Facilities management intern Review

I thouroughly enjoyed my placement for the most part. I worked in the facilities departemnt which has only just started to get interns and this was evident at the start where i was very much left to my own devices. Once I managed to get involved with a few projects and found some things to do it was much better.

My colleagues where always very supportive and appreciative of any of the work I was doing, and always gave me praise when deserved. There was however a bit of an age divide between myself and the other people in the office and so this did mean i felt a little out of place some of the time as it was hard to relate to them.

You can definitely tell that the department is not used to having interns in as there were long stints were i wouldn't speak to my manager for weeks. The other managers and supervisors in the office were usually able to help if i had a major issue but the finer issues did take a little time to sort out as only my manager had the answer and he wasn't readily available. I could contact him if needed but the answers weren't always clear.

I was left to my own divices for a mjority iof the placement so any work i had was of my own creating. This did mean that there were times that i had very little to do though as not being an experienced memeber of staff a majority of tasks were given to other colleagues.

I was given a lot more resposnibilty than expected as any projects I found/made I was left to be the manager of. This meant I built a lot of links within the industry and really developed my managing skills, especially as the other people on the projects were normally many years older than me. I was solely responsible and accountable for a lot of projects meaning I had to do a lot of presentations in front of board memebers and executives on the progress of such projects. This has really helped my presentational skills and ability to talk in front of senior people.

A majority of the skills i picked up won't help me much with the academic side of my studies I have greatly improved my organisational skills and time management. I have also improved my presentaitonal skills ten fold as i had not had to do many prior to this placement. The training i received will help me massively with any report writing i have to do in my final year of studies. A majority of the skills I have developed, while not being massively useful for my final year of uni, will help me enormously when I get into industry and into day to day working.

Generally the office was quite quiet with most people keeping there head down all day or being in meetings. The atmosphere was very condusive to work meaning it wasn't the most fun or entertaining but I never had to find a different place to work. The office has a hotdesk policy which did mean sometimes if you were later into the office you would be left with the worse desks, even then all the desks have a docking station and an additional screen.

The facility department very rarely has interns and you could tell. There were long periods of time where I went unnoticed in the offie as my manager had most days full of meetings. A lot of the work I did was off my own back and there were very few things I was 'required' to do. There were a number of times were i would pick up/create a lot of jobs and then have my manager try and give me more things to do as he didn't know what I had been doing.

There weren't many opportunities out of the daily workplace training/development. A majority of the training workshops take place in the central office in Munich where i was allowed to take part but due to it being my choice to go I would have had to pay for my flight and hotel then be reimbursed if approved.

There appears to be lots of great opporuntities with the company and lots of space to grow. They do employ straight from uni throughout the company, with lots of people moving departments while staying in the company for 10+ years. I was initially taken on for a 6 month placement but during my work I was offered an extension to make it a 12 month placement. It has always been made clear to me that if I perform well enough throughout the year then I could well be offered a job.

There was a good social scene as I commuted a long way to the placement I didn't take part in any of the events. There was a multitude of things held by the other interns such as, 6-a-side football, weekly nights out and various other things. All of the other placement students/interns I met were really nice and the company encouraged working with other interns where possible.

There was a monthly meal/socil within the office that I was invited to, I couldn't attend any due to other commitments but they seemed to be quite fun. There was also tours of all the other UK sites including Rolls Royce all organised by the company. A lot of the external activities are sent through in a weekly newsletter style thing so you can pick and chose what to go to.