Manufacturing Engineer Review

It was a nice and demanding experience which I can say I definitely enjoyed as it contributed to my development in many ways. I assume it changes a lot depending on the site and industry in which you are placed, but for me it was a good induction to the reality in manufacturing engineering in aerospace.

As long as you prove to be willing to learn, show a bit of initiative and dedication, it is just a matter of time until your value will be recognised. Once with your recognition, more important tasks are given to you. Also, there is a program of online recognition with public "eThankYou" and incentives to recognise efforts individual

In terms of guidance, there have been daily and weekly team meetings as part of the organisation of each department and also monthly sessions concerning more general issues. Apart from these, there were quarterly reviews with local HR responsible for the interns and several other meetings with the HR Manager in charge of the entire scheme. During all these meetings I was reporting the development of projects and activities, discussing about the challenges that I was facing and getting recommendations of how to tackle them or how to study the situation from a different point of view.

Working in Manufacturing Engineering implied a certain level of routine, usually in the morning with all the meetings and basic tasks, but the rest of the time it was a matter of people availability and managing my tasks so that I would a consistent work load. 30% of the time I was having fixed tasks but the rest of 70%, it was my decision of how to allocate it and distribute it for my projects.

Responsibility has been increasing continuously as long as each task I was doing proved to be properly approached and executed. The most important projects that I have been leading, included having a cross functional team with people from multiple departments in order to deliver product analysis and improvement plans every two months (due to the level of details required). Also, I had to present and explain certain projects to management seniors on site but also UK-wide.

I have developed both my technical knowledge as well as my soft skills. Once again, it really matters in which department you are placed. My position involved a lot of teamwork and transferring skills from subject matter experts, not focusing entirely on individual research. This has helped me in significantly developing my management skills and look at a task from multiple points of view. I consider this to be very valuable for my 3rd year projects and dissertation, apart from my overall development.

The atmosphere was relaxed most of the time, but as more important projects or issues were coming up, everybody was focusing and making sure the situations are treated properly. Whenever a new product campaign for the big customers was starting, there seemed to be more stress in several departments in order to ensure the success of it.

The placement as a scheme has been well organised, including offsite trainings almost every 2 months focusing on soft skills and how to approach the work environment. Overall, I consider it was organised almost perfectly, as it has offered a certain degree of flexibility in order allow me to engage with what I liked as well..

The programme included offsite training almost every 2 months focusing on soft skills and how to approach the work environment. Apart from that, there is an online university with thousands of courses that can related to very specific technical knowledge and also on site training may be available depending on what opportunities appear and according to business priorities.

There are a lot of opportunities available, starting with post graduate schemes, that take from 2 to 3 years. Some of them are rotational meaning they rotate the graduates across multiple departments in multiple countries (if desired). Also, they offer financial support regarding master degrees, most of them on a part time basis.

Most of the social events for inters were taking place during off site training sessions every 2-3 months.

Decently low, bearing in mind that the site was placed in a remote area.

Not that developed, as the site was placed in a remote area. Although, the site was 20 minutes away from both Southampton and Portsmouth.

Various activities were taking place, starting from some social events, a lot of charitable events also possibility to represent the company at STEM events.