IT Project Support Review

I enjoyed my internship with BMW Hams Hall. I had the opportunity to shadow departments which were not my own and gain an overall understanding of how the plant operates. I was also able to travel abroad with my manager which was a fantastic experience. I was given meaningful projects and tasks which were actual projects that would drive value rather than just learning experiences.

I was welcomed from a very early onset. I found the entire team to be incredibly friendly and personable. It was obvious from early on that they had worked together for a long time, so they all got on very well. I really enjoyed all of the individuals' company and would happily meet up with them again for a future event.

I had a regular one-to-one session with my line manager where I discussed work topics, my future as well as my university work. I also had a more infrequent one-to-one with my group leader, however we would regularly stay in touch and I knew I could count on his support should I require it.

It seemed to depend on the week. For my first couple of weeks I was exceptionally bored with not much work to do. I ended up meeting a colleague out in the business who ended up giving me some IT related tasks to do and as I delivered them well, he gave me more over time as well as referring me to other colleagues. On the whole I had enough work to do, but some days were quite boring, whereas others had lots of deadlines. I suppose that is just the nature of working sometimes.

I felt an awful lot of responsibility for some of the projects I delivered. Whilst I had carved out this niche for myself, I was seen as the representative from IT on a few occasions, namely looking after compliance for some suppliers. For a 21 year old intern, this responsibility was great.

I'm not sure how much of the technical skills I've acquired will be useful for my degree and beyond, but some of the projects I have delivered will be useful. For someone who is coming straight from uni into a placement, it would be really beneficial to learn how businesses work and how to interact with a wider team, but I had already had this experience for a couple of years prior to joining BMW.

I was lucky in the sense that I had a team who were all friendly and happy to chat. There was always a conversation to be had (usually sport related, which suited me!) and we always made an effort to eat lunch together which helped build up a friendly atmosphere. Speaking to other interns, I know this wasn't always the case, but on the whole, most enjoyed the atmosphere. The interns also had regular meet-ups and nights out, so we all became very good friends. I have made some really good friends thanks to BMW.

The internship wasn't the most amazingly organised thing, but this suited me. Whilst others may have preferred a more structured environment, I enjoyed having the freedom to go and find work and speak to other people. Maybe in the first couple of months it would've been good to have more structure, but personally I didn't mind.

Most of the training I received was training that the whole department received. I attended a couple of training sessions that were specific to just me. It would've been nice to have attended more training sessions, but that never really occurred. I am sure that if I had asked for specific training, it would've been organised, but I never really thought that far ahead.

BMW offers a couple graduate programmes in the UK and they are ones that I am keen to apply to. Due to the sheer size of BMW, you could change roles every couple of years and not ever get bored, so this is a positive.

As mentioned previously, there were many other inters during my time at BMW. Whilst most of the students are foreign, they make an effort to speak English whenever you are around them. We regularly went out as a group and you're bound to find someone who shares your interests and hobbies.

I can't really answer this question as I was able to live at home whilst working at BMW. However, the cost of socialising was reasonable. Birmingham is a fairly cheap city to live (I think) so I always had enough to do all the stuff I wanted to do.

The benefits of working near a big city like Birmingham meant that there was always somewhere to end up in at the end of the night. There's an abundance of places to go and there's always another club or bar if the other ones aren't to your fancy.

Again, I can't really comment on this one. The interns that came over here to live for a period of time always seemed to be doing something - whether it was sailing, running, going to watch the football or just wandering round the city centre.