Gas Quality Engineer Summer Intern Review

I enjoyed my work placement very much due to the wide variety of areas I was able to work in which was interesting throughout the 8 weeks I worked there.

I felt extremely valued. All our contributions were taken seriously, and people from other departments were usually willing to set up meetings with you. The only suggestion I would make is that it wasn't widely circulated to our team who we were and why we were there, so for the first week or two some people weren't quite sure who we actually were, but this was easily overcome.

Our supervisors were extremely helpful. They were always happy to answer questions and they were nice guys so it was easy to approach them. We were taken on quite a few site visits which they arranged for us, which was good for getting to see interesting things in action.

At the start when we were finding our feet sometimes we wondered if there was more we could be doing, but once we understood more about what our project entailed we were able to decide ourselves what new things to focus on and we ended up with lots of work to do. I would say the workload was very well balanced - there's more than enough to do so that you're busy, but equally there is enough time to achieve things in your projects.

We were given a lot of responsibility. The work we were doing was continued from a previous full time member of staff and we knew that it could be used in future by the department. Our supervisors were really supportive though, and made it clear what they expected and at least one of them was always about to make sure we were on the right track.

The specific placement I was on was less technical than others offered by National Grid, meaning in terms of improving academically, I have probably not developed that much. However, I have improved in presentation skills, management and business skills which will be very useful later in life.

This was one of my favourite things about National Grid. Our office was really good - people were keen to help you, even if it was just to sit for 10 minutes and explain what they actually do. It was friendly and welcoming.

Overall it was well organised. We always knew what we needed to do and where to go in terms of review forms to fill out, or meetings with HR/supervisors to attend. HR were regularly in touch via email and they arranged a coffee morning for us to meet them all, which was good. The IT isn't always brilliant, at times we were waiting a while to get specific software installed on our laptops as it is done remotely - this was by far the most frustrating part of the whole placement.

Extremely well - you can tell they actually do care about the interns. We went to loads of things to broaden our understanding of the company such as presentations and sessions from other departments. If you found something you were interested in doing, you could talk to your supervisors or others in the company who tried to make it happen - we were able to go on a site visit which was our idea and after speaking with someone on the graduate scheme they helped plan it.

The people who work for the company are very nice and represent the company well. I would have to look into are areas of the business before deciding whether to work for them in the future.

I got along very well the the placement student working with me, and we did go out to drinks with some of our colleges. Also, once we'd met the other placement students about halfway through the project, some events were organised with them. There could have been more social events as there weren't many people around to socialise with naturally.

National Grid provide buses to work from Leamington which was really handy as it meant travel was free every day. Leamington itself is fine - rent is about the same as major UK cities, cost of living is fine. There are obviously expensive places you can eat and shop, but there's plenty of supermarkets and student bars which mean you can do it easily on the internship wage. Leamington itself is a really, really nice place.

I went out a couple of times and it was pretty similar to most other student towns I've been to. Usual mix of bars and clubs, some really nice, some not-so-nice. It's a good place to live though as there is variety and the pubs and bars are usually busy at weekends.

I didn't see much National Grid organised stuff for outside of work, but the other interns were good at organising things.