Engineering Intern Review

I had an absolutelty fantastic time. I must stress though, that I had to put alot of work into the year, to get the very most out of my time at Rolls-Royce PLC. HR are extremely friendly and targets set by managers are challanging, but achievable - giving you a sense of accomplishment when the objective's completed. Of course, this can depend on the manager in question (although I never knew of any bad ones.)

I want to also stress how friendly and willing to help 99% of all people are at Rolls-Royce. Not once did I feel I was thought less of for being an intern. Colleagues were all very greatful for having extra help in the departments I worked in and I felt very valued.

During the first few months I was perhaps a little worried about coming across stupid. I soon learnt that it's only when the stupid questions are asked when you start to truly understand. The only person who ever thought I asked a stupid question was myself, all of my colleauges were extremely supportive throughout my placement.

I feel that on the whole work load was well balanced. I was given my own design project for the year which kept me busy for 70% of the time. The other 30% was taken up supporting other design engineers in their role. There were occasional times where work naturally dried up, due to waiting for people to respond to questions. This also went the other way; there were days where I didn't have enough hours in the day to get things done.

I was fortunate enough to be given my own design project. With this, I was responsible for meeting deadlines and coming up with the final design solution. The feeling of knowing that my part will be used on a service aircraft is extremely rewarding. If you ever fly on an airbus a380 with Rolls-Royce engines - think of this intern, who designed a part on the engine.

As a result of this year, I believe I have become a much more functional, knowledgable and confident person. Although I may have forgotten alot that I learnt the previous year at University, I believe the skills I've learnt will be extremely valuable to me during and post university. I now have a great CV, fantastic references and great knowledge of aerospace design and manufacture

In both offices there was a great atmosphere. It was clear that most, if not all people felt a sense of pride and pleasure working for Rolls-Royce and this came across in personality. I made many great friends in both jobs and was sad to leave them when the placement ended. As Rolls-Royce employs many graduates and interns there was always a young face around to talk to which, although I enjoyed talking to senior staff, I felt I could relax more with younger staff.

I'll be honest, the placement is what your manager makes it to be. HR are able to give some steer to the placement, but when it comes down to it, it depends on how much trust your manager has in you and how much work is available. HR would never send you into a department with nothing for you to do, but over a year I heard of some students with not much work for them to do. I must stress that this wasn't the case for me though.

Rolls-Royce has an excellent learning intranet site, that all employees are encouraged to use. I was put onto several courses during my time at Rolls-Royce and felt that the company really did care about my education and well being.

Fantastic graduate schemes are very attractive to me. A job can also be offered at the end of the placement.

I must admit, you need to make sure that you meet the other year interns either before the placement or at the very start. I became good friends with around 6 interns, but quickly (and perhaps too easily) lost contact with the other 10 or so that I knew were working in Derby. I became great friends with a lot of German students, who work with Rolls-Royce as part of their final year at University. Party time is deffiantly during the summer, when around 60 summer interns descend into roll-royce. Late evenings of BBQing, football and drinking were fantastic and helped to keep a real great atmosphere between interns during and after work.

Derby is a really cheap place to live (although the bars and pubs aren't that cheap). The Rolls-Royce canteen is expensive as anything, so home made sarnies are a must!

As I'm from Sheffield, I'm used to a pretty awesome nightlife. Unfortunely much can't be said about the nightlife in Derby. Fortunately Nottingham is 15 minutes by bus away, which we did every other Friday night.

Tennis, bowling, squash, gym, swimming - you name it, there's something within half a mile of Rolls-Royce