PC&L Placement Student Review

I barely enjoyed this placement. I believe i was not given any level of responsibility but rather utilised as a tool to undertake simple and non-continuous tasks. I was not given the chance to keep improving in specific tasks and demonstrate my worth because the tasks kept changing in (simple) nature.

I established good relationships with many colleagues, but from professional point of view, I received very little trust/confidence in my actions. There was a good social scene in my department, but it unfortunately didn't translate into professional confidence. This might have been due to the fact that my placement was split into 6 months in FES and 7 months in PC&L, leaving little time to make my place in the department.

Support was always there if needed. However, guidance was not really there. I was barely ever trained and had to figure it out myself. For example, I spent several months of my placement having to learn things myself and then applying my own knowledge. The most negative aspect for me was receiving no feedback from my manager, leading to an uncertainty as to what I had done correctly or incorrectly. Thus, impeding me from being able to grow by learning from my mistakes or achievements.

The amount of work I had to do fluctuated like a graphical representation of '1+Sin(x)'. Some days I would get into the office and I would have to complete several tasks ASAP, and the majority of days I would have barely anything to do. For that 'majority' of days, I would either have to find stuff to do or be sat at my desk doing university work/nothing. I could afford to do nothing because I was not needed at all in my department. To better explain this, my lack of work or my surplus of work had the same effect, nothing.

This was my main concern this year. The level of responsibility I was given was zero to none. When I was given a task it was always a simple task with very little relevance. Thus, if I did it correctly or incorrectly it would have no great effect. I was not handed the responsibility of any project/large task. The only tasks that carried some responsibility were the ones that I constructed myself by learning and applying concepts to improve the plant.

The specific professional skills gained in this job are inapplicable to my degree. However, the soft skills I have gained throughout this year will be very positive for my future development. Soft skills will not only aid me in my future work career but also in my University career studies.

This was the best part of my placement. The atmosphere in the whole plant, not only the office, was great! Good people with whom I could have a great balance between fun conversations and more serious work related conversations. The atmosphere was light and really enjoyable. There were rarely any moments of tension and dullness.

I believe that the work placement was set up in a good way. But as much organisation as HR can set, it is up to your individual department to follow those guidelines and make the internship an organised experience. For example, there is a great schematic set out by HR for periodical reviews with your manager. For this schematic to work, your manager has to give you objectives, for you to achieve progressively along your internship, at the beginning of your placement and you must do a one-on-one review every 3 months. In my case, my manager didn't give me objectives, even though I asked several times, and didn't go through the 3 month review process. Thus, I had nothing to aim for and no periodical feedback meaning I could barely progress.

I felt like the company did not invest in me at all. I was not trained formally in any instance. The only occasions that induced training were when I was assigned a task that I had questions about. I would get my questions answered but that is all. This was very disappointing to me since at the beginning of the placement I had a lot of motivation to learn as much as I could and apply it. My motivation was such that since I wasn't receiving any training I took it upon myself to learn on my own through an online learning platform that the company has. But I was never requested or recommended to set aside any time for learning.

The future employment prospects are really interesting. Mainly the International experience platform that Faurecia participates in. This platform allows people to work at any of the 35 countries that Faurecia operates in. However, I am already doing my own international experience by being in the UK and I want to try a different industry after university.

The social scene amongst the placement students and graduates was great. We had great working relationships that even stretched to more open friend relationships in and outside of work. Every day we would come together to eat in the canteen. I really enjoyed having a good group of friends in the workplace.

I lived in Lichfield, which is a very nice and beautiful town that has quite a high cost of living. Although the high cost of living was balance out by the proximity that Lichfield offers when working in Fradley. I was a mere 10 minutes from work, which is a total privilege.

There is a very limited nightlife in Lichfield. There are 2 bars that have good atmosphere over the weekends. However, they are more suited to people from the town, that know everyone in the town. For outsiders like me it was not a good nightlife. Birmingham is 40 minutes away which is not bad if you have a good group of people to go with.

There were no Faurecia organised activities outside of work, except for the Start of Placement and End of Placement events at Woodland Grange in Leamington Spa, which were more serious events. I did a couple of activities with the students along the year, but the frequency of these activities was hindered by the distance between us.