Manufacturing Central Team Review

The placement was much different to previous ones I've had. There was a lot more vagueness in the objectives set and the deliverables. The objectives changed a great deal and delivery dates were soft.

Unfortunately I was sat nowhere near my team which made it hard to feel part of it. However, the work I did in helping members of the team through a process was greatly praised and appreciated. I felt that the teem valued my work when I presented what I had done in my End of Attachment presentation.

I was constantly in touch with my manager and he gave me guidance on how I should do things. I think we may have both taken the wrong routes sometimes. I should have challenged this a little more but it is often difficult when you don't understand the full picture. One of the projects had tight timescales but I was instructed to continuously expand the project scope.

Having done a number of internships before, I am capable of doing most tasks quickly and knowing who to contact and how. This made some of the tasks I was set very quick to do. My larger project required me to send out requests (maybe a 2 hour task every day) and then await responses - often took a long time. I did however, manage to fill my days taking courses, learning a lot more about the company and networking for my future placements.

I was given a great deal of responsibility but this was really down to being in the right (sometimes wrong) place at the right time. Responsibility came when talking to suppliers without any briefing and having to be an ambassador for the comapny without really knowing our relationship with the supplier. As well as having to brief contractors on projects with sensitive content unsupervised.

I developed a lot of knowledge in a particularly important aspect of the company which underpins everything we do.

I was in a completely separate office from my team so I did not form any strong relationships with the people around me.

Support from HR was great but my manager was not present on the first week of my placement (I was given a meanial and completely wasted task in the first week). IT and desk facilities were not made available and this was not rectified to a satisfactory standard at any point during my placement.

I was able to travel with work to other sites, attend training courses and was given a great deal of support from the Early Career Development Team.

A fantastic company to work for. From previous placements I know what opportunities are available. I may have found this placement a bit of a struggle in terms of deliverables, lack of integration with the team and the nature of the work but this is only in comparison to previous placements I have done with the company.

I lived in halls with the other interns and although the social side was not as hectic as it has been in previous summers (people were reluctant to go out on a school night!) it was still great.

Cheap to live in halls, which I would throughly recommend. The city has plenty of bars and clubs with cheap drinks. Most bars and restaurants have deals on throughout the week.

Good clubs and bars. Not quite as good as a BIG city but never had a bad night out.

Do as much or as little as you want to do in terms of sports, clubs and social events.