Undergraduate Product Engineer Review

The actual work I completed on my placement was interesting, but simple in places. I got to use some CAE programmes to analyse parts and produce a report which harder and more enjoyable, but there was also a lot of word document writing which is neither good nor bad.

In my team specifically I felt like I was valued. The work I was doing over the summer was 100% going to be used by the team after I was gone so they were invested and cared about my progress along the way.

This varied a lot with undergrads in placements. Some people had really crap supervisors that couldn't care less, and others had much better. My manager and mentor were great and gave me a lot of support and guidance throughout my placement - both in terms of supplying me with work, but also ensuring I was happy and enjoying my time at JLR.

In the beginning of my placement (the first couple weeks) it was a bit difficult to actually complete any work as I was still learning. The work definitely picked up towards the middle and end of my placement as the larger projects I was working on were getting towards their completion and needed that final push to get them finalised before I left. (4 stars for the first 3 weeks - picking up to 7 or 8 in the middle/final weeks).

As I was in a supporting role for a subject matter expert, the work I was completing wasn't company critical or going to cost millions of pounds. I was given responsibility in the sense that I was responsible for completing all my own tasks on time - but If they weren't completed then it would just look bad on my part and would only require someone else to finish them off after I had left.

I definitely feel like the skills/observations/training I received will benefit me in my degree and further career. I think the main things I gained from this placement were: - Technical knowledge (my team were great and teaching me all about their components and the though processes that go into designing them, as well as seeing all the behind the scenes development of a production car) - Project management (Seeing how a massive company like JLR with 20 people in a team go about organising tasks and team members I feel will be really useful for Uni projects etc. in the future.) - Time management (in all seriousness the ability to consistently wake up at 6 in the morning every day to get in for work is a skill that I am now very happy to have)

Most offices are very work orientated. There's not much time for mucking about, but the odd off-work conversation does happen, but don't expect 'the office' if you're working in product engineering.

The organisation was really hit and miss as well. In my case I had a manager that reached out to me beforehand to discuss with me my job role and what he was looking for over the placement (others were not so lucky). The organisation from JLR was pretty average I would say as well. Finding out the location of where we were working did take a while though and made organising accommodation over the summer feel pretty rushed and stressful.

In my placement I had a manager and mentor who were very keen for me to learn CAD and CAE programmes and fully understand all their processes and their teams job within the company, so I felt like I was being invested in from them. Again this depends on your allocation as some other interns were getting a lot less opportunities for training and additional learning.

As JLR is going through the mincer at the moment, and there is a lot of uncertainty about future plans for new and returning placements/vacancies. We were told that the likelihood of being invited back as a graduate on a placement would be very high though - depending on your performance over the summer placement and if your manager and team liked you.

Yeah there is. Most of the interns live in the same crappy student halls in Coventry so there's a lot of opportunities to go out to the pub, play football etc if that's your type of thing!

Depending on where you want to live the cost is very much you pay what you get for. You can spend much more money and live in a really nice place like Leamington spa, or pay 100 quid a week to live in some student halls in the centre of Coventry like I did!

There's a spoons in Coventry...

As a 3 month placement there was definitely opportunities made available for us, but these were mostly aimed at the graduate placement guys/girls who would be sticking around the company for 2 years instead of 12 weeks.