Undergraduate Electrical Engineer Review

Working in Body Electronics I was exposed a wide variety of areas of the business. There was alot of work that needed to be done, since the company is currently expanding. Mainly office and car testing work, though there was the occasional off-site visit. People working there are layed back, and very happy to help.

It was a bit slow for the first couple of months whilst they worked out what I was capable of doing. I was sent to many different training courses to help with the training process. Once the first set of training was completed I was given more work. The work I was doing was important to the other people in my team, if I didn't do it they would have to put other projects on hold to do it themselves. I was treated a full member of the team, going to all the usual team meetings as anyone else was.

Had weekly catch-up meetings with my Boss to help access how I was getting on. He made sure I had work to do, and helped with any issues I was having. I was able to go to regular training courses, including driver training. My Boss was very eager for me to be trained up as much as possible. Talking to other Undergraduates in other parts of the company, some of them did not get the same level of support. It did seem to depend on how good your Boss was.

Some days there was very little work to do, other times I had to do overtime to complete all the work on time. Things got busier after being there for 3 months.

Most of the work I was doing had a direct impact on the end products. This includes work that directly affected the speed of the production line (which can be worth millions of £). Other work included testing cars, which needed to be done to avoid any problems being missed before its too late to fix.

I was given access to training required to do my job. I was also given access to training that I wanted to do, even if it did not have a direct impact on my current job. I was given driver training, so I could drive certain JLR vehicles as required for my job. I was also given MATLAB training, which is very useful for University work. Other courses including various Automotive Electronic courses and business courses.

The general atmosphere was very relaxed, open space office. I was given my own Desk, though other people where not so lucky. Fridays where also quite quiet, since alot of people leave early on a Friday afternoon.

It depended on which Boss and department you where assigned to. It took a while for me to get my own project, but my Boss gave me alot of support with other parts of the placement. Most of my placement was organised by the department I was in, rather than having a base template set-up.

As previously mentioned I was given access to nearly any training that I wanted to complete. I was encouraged to take regular training courses, I even got driver training from JLR. Was also taught basic automotive electronics and other skills.

Very good, the Graduate scheme is one of the best in the UK. All the Graduates I talked to spoke very highly of the Graduate scheme. There is also access to more training and a much higher salary. I would want to come back to the Graduate scheme.

The socialising amongst fellow placement students was not very strong. The main placement students I socialised with was my flatmates, who happened to be doing placements at JLR as well. It really does depend if you end up in a department with other placement students or not. The social life was much better with my department. We had monthly visits for meals and trips to the pub around certain holidays.

Living in Leamington Spa is fairly expensive, it is a desirable area to live in. Saying that, it is also an area where alot of students live. This means that it is possible to get cheaper deals, though Coventry is a much cheaper place to live. If I knew in advanced, I would have made more of an effort to live in Coventry.

Leamington Spa has a good Night life. There are plenty of students living here and plenty of high quality places to eat. It is also a fairly short train journey to Birmingham, which also has a strong Nightlife.

There are quite a few JLR social & sport clubs. There are also opportunities to volunteer through JLR, doing work for the local community.