Undergraduate Crankshaft Process Engineer Review

I really enjoyed the placement. It was 12 months and I had learnt a lot, not only on a technical engineering level but on a personal and business level too. I learnt how a company uses all its departments to produce a quality end product. I did 3 weeks of shadowing into other areas to understand the product creation path and found a similar culture and atmosphere in each one I went too. I would recommend this to anyone. I learnt a lot about myself: how to adapt myself to situations, to be more confident and to order my work and how I talk to people more logically so that they easier understand. However, I also learnt to ask questions if I'm unsure or stuck as more insight into a problem will help with understanding how to fix it.

The team made me feel welcome and wanted on site daily and involved me from the outset with team-bonding exercises. I was always welcome to shadow and help out on projects if I asked. No one made me feel stupid if they had to explain something that everyone else in the room already knew. It was known that I didn't know many acronyms at the start and the team expanded on the ones they thought I might not have known when they came up.

Daily. My Manager was enthusiastic about my self development as were the senior engineers in my team. The team were always available for questions and guidance and no question was too stupid. I was able to organise weekly 1-1's with a senior engineer or manger to review my work and guide me on anything I had questions about, whether it was contacting different departments or presenting out results in different formats.

The placement started slowly which, with hindsight, I should have used to my advantage more, using resources to look into understanding all the different stages of the job role in more depth. I had been given a long-term project which grew in scope and possibilities for engagement with other teams around the factory, writing a report on it concluded the project in the last month of the placement. As my time in the team went on and my confidence grew I was given a production based possible money-saving project which I had started, investigated and presented as part of a company-wide initiative to improve the quality of our products. This was challenging and engaging and I learnt a lot from the process, learning the best questions and avenues to head down in order to get a result.

As mentioned, if I asked to work or shadow with someone, they would give me increasing responsibility starting with helping with physically moving products or ordering items to collecting and analysing the data from a test in order to report out the results. The work was varied with some days in the office and others spent on the shop floor.

Extensively! The technical guidance paired with the internal/external training that the team offered was invaluable. Even with a limited knowledge of the specific area upon arriving on the placement, I left feeling confident I could go back into a full time role and work effectively with the training that was offered. Beyond the technical training, the insight into how the team and wider company ran was invaluable help for possible future job considerations with big companies.

From the department that I was in, it seemed very organised and I joined din with daily tasks and my projects. However, the Undergraduate placement, although they tried, did seem haphazard. There was an offer of shadowing other departments but there were Undergrads who were so invested in their teams work they were not able to leave for their desired shadowing or their manager would not let them. Further Undergraduate events were also badly detailed to people so they did not know times or what they had to bring and sometimes the short notice of an event would mean their managers would have to organise someone to cover their work for them quickly. They were also in the same location. Meaning undergrads at other Manufacturing plants up and down the country would have to travel hours to attend. Overall there wasn't much engagement from the Undergraduate team as there was only 2 hours, one of which did not happen when we turned up too. An understanding of what the undergrad is allowed to do in terms of training also needs to be understood as some managers allowed/offered training other undergrads were denied Hopefully this will improve as the team responsible solidify a permanent undergrad curriculum.

I was able to get a house with a few other undergrads from the factory and we formed good friendships with other undergrads that were also based at the factory. Unfortunately I can't say the same for other places. At the end, there were Undergrads at the factory that we did not even know were there - if the Undergraduate engagement team had an event or let us know who else was at the factory then meetings and help settling in and socialising could have been organised

An 8 only because of the team building exercises that I had joined in with some Graduates and my home team including go karting, bowling and great meals. Apart from this there were no factory sports or undergraduate socialising events that I knew of that we hadn't organised ourselves anyway.