Electrical Sponsored Scheme Undergraduate Engineer Review

I was kept busy with a good variety of work throughout my placement which meant that I didn't get bored during the work day. The work I was doing also felt like it was a benefit to Jaguar Land Rover and that I was actually contributing to my team. I also felt valued by my team as they appreciated my contribution to reducing the workload.

I worked very closely with my immediate colleagues and felt like they appreciated me sharing the workload. I also feel like I gained a lot of knowledge about the subject area of my job role so I was able to competently help colleagues outside of my team with any queries that they had. They appreciated that I could give them answers to their questions which made me feel more valued.

My line manager was very busy for the duration of my internship and was unable to give me much support. He said that we would have biweekly meeting to check how I was getting on but this didn't end up happening. However, my manager assigned a different member of the team to give me work and feedback and this colleague was extremely supportive and helped me to learn what was required for my role.

I consistently had plenty of work to do with multiple on going tasks that I could work on so I would never get bored. There were times when I was a little too busy when work was given last minute and times where there was not a lot to do, but overall the balance was good and I was neither overworked or underworked.

For day to day tasks I was given quite a lot of autonomy and left to make minor decisions by myself. However, for larger pieces of work I had to spend time reviewing what I'd done with other members of my team to get their approval. Overall I was trusted a lot to be in control of the work associated with my role as a systems engineer.

The majority of my developed skills will not help with my degree studies as they are very specific to the workplace and to systems engineering (whereas my degree stream is manufacturing and mechanical engineering). However, a lot of the skills will be useful for working as a systems engineer in future as I now understand the role a lot better as well as how to carry out the associated tasks.

The atmosphere was quite good, there are plenty of people around and lots of people moving around to go to meetings or to talk to people at their desks so it feels like the office has some life. The décor of the office is quite dull which isn't very inspiring, however, potted plants were recently installed all around the office which has made it look and feel a lot better.

Before the placement we were given a lot of information about onboarding and our induction week. When we joined the company we were well looked after by a team of graduate engineers who arranged a lot of experiences for us to help us learn more about the company. There were a few miscommunications between the various teams that had responsibility for the undergraduate interns but this mainly lead to repeats of information rather than missing out on anything.

There were possible opportunities to go on training courses but there were none that I felt that I needed to do and none that my team told me I needed to do so I didn't personally experience any training. However, I saw that other interns who wanted to go on specific training courses were able to without much difficulty.

The grad scheme looks really good and a lot of current graduates have said that they are enjoying it so I would be very keen to return as a graduate. The grad scheme offers a lot of opportunities to work in a variety of teams and you get to choose which team you get permanently hired into at the end of the scheme which is really appealing. However, there are some slight concerns that the company is struggling with the current financial environment which may make it difficult to get a job with them in future.

Yes, there were lots of opportunities to meet up with other people doing internships as well as with people on the graduate scheme. We met weekly for breakfast as well as weekly sports sessions. There were other one off social events that were run throughout the placement as well such as paintballing, go-karting, and a pub quiz.

Accommodation in the West Midlands isn't the cheapest but it's manageable. There are plenty of good value supermarkets around too. In terms of socialising, the nearby towns of Leamington Spa and Coventry are student towns so many places are used to charging student prices and being aware of students having less funds.

I didn't have much experience of the nightlife but both Coventry and Leamington Spa have a wide range of bars and restaurants as well as regular clubbing nights. Pub crawls are quite popular as there are many regions of Leamington and Coventry that have lots of pubs in close proximity and are close to a club to end the night in.

As previously mentioned, there were lots of activities that were run for the undergraduate interns to go on as well as the people on graduate placements. Some teams in the company also run their own monthly team activities to help them become closer. However, my team didn't do this which was a shame as this would have been very beneficial to getting to know my colleagues better.