Graduate Trainee Review

This is the dream job for car lovers but still really interesting and engaging for those with just a general engineering interest. We were given almost unlimited access to all areas of Product Development and encouraged to actively explore the company through the contacts we had developed here in order to determine the departments that we were most interested in.

Everyone was incredibly welcoming and genuinely glad to have you within their team and company. Even those outside my home department were always enthusiastic about meeting interns and generous with their time, despite being very busy.

This, as with most things, depended on which department you were in and hence the individuals involved but generally the involvement of management with the interns is excellent. The Product Development offices are all open plan so you work closely with and right beside senior management and they are usually all open to having you pop over and ask any questions you may have and help as much as possible.

This is highly dependent on the department you are placed in but generally, if you actively seek work, you will be given it. The company is incredibly busy but there is rarely an expectation for you to work beyond your contracted hours and there is a very good work/life balance. The level of work available for you can dip during the summer when a large number of people are on holiday.

Depending on your department, interns are given the same level of responsibility as the majority of other engineers but under careful guidance and a watchful eye. More senior members of the team were always willing to step in whenever help was needed or take responsibility when things went wrong. Credit was readily given for a job done well and when things didn't go according to plan, my manager took full responsibility, having understood my lack of experience.

This is also highly dependent on your department. I gained a huge amount of technical knowledge and experience on my last placement here but on this one I learned more about working in a professional environment which could be used within any industry or company

Very professional but friendly and welcoming.

There were some IT, HR and Payroll mix ups throughout the placement such as not being able to access email for my first 3 days to being paid a week late. This was purely down to human error and once I sought help it was relatively quickly resolved.

Individually, people within the firm were very generous with their time no matter how basic or tedious my questions were. I was actively encouraged by my manager to seek out contacts in departments I was interested in and they were very welcoming and included me in any particularly interesting test work they were doing. There are also plenty of learning modules and courses available which interns can apply to, with permission from their manager.

Very cool. Final year students are fast tracked to the assessment centre for their graduate scheme and only need to repeat their interview and do a technical presentation rather than applying externally and repeating their entire assessment centre. Non-final year students are generally invited back for a future placement, based on their managers review of their performance.

Yes, because JLR take on so many summer interns there is a great social, inclusive environment between us all.

Living costs in the West Midlands are reasonable, especially compared to London.

The nightlife in Coventry and Leamington Spa is surprisingly good while Birmingham is only a short train trip/taxi away.

Generally, social activities are organised among the interns themselves but everyone is quite inclusive and networks on the JLR interns Facebook page which we were added to upon receiving our offers.