Undergraduate Engineer - Exterior Systems Review

It was a very enjoyable experience, a great company to work for with a great work/life balance. Lots of things provided for you, and benefits. Great facilities, and a very relaxed environment,

I felt valued by my colleagues, as I was given a fairly large responsibility with some of the projects I was working on. I was of course supported in this, but a lot of it was down to me to sort things, and make sure it ran smoothly.

I was given a lot of support when I asked for it, and they always went out of their way to feel like I was given the right support from the right people if they could not help.

In a role like this you are not as busy as say a standard 9-5 office job doing menial work. But when there is stuff to do, it is always busy and to a time limit. In my role there was a lot of waiting on suppliers and other departments, but there was always something I could be doing inbetween.

I was given a fair bit of responsibility, considering I was only on a 3 month placement (might get extended to a year so I might be back with a year long review haha). A lot of the documents for the beginning of the process were my responsibility, and I was just shown how to do it at the start and then left to it until I felt I needed help. I had one project that I started from the beginning, and my mentor helped by designing the part on Catia.

These skills will definitely help me in my degree, as not only have I been working as part of an actual engineering team, I have been working on a lot of documents I know I will see in my second and final year. These skills will put me ahead of others, who will be learning it for the first time.

The general atmosphere is really good here, people are very busy but it is also very relaxed. I have worked office jobs before where you are literally timed on the amount of time you spend in the bathroom, but here they are a lot more relaxed and encourage you to take breaks every now and then. There is a good atmosphere in the main building, as you have the coffee shops downstairs, and open plan offices upstairs. People tend to get on with their own work, but there is also a buzz of people talking and chilling downstairs.

The placement was fairly well organised, my manager and mentor knew what I was going to do from the start, and they set me going on the projects quickly.

I have completed a few training courses since I have been here, and were I doing a 12 month placement I am sure I would do a lot more, and would complete some of the longer ones like CAD training. (see below) there are a lot of perks at the company, I have ticked all the ones you could see, but ones like international travel and working from home depend on your department)

Future employment prospects are very appealing to me within this company. You are very well supported and I know they offer a very good Graduate scheme so I will likely be coming back should they allow me to. I have heard different things about whether you get on to the grad scheme through a placement, but I think it depends on whether you are part of a sponsorship placement or not. I'm sure you still have to interview, but it isn't as "formal" as it would be. I have at least one more placement to complete first, two if I do a masters, so we will see.

There is a very good social scene if you live in Liberty Point or with other undergrads. I live in the area already for uni and I live with my boyfriend so I don't live with other undergrads, but I have still made friends and people are always organising things. From what I have heard the best social scenes are in Leamington spa or Liberty Point (coventry) so it depends how far away you want to live.

the cost of living and socialising in Coventry is pretty cheap but it is further away from the Gaydon site than Coventry, but if you are in Whitley it is perfect. As I said I live with my boyfriend so I don't know how much other people are paying but it's usually in excess of £100 a month with bills included. Socialising is cheap, as it's the midlands so nothing here is too expensive (coming from a southerner, not sure compared to the north)

Because I have been doing a summer placement, Coventry has been pretty dead where all the students have gone home. Being at Coventry uni however, I know it will pick up when term starts again.

There are a lot of opportunities in the area that you can find, but there isn't really anything organised by the company.