Intern - Mechanical Review

I found my work placement very enjoyable. I was given a wide variety of tasks and a degree of freedom as to how I completed them. I was also given ‘real work’ very early in the placement, which helped to build my confidence and make me feel as though I was a help to the team.

My colleagues were very helpful throughout, and gave me support whenever I felt as though I was struggling. They appreciated that I had little knowledge of the company and subject matter, but still treated me as though I was a full time employee. The company is keen to establish a culture of respect and supportiveness.

My manager generally gave me freedom to do the tasks that I had been assigned, although he was quick to answer any questions I had and always made sure that I knew what I should be doing. Again, I would say that there is a noticeably friendly and supportive culture in the company.

I found the workload to be somewhat variable depending on deadlines etc., and because you are trusted to get on with it people will not always realise when you have too little to do. However the team were able to adjust to the amount that I had and gave me more or less accordingly.

Initially I was not given a huge amount of responsibility, but once I became more capable and better informed I was given tasks with a higher significance to them. I was given similar tasks to a full time employee, although the expectations were not the same level and I never felt overly pressured.

I was given the opportunity to present my work to other employees, which has helped to develop my presentation skills. I have written reports and received feedback on them, which has helped my written communication, and I have improved my technical knowledge by learning about how theoretical concepts are applied in practice.

The general atmosphere was very pleasant, everyone was keen to make me feel welcome and support me with any questions I had. The company preaches a culture of inclusion and acceptance, so I believe that everyone would feel welcome here. Everyone was comfortable talking to everyone else, and the management were very approachable.

There was no particular structure to the internship programme. On the first day we received an induction and a tour, but beyond that we were given to out teams and generally given some work straight away. There are opportunities to learn more about the company, but generally we had to find them ourselves instead of them being organised for us.

I was given instruction on how to use a few different software packages such as NX and ANSYS from other employees, all of whom were keen to help. In addition, we were able to have lectures on how the company’s products work from an experienced technical specialist which helped everyone’s background knowledge.

The future prospects within the company are very appealing as they have a 18 month graduate placement that gives you the opportunity to experience four different areas of the business. This is something that I wish to do in order to understand what aspect of engineering I enjoy the most and what I might want to do going forward.

The company is quite large in size, which means that there were a large number of interns accepted. This made it easy to socialise, and a lot of us have gotten accommodation together for the year. This is something that I value because in a smaller company there may be the issue of having few people of your own age to spend time with outside of work.

Birmingham is a reasonably priced area and we had little difficulty finding affordable accommodation etc.

The centre of Birmingham was very accessible from where we lived. There is a wide array of bars, clubs and restaurants so there is normally always something to do.

The company has an engagement group programme whereby it encourages the staff to form clubs for things that they have an interest in. As a result, there are a few societies for sports and other activities that are open to everyone. Everyone will be welcomed to a new society and there is an opportunity to set up one of your own if you wish.