Undergraduate Research Engineer Review

I loved my placement, the work is so interesting and productive - I don't really want to go back to uni! Really looking forward to (hopefully) coming back after my final year of uni.

My team were really close knit, I felt valued as an Engineer (not just an undergraduate). Everyone gets on really well and we often have socials as a team.

I has both a manager and supervisor; I work closely with my supervisor so had his support almost all the time. If I wasn't sure on anything he was very happy to spend time teaching me how to do something - rather than leave me to do it alone. The only time when this was harder was when everyone had deadlines so was very busy.

Mostly work is very chilled - you are in charge of your own productivity. I had a couple of busy periods when things were due or there were events to prepare for. Most days you can leave between 4 and 5 pm though.

I was allocated certain pieces of work and projects, for this I was completely responsible. Other times when I was just helping someone out in their project - its their responsibility rather than yours.

My skillset now compared to a year ago is so vastly different. I learned business and engineering skills equally, I feel I am going back to university having already done 50% of the content in my final year modules already.

As we were in Research there are some cool things that go on in the office, but at the same time people do work too.

You kind of just slot into the company as an employee, there isn't much to differentiate you as an undergraduate. If you want to do training courses its up to you to put your name forward for them.

They take you on as a placement student with a view for you to come back - so they will happily invest money in your training and personal development. You also get £200 to do personal skills activities - e.g. I did rock climbing. As I said though, you have to enroll yourself in training and be proactive - its available if you want it though and very accessible.

Waiting for an assessment for the grad scheme, it seems as though they will take you on though as long as you did a good job on placement and didn't screw up.

Amongst the undergads it was just like being at uni, we all lived together and went out all the time. We also did team socials every few weeks with the people at work.

Leamington Spa is also a Uni town - so prices and living costs were fairly average.

As I said its also a uni town (Warwick uni) so there's a lot of student nights.

The undergrads have collectively done a lot of activities, but we did take it upon ourselves to organise these. As previously mentioned we get £200 funding for extra activities for personal development.