Regularly Changed Review

Assuming you get placed into a good team, Jaguar Land Rover is a great company to work for. Most obviously is it’s strong brand which is well recognised worldwide and attractive to add to your CV. There are also lots of extra perks which if you have a good manager you can avail of through this powerful and exciting company.

I moved through a selection of different teams. Unfortunately not all of them were good. It is a lucky dip where HR place you. And as the company underwent cuts teams are constantly changing. I personally went through 5 different managers I was reporting to across the year. This made it very difficult to find a consistent team feeling throughout.

My managers were regularly moved. At one point I was forgotten about as my manager and his manager above him moved within a fortnight of each other and my new direct manager (a very senior figure who was in charge of too many people to know me) didn’t reply to my emails. I was forced to contact HR and assist my peers for a week with no real direction.

This changed frequently. Some days I would have literally no work at all. I would then ask my wider team if they wanted any assistance. This sometimes became a frustration for them and I was often dumped with lengthy wrote-tasks on excel. However, I was placed into a great team in a different function for the final 3 months after company restructuring and they all met up once a week and set clear targets which was great.

For much of the time I was not valued and seen as an extra dogsbody. I sat through quite a lot of meetings with no involvement and no prior explanation of any technical details. Note keeping and administration for my manager was my primary role. Equally, I was occasionally given some significant tasks which I felt under-qualified for and which I am certain would influence the company in its setting of competitive rates (this didn’t get the proper level of review and feedback it should have had). Gernerally though, I experienced a lack of trust.

I learnt a lot about how large companies operate. I learnt a lot about how vehicle manufacturers operate. I learnt a lot about how vehicle retailers operate. I learnt a lot about how marketing and PR of a global brand is done well. I also learnt where big companies like JLR are able to make a lot of mistakes.

Mostly dull. Very boring. On the bright side you are forced to get good at small talk and browse the news regularly to keep up conversation. It really depends on your team and your manager though, for my final months I was put in a younger more dynamic team who were fun to be around.

Little info given. HR are super slow to reply. Organising accommodation is a disaster. Getting refunded from the original interview takes ages. There is no set ‘curriculum’. It is all a bit of a random lucky dip if you get a good manager who runs a good team or not.

The company has an employee learning scheme where they give you £200 towards an activity which allows you to better yourself. There are also electrical fitness monitors across the facilities and healthy food options provided. They also do plenty to encourage you into becoming a full time graduate next year.

Not good! They aren’t hiring any commercial graduates at present. The future is unclear for JLR with the Chinese market fluctuating, WLTP, diesel-gate, and Brexit. If you are a software engineer or into composites or electrical engineering then you should be safe. However, elsewhere there is little room for promotion. There is also the company wide hiring freeze as significant cuts are made.

Mostly what was arranged between ourselves (which was also great). They held 2 days in the start at a hotel which involved team building activities and there was a Facebook group created which if you put yourself out there allowed okay opportunities to get involved. The actual teams you work with are all different and a bit of a lucky dip.

I found an okay spare room with another employee at £400per month. Leamington is a nice area with a little bit of everything. A car is extremely useful though as plans were often changed and you are relying upon a difficult bus network otherwise, especially since people work at all sorts of different hours.

Super. Great cocktail bars. Handy access to bigger clubs too.

Same as anywhere else really