Engineering Intern Review

I was given a wide variety of tasks and the opportunity to focus more on particular ones that interested me. My team was really friendly and helpful. I therefore enjoyed working in the team and doing most jobs I was set. Occasionally it was pretty stressful though, since there were many deadlines and I had to report to higher levels of management.

I felt very valued by my colleagues - they gave me tasks to do that were genuinely important and useful for them, and I was able to achieve all my key objectives. These included creating documents and organising testing that would be carried out in the future.

I was allocated a line manager who in turn placed me under a supervisor. My line manager wasn't able to see me all that often, but I met with my supervisor every week to discuss my progress - and since we were in the same team we worked together often. They made sure I had plenty to do and answered all my questions.

I was very busy - there were very few days where I didn't have much to do, and on those I was able to ask other members of my team for more small tasks. Occasionally I felt a little stressed with the quantity of work required, but managed to get it all done.

I was given a lot of responsibility - for example one of my tasks was to organise some future tests abroad on equipment which cost a significant amount of money and I was given complete responsibility for it all.

My degree is a science degree rather than engineering, so the internship wasn't necessarily directly relevant to what I study. However, one of my tasks did make use of my degree knowledge, and I also learnt more general transferable skills.

The atmosphere was good - everyone was very friendly and helpful. However, occasionally it felt quite pressured and one week most of my colleagues were off on holiday so the office felt rather empty. Overall, the office was very nice though.

The work placement was very well organised. I was given clear information on who was my manager and who I should ask if I had any questions. Every week, I had progress meetings, and at the end I had a final review and a presentation on what I had learnt. At the very start, I was set five key objectives I had to achieve and contacts/ guidelines for each. The placement was therefore very well organised.

I was given the opportunity to take part in several training sessions - including one 'away day' training session at a local hotel. I was also able to organise my own trips and visits to other departments to find out about the work they do elsewhere in the business.

I would be very interested in working for Rolls-Royce in the future, although preferably in a role more relevant to my degree. They have recommended me for another placement with them next summer. My only concerns about future jobs with them is that the pay is slightly lower than similar companies I have offers for and less relevant to my degree.

There was a reasonably good social scene - most other interns were living together in student halls, although I was in different accommodation so didn't get to know them so well. I did meet several other interns in my team and in the canteen and made good friends. My team also had an ok social scene and went out to the pub one night for dinner which was great.

Derby is very cheap compared to the South of the UK - student halls were £100-ish a week, food in the staff canteen was around £4 for lunch, there were a few cheap supermarkets etc. However, it's not as cheap as some other northern cities.

I didn't really see anything of the nightlife. We went to the pub a couple of times and they are all really nice - traditional English pubs with good food and drinks.

There were supposedly various sports/ social clubs, but we were never really told how to find out about them. The Students and Graduates Association got in touch with us and claimed they were going to organise stuff, took £15 off us, then organised just two events the whole summer (pub crawl and bowling, both on weekdays though so we couldn't really go).