Undergraduate Engineer - Electrical Programmes Review

I really enjoyed my placement as it gave me a really good insight into the automotive industry and what it is like to work within a large company. This experience is very useful as it helped me realise what an engineering job can be like. I worked within a project management team which wasn't what I expected but it gave me a good overview of lots of different engineering departments which was really useful.

Initially there wasn't much work I could do and everything I did seemed like I was just being given work to pass the time. However, once I found my feet within the company, I started being given tasks which felt more important and relevant to my job role, I felt that the work I was doing was taking some of the burden off my colleagues which they seemed to appreciate.

As well as my manager, I also reported to another member of my team who had just finished the Jaguar Land Rover graduate scheme. This was quite useful as this team member was easier to approach than a manager and was working on the same things as me so in a better position to support me where necessary.

It varied quite a bit really. The majority of the time I felt that I had enough work to be getting on with and didn't have to keep pestering my manager for more work. However, occasionally there was nobody available for whole days at a time so I had minimal tasks to complete which I soon finished and was left with nothing to do.

A lot of the tasks I was given didn't seem massively important in the grand scheme of things but eventually I realised that there were very far reaching consequences if the work I was doing hadn't been done. However, a lot of my work passed through other members of my team first so I feel that I wasn't that accountable for my work as they would have been checking everything anyway.

I think that the skills I've learnt at Jaguar Land Rover have been extremely useful, in particular the "office skills" I've developed in terms of communicating with different people in the company and how to organize my time. Also, I've picked up a lot of knowledge about the various business processes used for managing project which I may be able to use in my projects back at university.

It was quite standard really, people were friendly and chatted about things other than work some of the time. However, everyone was also quite focused on their work a lot of the time and each team was relatively insular in terms of who you would interact with on a daily basis.

Generally really good. There was a centralised system for handling all of the undergraduate interns so there were quite a lot of tours and talks provided for us to get better insights of the company as a whole. And it was really useful that they set up a mentoring system that allowed us to have someone from a different department to help guide our development.

I felt very at ease to sign up for/request any training opportunities that were made available to me. My manager didn't mind me taking days out to take any relevant training even if I wouldn't have that much time to use the skills I'd learnt. The company also seemed to invest a lot in the inductions for all the interns which really helped get us settled.

I would definitely want to work here again as there is so much going on and many interesting departments that I would like to experience. The company also makes it really easy to return for future internships and the graduate scheme if you get a good review from your manager in your end of placement review. There also seems to be a lot of scope for personal development and promotion opportunities.

I wasn't particularly involved in much socialising myself as I spent time with friends outside the company. However, a lot of the interns all chose to live in the Coventry University accommodation (Liberty Point) and the people living there all seemed to socialise with each other a lot in terms of going clubbing and some sports events.

The area in general is a good price to live in and a lot of people seemed happy with the fact that the cost of living was cheaper than in the South. It also worked out well for me as I was able to commute from my university accommodation which I would have been paying for anyway so that saved me a lot of money.

In the immediate area of Gaydon has absolutely no nightlife whatsoever but there is plenty of life near where the majority of the inerns seem to live, either in Coventry City Centre or in Leamington Spa. Lots of bars and nightclubs available on a variety of nights of the week.

There weren't any particular activities made available to the interns by the company but the people on the graduate scheme seem to organise a lot of activities on weekends and in the evenings. Some of these were made available to undergraduates but in general we were left to organise things for ourselves.