Undergraduate HMI Simulation Engineer Review

This was the third placement I've done with JLR, having done a three month and 15 month one previously. I have enjoyed all placements with them and have been able to carry out work that interests me but actually has some impact on the business.

All of my colleagues made me feel very welcome at work, as well as including me in social events outside of work.

On this 3 month placement, I was working in the same team that I worked in during my 15 month placement. Because of this, I didn't require much support as I already knew a lot about how the team worked and the tools I would be using, which meant that I was able to work quite independently. However, help was available if I asked for it.

In pretty much any job the chances are that there will be times when you won't have much to do as you are waiting for someone else to finish something that is preventing you from carrying on, but I found this to be quite rare during my placements at JLR, particularly when I had gained more experience and was able to work more consistently on advanced projects.

I have been given a significant amount of responsibility during my placements, ranging from the selection/recommendation of a £30k tool to small scale management of a simulator development project which included a lot of cross-department discussion and arrangement. This may sound daunting but really your manager/supervisor will talk to you about what you're aiming to get out of the placement so you won't just get dropped in the deep end!

Whilst the tools I have been using on placement won't have much of a direct affect on my studies, the behavioral and general technical abilities I have gained certainly have and will continue to. If you go on placement at JLR they don't have you doing basic work that won't really benefit anyone; they push you through a lot of personal development. I feel that the challenging projects I have been involved in had a large role to play in my MEng group project last year, and will carry over into my advanced project this year.

Everyone liked to have a laugh but not so much that it interfered with work.

The process of getting us students set up and ready to work seemed quite smooth compared to previous years.

On this placement, not a huge amount as I was only there for 13 weeks and knew how to do everything that I was working on. But in previous placements there were a lot more opportunities for development.

At some point during your placement you will probably have an appraisal with your manager, and part of this may be that they recommend you go through an assessment process to get on to the Graduate Scheme. I went through this process and have a grad scheme position lined up, provided nothing goes wrong.

Unfortunately there wasn't for me as I was living quite far away from the site, but I know that a lot of the placement students lived near each other and had an active social life.

I can't comment as I wasn't living there.

As previously, I can't comment on the area.

Some activities were available although I didn't take part.