Material Flow Analyst Review

Days were long and my commute was over an hour - had to wake up at 5.30 every day to make it into work at 7.15 Finished at 3.45 though, so had evenings relatively free.

This varied depending on the department I was working with and the role I had. My own department (Supply Chain & Logistics) was very friendly and we joked around a lot.

Both my direct and indirect managers were very keen to get me into exciting projects which had a real impact on the future of the business. They provided me with past examples and material I should be considering whilst presenting new ideas etc.

This varied to some extent - I remember there was a day when I was sending off google spreadsheets, presenting in meetings and implementing changes on the production line from 7 to well past 4. Most days however, I would finish my work in about 3 hours and have not much else to do.

I was the project leader on two of the biggest facility changes in that fiscal year, which ended up saving a total of £3.5M by the end.

My degree was pretty irrelevant to my placement, so the skills I developed only helped me with getting accepted into future placements and masters programmes.

Since our roles required us to go down to the production lines and different meetings throughout the day, it was difficult to always joke around in the office, HOWEVER... When we had everyone at their desks at the same time, we always joked around a lot, pulled pranks on each other etc. There were cake days and pasty days, which was quite nice. I actually pulled off the 'Stapler in Jelly' prank from the hit UK and US TV-Series, 'The Office' in my desk, and I've never felt comfortable enough to do that in my numerous other placements, internships etc.

The Graduate and Undergraduate programmes at JLR are highly thought-out and well-designed by all departments involved, HR especially, which is not always the case in other places. There was a clear objective-structure set out and I was put into major projects straight away. I also completed a lot of external training and online training which will be useful for my future placements and experiences.

There is a dedicated investment programme called the Employee Learning Scheme (ELS). On top of external, online, on-the-job and shadowing-based training, ELS gave every employee a claimable £60-£250 for 'approved' courses such as: Driving Lessons Day-trading Cooking Circuit Design Track-driving Off-road Driving Climbing Shooting White Water Rafting Kayaking MS Office Qualifications Painting And most other reasonably constructive courses related to these sorts of activities.

Grad Scheme pays around £29K pa with a joining fee of $1-2K in first year, which in engineering is one of the highest - comparable with the likes of Exxon, Shell etc. However, the prospects are mostly internally focussed and limited to the automotive industry, and the job isn't very challenging,

Most interns stayed in Coventry Uni accommodation, which allowed us to enjoy a 'halls experience' whilst actually MAKING money! We lived close to Coventry city centre had access to most of the things which appeal to students.

The halls were pretty good, but not cheap. We were paid ok and had some time in the evenings to socialise, so it worked out alright overall.

Restaurants were good, pubs were good-ish, the nightlife was not ideal given the lack of students over summer, and also - it's Coventry, We went to surrounding cities such as Leamington and Birmingham, where the nightlife, bars, clubs, pubs etc were MUCH better,

As I mentioned before, the ELS allowed involvement in lots of different activities and also I got to visit a Rolls-Royce plant once for which I was given a company car (Range Rover Sport).