Engineering Intern Review

I am surprised by how much I enjoyed my internship; I absolutely loved every day as the variety of work I was assigned and the interest each of the tasks generated was simply huge. There was never a dull moment! The work was fascinating and its immediate impact on the success of the company and the progress of research was always made clear to me and added much significance to my project.

The interns were not treated as temporary and unimportant employees; I reported directly to several different members of the company, all of whom relied on the results of my work to make progress in their own. Not only was my work valued, but I was given unrestricted access to resources as well as the time of day of many important colleagues, who would always ensure I had everything I needed to proceed.

The level of support was excellent; I instantly had access to many resources which permitted the rapid progress of my work, and my supervisors were more than willing to lend a hand and take time out of their day to deal with any issue or request I had, be it technical, theoretical or otherwise.

The business varied greatly from day to day; for the first couple weeks, the days were fairly relaxed as the project had yet to get off the ground, but as the experiment became better developed, the realization that my days here were numbered suddenly made each hour extremely valuable. I worked very productively and would be exhausted by the end of each day (in a satisfying way).

I was given a surprisingly large amount of responsibility given the huge stakes in place at my office. The work I was carrying out directly influenced decisions made in the manufacturing processes on the shop floor, and so I was entrusted with a rather financially and temporally significant responsibility to conduct good scientific practice.

I anticipate that the skills and knowledge acquired will aid me hugely in my final year of study, as the work I was doing quite literally matched up perfectly with my degree. Beyond university, the things I have learned about how an office and a factory are managed, and how industrial research is carried out, will help me in an enormous range of potential career paths.

The general atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly, with the policy that speaking to someone face to face is a far more agreeable, efficient and productive way of relaying information and making decisions than constantly interfacing by email. My colleagues were friendly and forthcoming, and an air of hard work and motivation yet relaxed nonchalance was always present.

The internship was very well organized and the flexibility awarded to us was huge; most logistical issues were sorted by my first day, with a few more things coming in over the next week or so. The choice of projects was broad and clear, with an immediate port of call for each individual research area.

I received hugely detailed and generous personal training; lectures and seminars were held weekly for the interns, and regular meetings and reviews were held to keep me updated on developments pertinent to me. I could seek out any member of the office for training in which they were specialized in and they were more than happy to help.

Very appealing; they often emphasized how valuable us interns were to the organization and, considering it is such a large multinational company, the option of transferring to other countries as part of a career here is ever present (this is of high importance to me). There is also significant room for positional change/promotion within the office itself.

We had a social sec who would organize fairly regular meetups, especially when someone was to be leaving soon. The fellow interns were all friendly and we spent a lot of time together during the day, with weekend plans often put in place. Perhaps the plans could have been made more regular as I could not attend many of the events.

I was offered very low cost student accommodation, so rent was never an issue. Cheap supermarkets were easily accessible and there was a wealth of delicious independent restaurants in my area which offered very reasonable dining prices, as well as many bars and cheap cinemas which also served this purpose.

Very good - Oxford city centre had many attractions for students, from cheap pubs to fun clubs.

Yes - I often attended exercise classes and met up with friends from all around.