Businesss IT Development Intern Review

Very enjoyable, the workload was full and very varied. Many enjoyable projects that required a wide range of skills to complete successfully. The work has allowed me build upon existing skills learnt in my degree at university and also has developed new skills that I wouldn't necessarily have gained at university.

The team that I have worked in this year is a small, very close team, with lots of different job roles that work well together. Since my first day, they made me feel welcome and by the end of the placement, have been supplying me with relentless amounts of work and feedback.

I have sat next to my line manager all year, so support and guidance is available on a daily basis. I am left to independently do the work required, however he is always there to oversee and support the work if required. Feedback is readily available when working on live systems.

My days have been very busy, compromising of lots of different activities that have helped the day to be balanced. I will have regular meetings in between my project work that have allowed me to pick up more projects and communicate with other people around the plant, concerning different topics.

I feel as if I was given the right amount of responsibility for my role. Many of the topics that I have worked on have been at operational level, providing useful information and support to the staff on the machining lines. However some projects have required a bit more responsibility, due to the data that I have been working with and required training for other staff members, co-ordinated by myself.

I have managed to balanced the coding side of the role with the data reporting side, to help develop and improve some skills that i will require when going back to university. Building web pages, apps and using JavaScript functions frequently will really help me out with the third year of my degree.

The office had a good atmosphere, everyone was easily approachable and were up for a chat at the right times. As my team all sat in a small area of the office, everyone was constantly discussing different topics - and then I could see how I come make these topics easier to understand digitally.

There was a clear structure to what the placement would consist of from the first week. I had a long handover period with the IT student before me which set me up well for the year. From then, my manager clearly highlighted my priority projects and this has developed nicely over the year.

There wasn't much training required for the role that I was taking on. A lot of the skills have been transferable from my university degree or projects I have completed in the past. Where I have needed new skills, experts across the BMW Group network have been more than willing to help out.

I would like to return to the organisation after university and there is looking like a possibility of a job role being opened up. There are also increasing opportunities for progression in the organisation and the role that I have held this year is going to be increasingly required in future years.

Many of my fellow placement students lived at home, and I was one of few that relocated. There were enough occasions where we socialised outside of work. We would sometimes go out for meals, out into the city centre and regularly in the nicer months would go out golfing with a couple of colleagues.

Living costs were fairly cheap and socialising in Birmingham city centre was as cheap as going out in any other city. Depending on where you choose to go, the prices vary, but overall it was very reasonably priced to socialise around Birmingham and some of the more local areas to work.

The nightlife was really good in Birmingham. As it is a city with multiple universities, there were lots of students out during term time, so it was just like being at uni. In terms of areas more local to the plant, there are less nightlife opportunities but the city centre is only 15/20 mins by train.

Yes, the opportunities were there, it just depends on what you make of them. I had some contacts that played golf and there was a chance to join a works society. My team liked to go out for social activities which was good, so overall I had plenty of opportunities to get involved with things outside of work.