Engineering Summer Placement Intern Review

The internship was hybrid, with the first and last weeks required in person in the office - and the rest being optional online. This resulted in the majority of my days working from home. I would start at 9am, with a meeting with my line manager alongside my two other team members. After identifying areas to work on further, a meeting with my team members, I would work independently on my main project. Weekly meetings about charity challenge with other interns and with my graduate buddy would take some time during the day. Usually online research and analysis of developments in sustainability.

I have greatly developed my professional organisational and interpersonal skills. Within meetings and collaborating within a team has allowed me to learn how to work together. My skills in target audience identification and presentation have improved. Presentations of varying lengths has taught me how to condense or expand my work depending on what technical level the audience are, and how much time I have. My critical analysis has greatly improved, being able to evaluate info sources.

I was given responsibility in a research role. The part I played was for informing the department on future prospects, so not having a direct impact on day-to-day development. This is partly due to the novel age of the department, with many employees only getting to grips with their own roles - therefore, not having time to teach us in detail. However, our findings will be taken on in future with the company for development of assets.

We received constant interaction with our managers, getting daily calls and messaging replies within 30 minutes. I was paired with a graduate buddy, who was always up for an impromptu call at any time to talk about any aspect of the placement. This really supported me as I never felt like I didn't know who I could ask something. On top of this, our HR manager was very kind and would always be happy to help.

Fantastic. I was expecting to be treated worse because I was a temporary intern, but I couldn't have been more wrong. All the employees were always ready to help any of us with anything. My graduate buddy was on call any time I needed to ask something. Even random members of our general department were willing to have a long meeting with us to help with our project, any time. Everyone we asked within the company was willing to help.

I enjoyed it much more than I expected. I applied and got on expecting to regret spending my summer 'working' however I value all the skills I have learned, greatly. This experience has elucidated my future career goals, helping with my motivation to keep studying and to be proactive with my decisions on how to spend my time in developing myself. My career path has definitely been improved, as well as a sense of purpose.

Yes

To be friendly, helpful, respectful and amiable. The values of the company are upheld by every member. Being honest when you don't know something, and asking for help when needed. Everyone understands that university doesn't teach you everything, especially for the private sector. Do your research before applying, but mostly be yourself and be nice. Each stream has requirements, but I have seen that you won't know what you specifically need before you're doing it.