Operations Intern Review

I did enjoy placement after looking back at the year. I think day to day I was quite often a little bored as I found my day-day tasks a little monotonous. I think that however, this was partly my fault as I had unrealistic expectations of what I would be doing. Nontheless I did really enjoy placment because of the skills I can take away into a future career

I was given a variety of projects throughout the year and a lot of things to cover whilst my colleagues were off on holiday. So in a way I did really feel valued. However, on the flip side, I felt as though there was a real blame culture at the site I worked at. Even as an intern, I was expected to know everything straight away and any little mistakes I made would really get picked on by my colleagues. This was disheartening.

This is probably what I was most dissapointed with during my placement. I think on the whole, my intern programme manager was really helpful. If I ever had any issues I would get the support. However day-day especially initially I had little or no support from my manager. I think partly this was due to their role, which saw them out of the office quite alot. This did mean however, that I didn't get the mentoring I really wanted throughout the year

Some days I could be hugely busy and other days I could be not that busy. I had daily tasks to complete which initially took me a long time as I got used to how the business works. As I got more used to the role, I could complete this alot quicker which left more room for project work.

I think I was given more responsibility as the year wore on and trusted with more things. I think this was largely down to the experience I had gained throughout my placement. Again however, I think because it took so long to get to the point of holding real responsibility, I had become very disheartened.

This was one part of the programme I can see benefits from. The company invest a lot of time in training their interns through real skills training sessions such as Time Management, Excel, Project Management. The skills I've learnt won't probably help me in the day to day activities of my degree but will definitely help my professional development in general.

The general atmoshphere at our site is ok. It can be fun at times but everyone has a strong work ethic which can rub off on you. However, as I mentioned they are sometimes unaware that going to university does not mean I know everything about anything. I valued the experience they had within the business but I feel some of the older colleagues were under the impression that I thought I was better than them, which really wasnt the case.

I think initially there was no real direction to the internship. This soon improved when an actual intern manager was assigned through the year. This meant we had a fixed point of contact for any concerns which gave the programme real direction. The training also was really well set up and you could tell it has been improved from previous runnings of the programme.

As mentioned the company place a real emphasis on investment in their interns. There is alot of training events which mean you can see your own personal growth as the year goes on. It also meant that I was able to apply these skills in my role day to day.

I think there are real prospects for employment in the organisation for their interns. However, I think there is much more opportunity given to engineering students as they work on skills developed in their degree and have the opportunity to gain more knowledge. Personally for myself, I do not see a career at Eaton.

As Eaton is such a huge business, natrually there are a lot of interns that work across the different sites. The training events meant that we got to meet up with the interns regularly. It was really interesting to see the different types of projects people were working on and the skills they had picked up as the year went on.

The cost of living in my area was relatively cheap. I think the more up north you go, living costs and general entertainment are cheaper so really allows you to save money if you want to. However, you then spend alot of money travelling if you want to go down south, so I guess it all balances out.

The area that I worked in had a big nightlife. The cost of living made it really cheap to go out if you wanted to. However, because we were not living in a city which had a univesity or any universities close by, there was no one of student age and the nightlife reflected this.

There was alot of opportunities to get involved with sports outside of work. This allowed alot of interaction with colleagues outside of the work place. Unfortunately, I could not participate due to medical reasons but nontheless opportunities existed. Besides sports, there was no real opportunity to do anything after work.