Capability Acquisition Engineer - in Structures and Transmisions Review

The placement was fantastic. The organisation was very good and I had a very interesting project to work on. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the project, I was often waiting for people to respond so there were times when not enough work was there to be done.

My colleagues were very good to me and treated me as a normal team member, They were patient and answered all my questions and even asked me for help with certain things. Overall a great working environment.

My line manager was very supportive and approachable. I could ask questions at any time and my line manager had a good balance of giving me enough information to do a task whilst not spoon feeding.

Some days were extremely busy with 3-4 meetings and other work, especially when I had to write reports up. Others, when I was waiting for information, was a bit boring. I was always given more work when I asked, but often these were improvement projects.

I was given quite a bit of responsibility. I had to go to various sites across the UK to meet suppliers and conduct experiments. Of course, my manager had the final say to any important decisions but I think I was given a good taste of what a real role would be like.

I think the main skill I learnt during the placement was the confidence and the ability to speak to poeple who are quite senior and get them to give me information and do things for me. These soft skills are not taught in university and will give a lot of perspective when I return to university next year.

The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. It was very busy throughout the day but there were no objections if I asked someone questions arranged an impromptu meeting. Overall very open and friendly.

The organisation initially was very good, there was a very good induction day and a more specialized Manufacturing engineering day. I do feel that more communication between the early careers and the interns could have been established and a leaving event would have been nice!

I was given the opportunity to complete Yellow Belt training which was a process excellence course, I was also given the standard training for my role. Unfortunately, due to budgetery restrictions I was not given any more training and a bit more technical training, especially pertaining to would have been good.

I was given the offer to return next summer and hopefully return for the graduate program in the future. So very good prospects!

I lived at home and commuted so did not observe a lot of this but talking to other interns, it seems they had a good time.

I commuted from home so not sure.

I commuted from home so not sure.

There were events organised by colleagues and other activities were available.