Undergraduate Engineer Review

My summer internship at JLR was for the most part very enjoyable and rewarding. The tasks and projects I was given were genuinely interesting and had "real-world" implications for my team. I also had some degree of freedom in choosing what my main projects would focus on, which was very beneficial in keeping me engaged.

I was made to feel welcome in my department from day 1, and was quickly given background reading to do to get me up to speed. As you would expect, the work I did within the first month or so was not particularly valuable to anyone other than myself as I had to learn about my team and their subject of expertise, as well as the software I would be using. However, towards the end of my placement I feel my input is genuinely valued when it comes to the subject of what I am working on and I have real responsibility and ownership.

Whenever I had a question, no matter how small, my mentor or someone in my team would be more than happy to take the time to answer. Of course, I did not want to take too much of their valuable time as people are generally very busy. This particularly applied to my manager, however him setting up a mentor for me from day one meant this was not an issue.

Towards the end of my placement I found I was continuously busy and was never looking for something to do. If anything, I had more than enough to keep me stimulated. However, this was more a result of my wanting to continuously extend the scope of my main project and it was not due to my superiors having too high an expectation of me. I was set goals and outcomes at the very start of my placement which I comfortably could complete by the end. At the start, as I had to do a lot of reading and define what work I wanted to do this was obviously a much less busy time, but this is normal.

As mentioned previously, towards the end of my placement I felt like I truly had ownership of my main project. My only criticism of my project was that it was not something that will ever "end up on a car" and didn't contribute to something directly related to what my team was delivering. However, this was good in many ways as it meant I could stay with the project from start to finish rather than work on extremely complicated simulations. I also had opportunities to extend my project to be more relevant to what my team was responsible for delivering.

I was given training and experience of using industry standard CAD and CAE softwares that were taken to a more advanced level than I am likely to ever use in University. This will be extremely useful to call upon in my future career. I also learned a lot about what it takes to work in a major organisation such as JLR and the numerous protocals and bureaucracy this entails.

As mentioned, I was made to feel very welcome from day 1. My team were very friendly and helpful from the beginning, and it didn't take long to integrate myself into the team. People take an interest in you and your interests and life, and I feel I know many of the team members on a more personal level.

Much of the application process was very impressive and professional. The main criticism I would have of this was the duration of time between applying and being told I had an interview, which was 5 months. I would say JLR does not put enough focus into placing students into departments relevant to their experiences or interests, and I heard one grad scheme employee describe their experience as "like a washing machine". There should be something like what I experienced with another company, where I was sent a list of 10 projects/departments which went into technical detail and picked my top three according to your interests. Although I really enjoyed where I was placed, it wasn't particularly relevant to what I said at my application or interview which I thought would be factored in more. Be prepared for being placed somewhere it doesn't say on the job title...

JLR invests a lot more in you generally speaking than you can give back over a summer placement. The training and software licenses I received were not cheap, and the amount of time which was spent on me by experienced colleagues likewise. They are really encouraging you to come back to the grad scheme as this is the only way they will get their investment back.

As a company, JLR is very attractive to work for in some ways. They take good care of their employees from my experience, with a focus on work life balance that is very healthy. Most importantly, the products they make are genuinely really cool and impressive and the company has a really interesting heritage. The company is undergoing a challenging time at the moment, and from working there for a few months some of the reasons why are clear. I personally think JLR will overcome these challenges eventually. The reason I am unsure whether I would work here in future is more down to my interests lying more outwith the automotive industry, which I knew before my placement but was confirmed during my time here.

The social scene can be decent if you get involved with it. Interns arranged to play 5s every week which was good, and people went to the pub about once a week. However, almost all interns leave Coventry at the weekends so be prepared to have something lined up elsewhere if you want to socialise.

Coventry is a cheap place to live, work and socialise. JLR subsidises summer placement students to stay in Coventry Uni student halls at a reasonable price. Some areas nearby to JLR such as Leamington and Warwick are a bit more expensive, however I didn't spend much time in these outwith work. I would recommend paying a bit more to stay somewhere nicer/more expensive because Coventry is not the best to put it mildly...

If you are from a bigger city in the UK like myself, not good. If you are from anywhere else probably average. It is a relatively student-y town so there are nightclubs, but they aren't great overall because of the area you are in. Good things are there are lots of decent student pubs (the city centre has 4 spoons!) which many of the interns went to quite often.

Graduates are generally responsible for organising activities for undergrads outside of work. Some students got involved in graduate events such as grad football and cricket. Where I was based had its own events, such as socials and sports events such as badminton and football also. However, there wasn't a lot of variety if you weren't interested in these things.