Purchasing Review

Overall I did not enjoy my internship at the company. The internship was badly structured, my department were underprepared, the work was tedious. People were nice but the company is based on out of date systems and processes that each day was a struggle.

My colleagues were nice and friendly. Often too many people in the business to really stand out.

Very large company with a ridiculous amount of middle management so you get very little exposure to any other departments, or anyone really that senior. My manager was friendly but incompetent and I ended up doing much of my manager's job.

For the first few weeks I was twiddling my thumbs unbelievably. It wasn't because there wasn't work to do - in fact my team were significantly behind all their targets. But my manager had turned a complete blind eye to this. In the end when I discovered problems I allocated myself work to sort it out.

Initially none. As I continued to discover problems in the department and demonstrated I was competent, I basically started running a lot. Other colleagues didn't realise I was an intern and were surprised when I said I was leaving to go back to uni!

Gained very little skills and no training.

People were nice but there was a general atmosphere of frustration with how things were done. The processes and systems in the business were so out of date - far too much reliance on a ridiculous variety of poor computer programmes, excel, and printed paper. I felt that I was not the only one dissatisfied with the company.

Very bad. No connection between the HR initiative and the work in my department. Felt like I had just been placed randomly in a department one day and they weren't even expecting me. No targets set, no training offered, no reviews of progress etc. Before I arrived at the company I already had an uneasy feeling as HR seemed completely incapable of sending out forms, letters etc within a good timescale. HR in fact were not only inactive in the role, but extremely aggressive - when I said that I wanted to leave the internship early they only criticised me and told me I "couldn't" rather than actually asking why I was so unhappy.

Absolutely nothing! Actually that's a lie. I got to keep a JLR pen I took from the induction day.

I was offered a graduate job with them but the thought of going back to work there stressed me so much I started getting regular stomach pains, so I turned it down. I don't believe any of the other purchasing interns took their job offers either. The graduate scheme is a joke - no rotations at all and very little career progression. You are just lumped in one department and within two years you can become a fantastic expert in all there is to know about buying car headlamps. And nothing else.

Met a few nice people in other departments who tended to socialise one night a week which was nice. Also lived with three other interns who were great fun. No social scene in my department. Situation made more difficult in that the offices tend to be in the middle of no where so if you want to socialise you have to head to Leamington or elsewhere!

Lived in Leamington Spa - not bad.

Surprisingly alright actually - student town!

Not that work organised. I'm sure there was plenty to do in Leamington and the surronding area should you want to.