Supply Chain Management Intern Review

My placement was split into 2 roles. I really enjoyed my first role, as it was fast paced with plenty of work and a great team that supported each other to achieve our delivery goals each week and resolve any problems that arose. I enjoyed my second attachment less as it was a lot more independent working in an office, with little collaboration or team work. The work load varied in the second role, and when I didn't have much to do, it wasn't the kind of team/environment where I could help out someone else or pick up another job that was waiting to be done. Personally, I think the advantages of the first role far outweigh the disadvantages of the second, and for people that do enjoy an office based role, the whole placement would be enjoyable.

In both my roles I was made to feel like a valuable member of the team. In my first role I was allowed to take the lead on a major project which gave me a lot of responsibility and my hard work was recognised by several people I worked with. In my second role, praise wasn't so readily shared, but when we had team building sessions the whole team had great things to say about everyone else.

My first manager was incredibly supportive, recognising that sometimes the pressure of my project could be overwhelming, and I came out of the role with so much more confidence and ability thanks to his support. My second manager was less involved but if I arranged a meeting with him to ask for support he was usually helpful.

In my first role, I was incredibly busy. There were days where I had to work late, but I was encouraged to then leave early when there wasn't so much to do, so the hours balanced out. In my second role there was a lot more down time where I was waiting for responses from people.

In my first role I was given a lot of responsibility (but also the support to go with it), which meant it was incredibly rewarding when we achieved our goals. In my second role I was given the responsibility of developing a new tool to be distributed to various managers, however I don't feel I was given the appropriate support/guidance to make this successful, as it was based on metrics that had already been developed and it took the majority of my placement to get my manager to sit down and explain the metric to me so that the tool would be accurate. Ultimately the tool was distributed in a beta version that is accurate, if not the most user friendly, but the responsibility of creating something that would be distributed to high level managers/execs with little support was very stressful.

My first role developed my confidence, communication and leadership skills dramatically. Being put into a manufacturing environment where everything is urgent and can only be achieved by working with a large number of people taught developed my influencing skills. In my second role, I greatly improved my skills with excel, databases and data analysis. I also helped to run multiple training sessions which was a great learning experience.

In my first office, the atmosphere was incredibly upbeat and proactive. Our constant drive for delivery goals meant that everyone was always working as a team and celebrated our successes together. In my second office, the atmosphere was a lot more sedate. The nature of the large open plan office meant that there wasn't much conversation, and the general mood in the office was generally quite depressed, making it quite a difficult environment to spend 40 hours a week in.

The internship was well organised. I had 2 months notice of what each of my roles would be and where they would be. My training was all scheduled before I even started, and was completed within the first 2 months so that by month 3 I was taking the lead on projects and contributing to the business. The Early Careers team were always there if there were problems, or anything that I needed support with.

In both roles, I attended the same training sessions as the rest of my team, as well as additional training to bring me up to standard for my role. I feel that the company have invested a lot in me, and it has been made clear that this is because they see us as a long term investment and hope that we'll choose to return for the grad scheme.

I would definitely like to return to the grad scheme, and could see myself going a long way in my career with Rolls-Royce. There is a good structure set up for employee development both on the intern/graduate scheme, and once you move into a full time permanent role, and there are a lot of benefits provided by the company to reward loyalty.

There is an apprentice and graduate association which interns can also join which organises regular events at varying prices, and many of the interns get shared housing together and organise nights out amongst themselves. Most roles also involve working with at least 1 or 2 other interns in some capacity, which is really good as it's someone that you have more in common with than you might with other colleagues.

I lived at home, however from talking to other interns/grads, rent seems pretty reasonable in the local area, and there are a large number of house shares available with other RR employees which brings the cost down. Going out in Derby is pretty cheap, and there is good public transport to get into town from near RR.

There a couple of decent places to go on a night out, but you can tell it's not a major student city. There are several buses that run until 3am between Derby and Nottingham, where there are plenty of bars and clubs, and student nights in at least one club most nights.

There were plenty of activities organised by the Apprentice and Graduate association, and if you have a particular hobby/activity you're interested in, there are employee resource groups (subaqua, cycling, auto club, motorbikes, mountaineering) which get together on a regular basis, as well as regular sports tournaments with teams based on your office/work location.