Manufacturing Technology Intern Review

The placement was a great experience overall. I worked in the central manufacturing team which works with smaller manufacturing teams throughout the entire business. This, as well as a more hands-off manager allowed me to really tailor the internship to what I was interested in, allowing me to try many different projects and roles within manufacturing engineering. As well as the work itself, the people I worked with were almost universally friendly and approachable and the relatively large group of interns in the department made every day even more enjoyable.

Many teams in Rolls-Royce are used to having interns every year and colleagues make an effort to include and make the most of their interns. I was encouraged to voice my opinion and given responsibility for projects and speaking to clients immediately. If I ever felt that I didn't have enough to do I could talk to anyone in the office who'd be sure to get me involved in one of their projects. If you are willing to put in the effort to ask and approach people, interns and grads within the business are trusted with a lot of responsibility and valued as much as any other member of staff.

My manager was quite high up in the business and didn't give me much support throughout the year and for the first few weeks I was a bit lost! However I didn't find overall that this affected my internship negatively as I naturally found mentors and colleagues that filled a supervisor role as I got invovled with projects and met people around the office. I found I had to be pro-active and organise things to do by myself, but if I needed it there was always someone in the office to answer questions or have a work-related or more personal chat (it just wouldn't be my manager).

I'd say I was as busy as I wanted to be. I had more than enough to do, without feeling too pressurised. For the first three weeks it was quiet as I was learning the background to projects and still meeting people, but once I got more invovled with projects everyday was filled. No one was looking over my shoulder checking how much work I was doing or how many hours I was working, it was very much self-driven. If I was really enjoying a particular task I might work solidly on it and stay late to work on it. Equally, if I had a more menial task or had finished everything then I was free to be more relaxed and spread my work out over the week.

I was given a major project, talking to many people throughout the business across different countries in the first month. Interns are as much of a benefit to Rolls-Royce as the reverse and my manager expected me to make monetary savings to business of a value many times your salary. As an intern you obviously aren't going to be signing off on major business decisions, but as long as you want it and can show you handle it well, being given responsibility for important work is the norm.

People tend to emphasize the soft skills of teamwork and communication that you might not get so much in university, as well as the personal experience of working full-time in a professional engineering environment. This has given me a much clearer idea of what I want and don't want in graduate jobs roles. In a manufacturing engineering internship with Rolls-Royce there is also the oppertunity to learn many technical skills, in some cases in more depth than university. Quite a few people in the office had PhDs/EngDs and would read/write research papers. There is also the oppertunity to learn software such as NX, Team centre, Python etc.

Central manufacturing office in Moor Lane was known to be one of the most friendly. Everyone was friendly, having chats throughout the day, making teas for one another and constant snacks being shared! Even when the company was going through difficult changes people were very open and willing to talk about anything. It always seemed a laid back and relaxed environment, albeit with important work going on. As long as you were getting your work done, you were free to work in the way that suited you.

HR and IT are incredibly slow, often the best way to get in touch is to sit on the phone for an hour or so. Everyone in the business is aware of these problems and will help you out if you can't get work done because of this kind of issue. I had no problems with payroll, but know many interns who did and would have to call HR every month to resolve issues. Within the local manufacturing team, it was set up pretty well, with social events being organised. My placement was very much self-driven, so I had only 1 of my 5-6 projects planned for me before I started. By the end this was a big positive, but was not what I expected at the beginning.

There are many official training courses available to staff, nearly all of which we were told not to go on due to the cost to the business. Rolls-Royce was continuously cutting its spending while I was an intern therefore they weren't willing to pay for this formal training for any staff (not just interns). Because of this we would sometimes have a manager run a free, lite version of training for a small group. I learnt a lot of new software and technical skills, but this was all through self-teaching or by chatting and asking advice from experts in the office.

Employment prospects within all of aerospace and particularly Rolls-Royce have dropped a lot due to COVID-19. I am aware that they cancelled a number of grad scheme offers this year. If it wasn't for that lack of job security I would've been very keen.

There were a lot of interns in central manufacturing and a decent social scene. If you're very keen to socialise outside work you may have to be the one to organise it or otherwise try to live with other interns at Rolls-Royce.

Derby is very cheap and there are discounts at some local restaurants/bowling etc. for Rolls-Royce staff.

Derby nightlife is terrible, might be limited to a spoons. Otherwise, Nottingham isn't too far away and there are regular buses.

There are the normal work drinks/ christmas meals etc and a big cycling scene for some reason. If you want to get involved in sports clubs, STEM outreach or an Employee Resource Group (Afro-Caribbean / Disabilities / Multi-Faith/ LGBT+ / Gender Diversity) there are regular meetings and you will likely be directly asked if you want to get involved at some point.