Systems Engineer Review

The work is challenging and interesting. The hours are great (07:30-16:00), the early start is worth it for the extra hours you get in the evening.

Didn't feel like an intern, felt like a regular employee who'd been part of the team for years.

I was given a project to work on independently, but when I got stuck I could always ask for guidance. My manager was happy to allow me to get involved in anything that I thought would benefit me, like checking out other departments or being part of additional working activities. Meanwhile, I didn't feel babied, I still had freedom to work how I wanted to work.

Really busy. I had a project with key deliverables throughout my placement. I also did some additional work for the company in general, working in small teams on various projects. I attended a lot of meetings: some as a sort of shadow and just learning from the conversations which I observed; others I was a key contributor or even led the meeting. This being said, when I left work at 4pm I was not expected to do anymore at home, or be on call all night. I never had to work over the weekends either. There were some instances (especially towards the start) where I didn't have enough work, but I think that's probably a symptom of all 3 month placements.

As stated previously, I was given an individual project to work on independently. My project was a key part of the systems engineering process, and my deliverables would be used by the team after I left to continue onto the next part. Errors in my work would lead to major problems down the line, and so I felt like I had a lot of responsibility.

I'm not sure that they'll make my degree any easier, perhaps it's improved my presentation and teamwork skills, which may come in useful. Beyond my degree, I think I've gained some really useful skills: How to work with different sorts of colleagues, how to interact with different styles of manager, experience with SysML (heavily used systems engineering language).

It was quite quiet. Even though everyone was friendly and we'd do the usual chats about what we'd be doing at the weekend and how each others' families were doing, that was pretty much it. We were there to work. I worked in quite a small team (~10) in an office of ~100, so it wasn't like we could have too much fun without disturbing other colleagues. People regularly brought in food whenever there was a celebration of any kind, or would bring strange delicacies from where they'd been on holiday.

Quite structured and well organised. The company put on a tour of one of the cooler areas of the company every week or so. All undergraduates had a pre-defined project with a deliverable before they arrived, so the teams had prepared and carefully considered the work that they would get the undergraduate to do.

I completed three day-long trainings. They were suggested to aid me in my work, but I could have done more if I'd wanted to. They have a website that has a bunch of online trainings, which cover everything from business, leadership and personal skills to the different configurations of paint that a customer can get on their car. The company provided representatives from a number of the large engineering institutions (IMechE, IET etc) to discuss professional registration and chartership.

The company is growing and evolving rapidly as it attempts to catch up with the larger German car manufacturers and fight out new entrants such as Tesla. They're investing in new facilities and bringing in large numbers of talented people to help the company achieve its goals. I'm quite excited at the prospect of working for this company.

Lots of the undergraduates would go out on a Friday evening. We also organised 5-a-side football every week, which was open to players of all levels and was heavily attended by both male and female placement students. Within my flat we spent a lot of time sociailising doing film nights and trips to the pub. I had little interaction with my colleagues socially.

Many of us lived in Coventry in some of the city's university accommodation. Coventry was probably as cheap as it comes.

There wasn't much on offer in terms of nights out, with only a couple of decent clubs, but it was good enough for most people. It might get a bit boring if you lived there for longer than 3 months. Leamington and Birmingham aren't too far away.

As stated previously, we organised our own football which was great fun. There were a few JLR events which we could attend in London (TechFest). There were also tours of different departments which were cool. There wasn't much put on officially for the undergraduates. There's a lot for the grads, who have sports days and weekends away etc.