Product Validation Engineer Review

Overall, I enjoyed my placement. It took me a while to get used to working regular hours and having limited free time, as well as dealing appropriately with people from various backgrounds, positions and cultures. After the first couple of months, I felt comfortable in my role and enjoyed working with the people around me. I felt pride in my responsibilities and looked forward to the new experiences I was offered. The working environment was welcoming and rewarding, with a good mix between socialising and satisfying work.

I felt significantly valued by my colleagues, both in the UK and the US. As well as completing basic background tasks which you would expect to be assigned to an intern, I was given various tasks and projects throughout the year which were important and necessary to release products on time at a high standard. I was treated as an equal to the permanent employees where appropriate, but given the help and support I needed as a student, too. I would regularly attend team building events outside of work, as well as social events with colleagues which were completely unrelated to work.

I was given support if I asked for it or if I was performing a new task which involved a standardised process. I was encouraged to use my knowledge and resources available to me to find answers to my questions, before asking for help if necessary. I usually asked colleagues other than my supervisor for help with work, as most of my projects were not relevant to my supervisor's current work. This was not a problem as everyone around me was happy to help, which is an important culture with the company. It was more difficult to get support from colleagues in the US, as would be expected, but this never caused major problems other than causing work to take longer than it otherwise would have.

Most of the time, I was busy enough to keep me occupied and under a reasonable amount of pressure throughout the day. However, I never needed to work from home at weekends or in the evening, and rarely felt under too much pressure or overly stressed. Occasionally, I would have quiet weeks where I would struggle to find enough to do to fill the day. This was usually due to my projects being at a stage where the responsibility was with another team, such as when a design was sent to the analysis team or I was waiting for results to come back from applied mechanics testing. During these weeks, I could use I wealth of training resources to further my engineering knowledge and try to prepare for any future tasks which I might be assigned to.

I was given various degrees of responsibility depending on what was suitable for the type of project I was working on. I was the owner of eight different incident investigations throughout the year which meant that I was responsible for organising all investigation actions and meetings and keeping the projects on track. This was mainly project management work, delegating tasks to the appropriate teams and liaising with engine program leaders to decide when to complete each action. When working on design reviews, whether compiling and presenting the review or completing action items afterwards, I was usually the owner of the tasks but worked closely with a more experienced colleague to complete them. This was due to the fact that the necessary actions were always varied and I had little to no experience in completing them. These are just two examples of different levels of my responsibilities. All of my work was valuable and beneficial to the company in some way and I was responsible for its completion.

I think the training I received and skills I developed will benefit me significantly in my future career if I go into a similar role. I doubt that my degree studies will be affected much by this development as academic environments and requirements are very different to those in industry. Most of the skills which I have developed are more general engineering principles and processes which will help me integrate into a future professional role more easily but will not particularly help me to pass exams. They might, however, be useful in university group projects. I think that this kind of knowledge is the main attraction of a placement year so am not dissatisfied with its applicability.

The general atmosphere was friendly, helpful and active. People were constantly moving around to speak to colleagues throughout three floors of office space, as well as those based in the plant. Short social conversations provided regular breaks from work, without disrupting my workflow. The attitude of nearly all employees was to provide assistance to anyone where ever possible and to work together closely towards a common goal.

The placement scheme is very well established at Cummins. Around 25 students were employed this year and this is a regular occurrence, as far as I am aware. Students were split between roles as the workload required, and supervisors are given no more than two students so that it is possible for them to provide any support which is required.

Regular training sessions were provided for various topics. Some were related to current changes in processes, others refreshed or built on basic training which was available online. Some sessions were provided purely for engineering interest. A chartered engineer was also assigned to me to mentor me through my IMechE MPDS scheme submissions so that my placement year counts towards chartered status.

Based on my experience, I would like to work for Cummins as a graduate. The atmosphere, working style and benefits all make the company an enjoyable and rewarding place to work. Having to work with colleagues in the US and India is not ideal due to a lack of opportunities for face to face contact, but the working methods are well established and are successful.

Placement students mainly lived in Northampton, Rugby or Coventry, with a few living in Daventry or in surrounding villages. The majority of us regularly attended various social events, sometimes with permanent employees, in all four places. Some students kept to themselves, as is to be expected, but most of us had a good social life together and became good friends very quickly. Plans are in place to meet again in the future.

I lived in Northampton so can't speak for living and socialising in Daventry. I paid £350 for rent each month and never struggled to get through the month on my salary. There are places to socialise at all price points and supermarkets are all reasonably cheap and easy to get to if you have a car, or know someone to provide lifts. Driving to work every day resulted in a cost of approximately £90 per month in petrol. Ownership and maintenance of a car is probably the largest relative expense, although I would definitely recommend this over living within walking distance of work. Sharing lifts with housemates greatly reduces this expense.

In Northampton and Rugby, the nightlife is limited in terms of clubs, but there are plenty of bars and pubs all within walking distance of each other. As long as you can find somewhere to stay, either of these places are equally accessible for a night out and are perfectly adequate for most people. We went out almost every weekend and never failed to enjoy ourselves. The university students in Northampton provide a good atmosphere, though Rugby is always busy, too.

There are various Cummins sports and social clubs and these often develop into competitions, such as karting championships or a Daventry vs Cummins charity rugby match. Cummins also has a scheme whereby all employees are strongly encouraged to complete a minimum of four hours of voluntary work in the local community, within work hours.