Mechanical engineering intern Review

My placement year was very enjoyable, you learn a great deal while also being amongst other placement students so it feels like uni. The work is varied and they give you the opportunity to take on further projects as well as work on a large intern project with everyone else so there’s little chance of being bored, given there’s so much to get on with. Just make sure you make it clear you want to change up your tasks though.

My colleagues were gracious and always available when I needed guidance with a task. I’ve learned a lot from them about Mechanical Engineering technically, and about the industry as a whole. They don’t look down on you or treat you like an annoyance because you’re a student, they’ll set you work themselves and trust you to get on with it, though they are always available to help as I mentioned. I definitely did feel valued.

My manager sometimes held reviews with me to see how I was doing and to brief me on other projects that he wanted me to be a part of. To be honest, the support you get depends on how much you ask for. I didn’t particularly ask my manager for updates because I knew pretty much exactly what I was going to be doing, so I didn’t ask for feedback much but it’s always there.

This really depends on how far into your placement you are and what project you’re working on. For the first few weeks, I was obviously getting used to the business and getting set up with the electrical systems and infrastructure so there wasn’t much actual work for me to do. On the opposite end of the scale, when it came time for customer reviews on my project, it was all hands on deck and really busy.

I was given an important task for my placement role as part of a massive project. My work would actually be presented and reviewed by the customer and it was part of a live design project so the amount of responsibility was high. It wasn’t that stressful however, since you’re given so much support and everyone is really helpful. You will be doing real important work but they won’t leave you to fail, they help you.

As a placement student, you pick up an invaluable ability to organise your tasks and your time to get everything you need to finish in a day done. Once your placement is over, the rest of the degree becomes easier because you can now intuitively organise yourself and prioritise tasks. As a student, it’s easy to get sidetracked and make little progress sometimes so doing the placement makes it easier to sort out your degree tasks.

Our office as fun since there were many interns in the same place so you’re bound to be around people your own age and typically you’ll get along well. As well as that, companies regularly come through with gifts, we once had pizza delivered for the whole office as a thank you gift from a customer for meeting a deadline so things like that help make it a more fun and interesting place to be

My placement was for a task on a specific project but the project itself was not mature enough for me to be a part of it until a few months into the placement, so for a few months, I wasn’t doing a great deal of meaningful work. However after that period, the work didn’t stop coming and I was able to really develop my skills and learn much more as an actual engineer, so it improved.

This is an excellent company to work for, the benefit scheme is outstanding and they really care about their employees, so that makes it a very attractive company to apply to. Also since it’s a massive Fortune 500 company, they’ve got the resources to provide you with anything you need to get the tasks done and the facilities are excellent, as you’d probably expect. Overall I’m keen to apply here for a graduate role, for sure.

Depends on who you’re with

Not the most expensive but not cheap

Pretty standard for a small town

It depends what kind of things you’re into so some people might mark this a little lower. However the company offered football twice a week and that really appealed to me, I got to meet more employees as well as interns I didn’t know already so that was helpful. The company also values volunteering, we regularly took part in events looking to put on science exhibits for schoolchildren and retaining local community spaces, so there’s a fair bit to do.