Product Development Engineer IP Review

The work was very enjoyable, I was involved from day 1 and was given the opportunity to be involved in some huge projects within the company, as well experiencing lots of different projects on different products within my sector of the company, My colleagues were all inclusive and welcoming and made the workplace an enjoyable place to be.

Everyone on site was friendly from day 1, people would stop to talk to you and make sure you were settled in (regardless of which section they worked in). The teams I was working with always including me and valued my opinion on matters, especially as someone who wasn't so knowledgeable on the products.

My supervisor was amazing, he made sure I was involved in different projects and got exposed to as many different products as possible. He also delegated a lot of the work to me and gave me an insight into managing my own time and priorities. He let me get on with work at my own pace and in my won way, but was always there if I needed help. The more senior management as well were very approachable, they would be willing to help an IP student even though they were plant managers or area managers.

Obviously the work load varied depending on what projects needed what, however, overall I was kept very busy and I always had multiple projects to be getting on with. From day 1 I got thrown into some very big projects, and even in my last few weeks of placement I've been having to work hard to keep up with the needs of projects, with people still asking for my assistance.

I was given a lot of responsibility considering my status as an IP. Early on in my year I was put in charge of producing some field trial samples, with 3 people being under my supervision. I was also given my own project to lead and organize, which carried on for the whole year and I am now preparing to pass on to my successor.

A lot of the skills I learnt from my job are applicable to any aspect of life, whether it be university, personal, or future work place. The biggest thing is obviously time and priority management, and has given me the feeling of confidence that I will be able to handle my final university year a lot better than I possibly would without having done the year, I also learnt a lot about managing my money more, and a big one was the fact that people won't judge you for asking for help, and they will actually think better of you for admitting you need it.

The atmosphere in my department was really good, everyone was friendly towards me from day 1, and everyone has been willing to help me with problems all through my placement, even the manager of my lab. Like any large collection of people, there are a few people who don’t particularly like each other, however, these people have always stayed civil towards each other and not caused problems for other people.

The placement was well organised, I was part of the 3M Emerging Talent Scheme, which includes both graduates and IPs. We had plenty of training and meetings with the scheme, as well as being provided with lots of support on our placement from our supervisors. Our supervisors also received training as part of the scheme in order to help them improve the way they managed us and feel more confident.

During my placement I received a lot of training from various sources. I had training as part of the 3M Emerging Talent Scheme, which included training in personal branding and networking. I also had training as part of my job role, with technical training that has proved vastly useful in my job and will help me significantly when back at uni or in my future job. Lastly, I also received training on personal resilience and ways to handle stress, which is always useful.

I would really like to work for 3M again in the future, the company are really good to their employees and the work is really enjoyable, however, I wouldn’t want to work so far north away from my friends and family in the future. So I will definitely apply to 3M again, but I will also probably apply to a few other companies on the chance I find something more suitable for myself.

I lived with a fellow placement student so we had plenty of time to socialise outside of work, and we even went to see the Durham Lumiere. We also regularly met up with the graduates from our site, as well going for drinks with a few people from work every now and again.

Both my flatmate and I are from the South and so when we moved to the north east, our rent was super cheap. The housing here is very cheap and there are lots of different offers to be found depending on whether you want furnished/unfurnished or bills included or not. The price of everything else also feels cheaper (I've never done an actual scientific comparison).

I personally didn't try out the nightlife massively as I prefer going to pubs rather than clubs, and my area had plenty of bars and pubs to enjoy. However, if you are interested in clubbing then Durham and Newcastle are both nearby, and both are university cities. Newcastle especially is renowned for its nightlife and so there's plenty to enjoy around the area.

Working at such a large site, there was a very active Sports and Social club that hosted lots of different activities to get involved in. I played squash once a week (roughly) and occasionally played 5 aside football with various people from site (would change each time depending on shifts and availability). My department also went bowling once a month, which was good fun and only stopped because the guy who organised it became a father.