Mechanical engineer Review

I enjoyed the placement with EDF Renewables a lot. It was in an ideal location for me staying in Edinburgh and the office was really nice. The field (renewables) is what I want to go into, the work I was doing I found interesting and the people I worked with were friendly.

I felt valued by my colleagues from the start - on my first day I was introduced to the head of engineering who took me through a background to the business. Following this I was shown around and introduced to people in the office by a graduate engineer. Everyone at the office treated me with respect and were willing to help throughout the internship.

Throughout the 12 weeks I was supported by one of the engineers who was on the same team as me. He was based down in Durham but communication was simple by Skype. He was able to guide me as to what was required of me and provided me with resources and tasks to help me with the work.

I was busy most days but there were a few when I had very little work to do. This was usually because I had finished the work I had been given. A couple of times my supervisor was on holiday and so I was unable to ask for more work until he returned.

I was given the responsibility of producing a document that would be further worked on but which would eventually end up in use by engineers within the company. This was a motivation to perform well as I knew i was responsible for delivering a document that would be useful to the company.

I learned a lot of skills with regards to report writing from creating an 80 page document which will no doubt come in useful when writing a disertation later in my degree. I also learned a lot about how a renewables company operates as well as the technical side of how wind turbines actually work which will be very helpful for going into a similar job in future

It was a really nice atmosphere. A number of us would have lunch together. Everyone was very friendly and willing to chat. The company also provided breakfast on a Friday which was really nice and allowed me to chat to the other employees and to get to know them better.

It was very well organised. They had a clear task set out for me from the day I started and people were lined up to help and support me through it. Throughout I was provided with all of the items I needed e.g. laptop, phone, Skype headset though these took a few days to arrive.

They invested in me by providing talks from the various different teams to give me an idea of what each of these did and how they worked. They also took me on a trip to a wind farm to show the more practical side of the business which was very interesting.

I would be very keen to work with EDF Renewables in the future. I've always wanted to work on the renewables sector and so to find a renewables company based in Edinburgh with a friendly team and interesting work makes me keen to come back in the future. I hope to try and get a placement next year with EDF Renewables.

I was staying in a flat in central Edinburgh throughout the internship which is quite expensive. However it is my flat for university which we had over summer anyway and so it made sense to stay there. Socialising is fairly averagely priced and there is plenty to do around the city

Yes there was. A few of the guys I worked with were keen cyclists and so I was able to go out with them on a weekend. There was also a night out organised during the Edinburgh fringe. The company also had a summer event with various talks and activities over two days which was great.