Undergraduate Engineer Review

Working in an ADAS team in the electrical department was really interesting in itself. However, I was placed in a project management style role and not given much meaningful work. There were lots of opportunities for training and shadowing in different departments so that made the placement remain interesting despite the lack of work.

My colleagues were generally very friendly and and happy to chat about anything and answer any of my questions. I even managed to arrange meetings with some of them to further discuss their roles and responsibilities which was useful for my personal development. However, nobody was able to do anything about my lack of tasks which was a shame.

My allocated line manager immediately assigned me to another member of the team to work with them. After that he rarely interacted with me. The other member of the team I was assigned to seemed to struggle with management skills and gave me very little guidance, including not giving me any tasks to carry out.

In terms of work that satisfied my job role I was quite bored as I didn't have much work to do at all. However, I kept myself busy by doing training and discussing progression in the company with my colleagues. I also arranged facility tours for other undergraduates to help us all explore the company more.

I was given very little responsibility on a day to day basis as I wasn't given any project management work to do that would directly impact anything important. However, I was trusted to chaperone some senior managers around the test track which was definitely more of a responsibility. Also, one piece of work I did ended up being used by senior managers in high level meetings so that was nice.

The skills I developed will really help me when I work in a large corporate structure in future as I now feel a lot more confident in an office environment. I have also gained a lot of organisational and planning skills that I will be able to apply to my projects at university.

There were lots of people around and lots of movement between desks with people chatting with each other and being productive. The offices are also very large so there always feels like there is something going on. However, the flexible desks mean that you sit by a different person every day which makes it hard to build relationships.

There was a very clear induction procedure to introduce all the undergraduates to the company and this also allowed networking between the undergrads. The team allocation worked well too with people being allocated depending on their preferences. However, once we were a few weeks into the internships there was very little communication which made it difficult to discuss potential problems.

The company made it extremely easy to enroll on a vast array of training courses. This was facilitated by most managers being willing to allow undergrads to take time from their normal work to go on training courses. The only thing that limited training was that some courses weren't being run until after my internshio was ocer.

There are loads of different departments that are doing very interesting work that I would happily work in. I have been offered a subsequent summer internship which I will be partaking in to experience more of the company. It also seems really likely that undergraduate interns get selected for the grad scheme which takes away the pressure of trying to find a grad scheme during the final year of uni.

Some people tried to organise big events but those didn't work out that well. A lot of people lived in the same accommodation during their internship so ended up socialising a lot. Personally, I ended up with a few colleagues that would meet up most lunchtimes and also did some socialising outside of work.

It's a relatively cheap area of the country as long as you live more in the Coventry sort of area. The cost of socialising depends on how much you go out and what activities you do but it seemed quite reasonable. I lived near an Also which made food shopping quite cheap.

Near the actual place of work was very little nightlife as there were mainly just small villages. However, most people commuted from Leamington Spa or Coventry which both have lots of pubs and clubs as well as restaurants. The local area also caters well for students in terms of prices so that worked out well.

The company offered a few opportunities to do things outside of work such as various conferences and an electric car team. However, most activities were organised just by group of colleagues who wanted to meet up outside of work. There was also a group of graduates who were organising a ball but that was going to happen after I finished my internship.