Design Engineer Review

I have not enjoyed my time at Cummins, the work I have received has been uninteresting and not requiring of my education. I cannot see myself considering returning to Cummins at any point in my career

I had very friendly and helpful colleagues, however I don't think they really saw me do any important work, so I am unsure whether I was a valued member of the team

Support and guidance was fully available from all members of staff I have had dealings with. My manager was particularly helpful, answering my daily questions and helping me through processes and programme functions

I had very little work to do on a daily basis. The department seems low on interesting work for anyone to do, joined with the fact that other internal processes are all very slow so I had to wait around a long time before a job would come back to me to continue or finish. I had to find work related things to do to fill a lot of my time, on the whole it has been very tedious

I cannot say I have made any significant decisions during my time here, something you would expect to do from a design job role perspective. This is probably due to the lack of work, and the nature of the work the department receives. The job requester often knows exactly what he/she wants doing, and so the 'design' department are just seen as CAD monkeys and drawing changers, we simply update the computer files and documentation

I have not used a single part of my degree working in Cummins, and I don't feel much I have learnt will be useful in my future studies. One or two of the student training sessions were interesting engineering principle based sessions, however I felt these were nothing that couldn't be read out of a short textbook chapter. The placement has set me in a routine of working a full time job and forgetting about it in the evenings, a routine I want to carry on in the final years of my degree.

Very friendly people. Often open to a chat about non work related things, 3 or 4 group tea-breaks a day, and most people bring cakes in for birthdays and other special occasions. The atmosphere, banter and random conversations are what got me through the year

There seemed to be no real similitude between placement student job experiences, while some were very busy, others were extremely bored and just counting down the weeks until the end. A more homogeneous experience would benefit all the students.

Opportunities for personal and educational development seemed to be at individual managers discretion. Some students have had international travel, I have barely left my desk. The company did put student training sessions on, these were often introductions and without real depth, however they were useful and interesting.

I would only consider returning to Cummins as a last resort for an engineering job. The company has some serious flaws with management, employee satisfaction and the complex and prohibitive set of systems to overcome to do any work.

Students often visit local pubs on Friday nights as well as trying to find anything else to do together, ie bowling, watching films etc.

Not expensive, but not really cheap to live, Tescos in Daventry as well as Waitrose. Avoid Howkins and Harrisons estate agents, they don't care about their tenants until it can earn them money.

Daventry isn't the best but its a good laugh to do it a couple of times. The locals are a bit dodgy and can tell if you are not one of them, but there is always Rugby and Northampton just a taxi ride away.

5 a side football kick-around on Wednesdays, local 5 a side league on Thursdays. Cycling clubs and Cricket in the summer. Plenty to do if you've got the time.