Powertrain CAE Engineer Review

I really enjoy my work at Jaguar Land Rover, I am given interesting projects and great support from my team. My manager is interested in making sure that the projects I'm working on benefit the company but also my education. I have been given the opportunity to improve myself both personally and professionally throughout my time here.

I work as part of a really friendly team who regularly meet outside of work for social activities. I have always been given great constructive feedback on my work. Towards the second half of my placement we got new placement students and I was able to assist with their software training, this made me feel greatly valued and showed how far I had come from the start of my placement.

My manager and supervisor support me constantly. I have a catch up meeting with my manager every week and he is interested in catching up on my projects, giving me advice and tailoring my work to improve my education. My supervisor is constantly around for any questions I may have and checks in with me regularly.

Because of the nature of CAE there are times in the day where I am waiting on results. Other than this I am busy working on simulations. I have never found myself with nothing to do as I am able to do online training courses when I have less on.

I have worked on projects that directly impact the business and have even worked on major issues where my results were presented to higher management by my manager. I have been given responsibility for a specific area within my team and my absence will be felt when I go back to uni.

The skills I have developed on placement mean that I am able to walk into a "proctor" job back at university. I have been able to sort out my 3rd year project with the company while here and this will benefit me by taking some of the pressure off!

We have a great atmosphere at work, collaborative and fun. For occasions such as Christmas, Halloween, Easter, we have an office party where we decorate our desks and bring in themed foods! Since starting here I have had lunch with my team everyday and have never felt left out or alone.

There were a few issues around the length of my placement, however, these were sorted out well. The company organised a week of inductions at the start of the placement and we had support throughout.

I was able to go on training courses such as MATLAB which benefited me technically. But I was also able to go on training courses for my personal development such as systems intelligence and growth planning. These really benefited me and i was able to use these skills in the workplace.

I am on a scheme where I will return for a summer placement next year. The graduate scheme here is well structured and involves placements where you can learn different skills.

On Fridays I had lunch with the interns from my wider department and we met up outside of work for things like dinner, cinema and pub quizzes. My team have lunch together daily and regularly meets outside of work for dinner, drinks and occasional sports days.

I live at home with parents but Coventry isn't a particularly expensive area.

I'm not much of one for nightlife but the nightlife in Coventry is alright and Birmingham is a short train away.

The company has an employee learning scheme where you can get funding towards approved activities, I used this scheme to learn to snowboard with some of the interns and now regularly go bouldering with my team.