. NI UK clearly have a wealth of experience with placement students and it makes it very easy to do a placement with them. Some of the specific portions of the placement aren't the most organised. For example, the intern projects are a bit of a free-for-all, and the certification sessions held aren't arranged with much advance notice. However, these are more a reflection on the department rather than the placement scheme itself, as the ELP programme is, I'm sure, an industry model on an effective placement scheme.

As I mentioned previously, the training and development given is better in the inside sales department, partly because the stakes are higher. The main investment is the 6 weeks of intensive training which you receive when you first start. This includes elements such as sitting courses on NI's products to gain an understanding of how to use them. You don't have to know anything about NI to join the company, as they will train you from scratch. However, once you finish the initial training there isn't much further that is done to allow you to develop. There are a couple of training sessions on throughout the year, but these tend to be the exception rather than the norm. To get the most personal development out of this placement you are best off rotating to the inside sales department or making a habit of self-driven personal development.

This is something I am still undecided on. I greatly enjoyed working for NI, however I haven't experienced anything different so I would like to gain experience in an industry which is more relevant to my degree before making the decision as to whether to return. I feel confident that if I wanted a graduate job with them that they would be able to make me an offer. One thing to note about NI is that the graduate salaries tend to be quite low, so you need to be very committed to the company since you can earn much better money elsewhere. I also have concerns about the performance of the UK economy in the wake of the 'Brexit', so I am seriously considering searching for jobs in France, Germany, and the USA.

The social scene is good, but not great. Some of this is because Newbury is not a terribly exciting place. It's actually better than you'd expect, but it's not conducive to really good nights out. Admittedly I lived outside of Newbury which meant that I couldn't fully experience the NI social scene, but it tended to be a little boring.

It's a fairly expensive place. The North is much cheaper.

Newbury's nightlife isn't great. Reading is okay but it's very expensive. That said, NI is a relatively young company so if you do manage to round up enough people for a night out it tends to be good fun.

Outside of work there were some activities of varying types. There are company events like the Christmas party, which nobody remembers, and the summer event, as well as department events and a couple of ELP events. NI also hosts the First Lego League competition and encourages everyone to get involved. There's also a 5-a-side group which plays once a week.