Applications Engineer Review
by National Instruments
This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
3.9
-
The Company
3.8
-
The Culture
4.0
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
I had lots of opportunities to develop my work life skills and learnt so much about computer science and electronics. The department is largely made up of interns and everyone is pretty much in the same boat when it comes to experiences and opportunities.
Colleagues who have experience the role themselves are very understanding of some of the challenges of the job and really appreciate the work we do. It can feel at times though that the department is seen as doing more of the donkey work for the company.
There are several escalation routes to go down to resolve problems and everyone is happy to help. My manager guided me through the whole placement and advised me on how to make the most of the placement year.
The department is normally very busy and there are rarely times when there is not anything to do. You are given many more duties to fulfil on top of your daily role. Project deadline periods are especially busy.
You are given almost complete control over your work queue and are generally expected to manage your own time and resources.
Skills acquired include presentation skills, computer science and electronics knowledge, time management and taking responsibility for your own work. There is also a lot of emphasis on working as a team.
The Company
You are surrounded by other interns from Universities all over the country. I have met some very interesting characters.
Different managers are assigned to look after various aspects of the internship. The expectations of the job role are set out very clearly at the start of the placement.
The training period at the start of the placement really helps to focus you for the remainder of the year. Training is continuous throughout the year and enables you to build upon what you may already know as well as learn new technical content. The company is very keen for you to learn.
Subsidised/Company Gym
Company Parties/Events
There are good prospects for working the way quickly up the company but you sometimes get the feeling that your options are limited when it comes to choosing a path to go down.
The Culture
Interns and graduates get together quite often for nights out and everyone is very easy to get along with.
Compared to London, everything around the Newbury/Reading area is quite cheap.
The Newbury clubs aren't amazing but it's helped by the people from the office that you go with. Reading is a much better night out for clubs and bars.
There is always some event to get involved with outside of work, however you may not be interested in some of them.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
South West
May 2013
