Facility Management Intern Review

Overall working in this placement was a great experience in industry. The induction phase was smooth making the role easy to settle into. I personally found it enjoyable and grabbed at the chance to get involved with various projects.

Much of the time my colleagues were extremely busy with their own work but would make the effort to involve myself as well as the other interns in my department as much as possible. This led to me having a number of responsibilities made me feel valued and accepted by the team.

Starting off there were a few occasions in which I was left with little to do. The setup seemed somewhat disorganized at first and my supervisors were very busy. However as I picked up a few more skills in role, my supervisors were able to hand out more tasks to keep me busy.

This definitely varied from day to day, given that my role was based on managing the facilities on the plant. If things were running smoothly then there was less of a workload. Most of the time however, meetings and learning more about the processes around the site would occupy the day.

I felt as if I could've handled more responsibility given the knowledge I had gained in the role. At times the tasks I undertook would be quite simple and require little time. However it was encouraging to be left to my own devices with most of my work as it showed that my colleagues considered me reliable.

As far as the subject matter goes, there has been very little overlap between my degree and placement. However, I feel having done the placement will be very useful as it has helped me to develop a better working mentality, having to make sure I always showed up on time prepared to work.

The atmosphere was very pleasant to come into. Upon arriving each day I was greeted with good mornings and people asking how I am. Almost the whole office got along with each other very well which made it a relaxing environment to be in from day to day.

The induction was very well set up, with previous interns giving presentations on their experiences and letting us know anything we needed to be aware of. However once I joined my department there seemed to be little structure to the placement, but I still received quite a lot of training and was able to shadow other team members to learn about the department quickly.

The company were very positive about giving the necessary training and developing my skills however the process was hugely interrupted by the COVID-19 situation. I feel that a lot of opportunities were taken away and that I haven't had as much of a chance to develop as would've been ideal.

It would be a great opportunity to be able to work for BMW Group again but there doesn't seem to be any massive link to the company even having done this placement.

There were regularly scheduled social nights that could be attended by all the interns. An email chain had been set up to inform all interns of the time and place of these events. Getting to know other interns in a similar situation as myself made it very easy to settle in.

My living costs were covered comfortably by the salary I was paid however the living costs do tend to be higher in Oxford.

Fairly lively nightlife in Oxford. Overall very impressive social aspect to living in this area.

There are a good amount of other activities to participate in such as sports, shopping ect. Having the intern network made it easy to find new things to do.