Your Placement Journey Toolkit is designed to support you to get the best from your placement experience. It will help you to think about your placement, looking at your expectations, recognising your own responsibilities alongside those of your university and placement provider.

Aligned with the Engineering Placements Toolkit, designed for education institutions and employers, this toolkit aims to support your placement experience in three key stages: before, during and after placement.

Madeleine Steer is an engineering undergraduate at University of Cambridge. In Cambridge, all engineering undergraduate students are required to complete a total of 8 weeks of internship experience during summer. However, although being compulsory for her degree, Madeleine also wanted to do internships in order to explore which field of engineering she wanted to specialise in the future. These internships allowed Madeleine to actually experience the work of different companies, and gain a wider perspective of what to expect in different engineering sectors.

Tell us how did you find your placement

I needed two more weeks as part of the requirement of my degree, as I have done six weeks in the year before. I then decided to go on a five weeks’ placement, during summer, at the company. There is a database in Cambridge, from the university’s Engineering Department, which you can search through and specify where in the UK, what kind of sector, etc., all different parameters. I was looking for Structures companies near where I lived, and decided to do a placement in a big company that had a site relatively close to my home.

I already went through this process in the year before, so I knew how to go about applying to different companies. I did use a book called “CV’s and cover letters” which was provided by the Careers Services at the university, to help formulate my letters. The Engineering Careers section is really good in Cambridge and they were always very helpful.

What did you enjoy the most and the least in your placement?

I went to the placement wanting to know whether I wanted to work in Structures once I graduated. So for me it was kind of a learning experience, trying to get to know the sector, knowing what the work was like, and experiencing the day to day business of working in a Structures company. It was really valuable for me to actually be able to experience it. However, besides this very interesting experience, I reckon that I would probably prefer to be in something else once I graduated.

I think the things I enjoyed the most were the creative side of things. There was one thing where we had to design a particular cover to a building, which was kind of a more creative activity. In contrast, the rest of the stuff that I did was more analytical and calculatory, involving regulations, which was more repetitive and regimented than I expected. This was, probably, the stuff that I enjoyed the least. But overall, this experience definitely did teach me a lot about how the sector works, what people do day to day when you actually work in a Structures company, and what kind of work you can be expected to have. It [the internship] also allowed me to work with a supportive and friendly group of people, and let me feel what it was like to work within a larger team.

What do you consider to be the 3 most important features of a quality placement?

First of all, being able to experience any part of the company which you are curious about. I think it’s really important if you are given the opportunity to enter a company for a short period of time to see as much as the company as possible, and not just the little sector where you are working, so that you can have a better feel of how companies in general work. You can’t experience that without actually being in a job.

And then, a part from that, I think being given some autonomy as an internship student is extremely valuable. Being given a project which you can complete, or some kind of task which you are then given a bit of freedom as to how you complete it, because it gives you a chance to experiment and then also be guided by your supervisor.

And number three would be having really involved and enthusiastic supervisors. My supervisor for this internship was really friendly and lovely, and I felt like I could go and ask him anything without feeling stupid, which was great because it meant I could learn as much as possible from the internship.

To what extent has this experience benefited your professional and educational life?

A lot! Specially because I thought this might be something I would be really interested once I graduated, and I think that doing it made me realise that maybe this wasn’t quite what I was expecting. So, without doing it, perhaps I would have graduated and gone in to a Structures job and disliked it in comparison to something else. For me it was unbelievably valuable to experience it for a short period of time before actually deciding whether I wanted to do this later on.

What 3 key pieces of advice would you like to share with fellow students?

Definitely have this experience, if you can. I would advise to do one every summer, even if just for a few weeks, because having a lot of different internships in your CV is really beneficial when looking for a job once you graduated. You will have so much more experience of different jobs and different sectors, and a more balanced view about what you might want to do in the future. And it is also a good way to earn money throughout the summer as well!

And do send lots and lots of applications. Don’t give up if you don’t get any replies. Just send out as many as possible to the companies that you think you might be interested in and then, hopefully, you will get some back.

Also, if you are worried about travel expenses to get to interviews for internships, make sure that you enquire about travel expenses before going to the interview. In many cases the companies reimburse your travel expenses. So, be sure that travel costs are not an obstacle to go to the interview for the internship you really want to get.

Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are solely that of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of the Engineering Professors’ Council or the Toolkit sponsors and supporters.

Your Placement Journey Toolkit is designed to support you to get the best from your placement experience. It will help you to think about your placement, looking at your expectations, recognising your own responsibilities alongside those of your university and placement provider.

Aligned with the Engineering Placements Toolkit, designed for education institutions and employers, this toolkit aims to support your placement experience in three key stages: before, during and after placement.

Tobi Danmole is a mechanical engineering undergraduate at Imperial College London. Last year he did a one-year placement, not only to gain experience and increase his chances of getting a good job, but also to have a break from university and explore the world of work. He has been offered a job in Rolls-Royce, after doing his placement in the company.

Tell us how did you find your placement

My placement wasn’t compulsory for my degree but I knew it would be a really good thing to do in terms of getting a job and also it would be a really good break from university as well, and just kind of exploring the world of work.

So I searched online, went to the websites of the engineering companies I was interested, and looked at the careers section to see if there was anything available.

There was a good support from my university in terms of getting the CV ready, and they do give classes where you can learn about assessment centre techniques and all of that kind of stuff. They have careers fairs which is really good, but you have to take the initiative to look for placements and apply. In my opinion, if these placements were incorporated, somehow, into the university course, it would be really good.

Can you shortly describe you work at Rolls Royce during your placement?

During my time at Rolls-Royce, I worked as a manufacturing engineer which saw me deliver various projects. These projects involved implementing new systems, designed to help the shop floor staff. As a result they directly affected production, improving the efficiency for the shop floor staff, and gave me lots of responsibility.

Because these were new systems that my colleagues had not used before, I also had to train them, so they could use the systems effectively. In total I trained over 200 people, at different levels of the business, which was definitely not something I would have thought I could do, let alone have the opportunity and be given the responsibility to do so as well. Because of my expertise in these areas, I was able to support the business in many ways throughout my year, and my colleagues were able to support me, so that together a common goal was reached: Build aero engines!

What did you enjoy the most and the least in your placement?

The placement experience was really good overall. I enjoyed the freedom of being able to help in any way that I could, and just being useful. I really did enjoy it, and it was a really good break from university, which was exactly what I wanted.

In the beginning of my placement I was given a number of tasks that weren’t exactly the most interesting. And so at the beginning it was quite boring, but at the same time I almost feel like I needed that in order to actually get to know what was going on because I had no idea. It´s a bit frustrating that you do have to go through that stage of being given less exciting tasks to do, but because you are new there, you have to understand and go through that period. I think it took me like 6 months to thoroughly understand what I was doing. So, I think you just need to stick with that and then you will be able to do more useful stuff, which I was able to do. But first I just needed to understand what exactly was going on.

What do you consider to be the 3 most important features of a quality placement?

I would say, number one, depends on you as a person. You need to be available. If you don’t look for opportunities to do stuff and get stuff done, then they are not going to come after you. You need to be outgoing. Just make yourself available to do whatever needs to be done.

And number two would be the people around you, because obviously you are working with other people so they need to be able to support you and they need to be friendly and guide you as best as they can, because they have more experience than you. You are coming in as a newcomer, and it´s great if you have people to help each other out and just create a good work environment.

And three, I would say keeping focused. Keeping focused in terms of staying on the task, staying on the goal, trying to achieve and accomplish what you have to do.

To what extent has this experience benefited your professional and educational life?

I am not sure just yet… But the good news is that they offered me a job, which is really good! So this year all of my friends in university have been looking around for jobs and I don’t have to worry about that. It has taken a huge weight from my shoulders this year. But at the same time it hasn’t really helped that much in terms of what I am learning right now. With my year out, I forgot a whole bunch of stuff. So when I came back I had to remember it all and pick it up all over again. Which mean that it was harder to readjust to university, but I wouldn’t take it back. It definitely helped in terms of the softer skills, like communication, being organised and making sure that I was getting my tasks done on time.

What 3 key pieces of advice would you like to share with fellow students?

Number one, I would say get stuck in. Make yourself known and get familiar with the place you are in.

Number two, I would say do fun stuff with everyone else and go out and just enjoy other peoples’ company at work. See how you can build relationships and friendships that way, and just network, basically.

And number three, I would say, just a bigger number one! I think getting stuck in is really important. If you don’t stuck in, then nothing will happen for you. If you don’t get stuck in, employers won’t see   your desire to actually want to be there, and so nothing happens. If that’s where you would like to work, you have to give the right impressions so that they will hopefully offer you a job afterwards.

Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are solely that of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of the Engineering Professors’ Council or the Toolkit sponsors and supporters.

Your Placement Journey Toolkit is designed to support you to get the best from your placement experience. It will help you to think about your placement, looking at your expectations, recognising your own responsibilities alongside those of your university and placement provider.

Aligned with the Engineering Placements Toolkit, designed for education institutions and employers, this toolkit aims to support your placement experience in three key stages: before, during and after placement.

Emily Jones is a civil engineering undergraduate at University of Bath. She did a one-year placement in industry where she had the opportunity to work in different projects and have a real world experience of what a civil engineer does. Emily describes her placement as being an invaluable experience, and recommends every student to be proactive and embrace all the opportunities been offered during their placement.

Tell us about your year in industry and how did you find it.

At my university we have a page where they share a list of available jobs, places where people have been before, and we pick the ones we want to apply to. Then we apply to the companies directly. Our Placement Team is really good, and they check our CV for us, and give lots of workshops on how to get through assessment centres, interviews, etc., which is very useful.

My company has a well-developed graduate and placement scheme, so they already had a lot of things in place to make sure I was getting what I needed out of the placement. In my year there were around forty people doing the placement and we met once a month where one of us presented our placement to the other students.

What did you enjoy the most and the least in your placement?

I couldn’t recommend doing a placement enough to anyone. I think this was one of he best decisions I have made. I wasn’t originally signed up to do it but I changed my mind and I am so delighted, because I think it’s really invaluable to have real world experience throughout a year. It puts what you learned in university in such a good perspective, and I found that really helpful. My company was really good because they were rotating me around, making sure I got a view of so many different aspects of the project I was working on, and trying to get me involved in other projects as well. I think I was quite lucky in my company. They were very responsive to anything I wanted to do.

What did I enjoy the least… At the beginning it was difficult. I was on a site where there was a lot of men, and being a woman, and quite young, having to tell them what to do that was quite difficult to start with. But by the end I didn’t really think about it.

What do you consider to be the 3 most important features of a quality placement?

It is meant to be a learning experience year, so you should be able to get a broad range of experience. I worked in lots of different teams, did so many different things, and that was absolutely fantastic.

You also have to have a good relationship with your supervisor, line manager and colleagues. I went to them whenever I wanted to change anything and they were able to get it sorted for me, because obviously I wasn’t in a position of power to do that. Having a good relationship with my supervisor and my team was really important.

And finally making sure you pick something that you think you will enjoy as well, and if you don´t enjoy it, try to make sure you get as much out of it as you can. I do particularly think that I want to do my placement again, afterwards. I am going back to them in the summer because I enjoyed it so much! And the reason was, I think, because I tried to make the most of the year. So try to take whatever opportunities you have and don’t really say ‘no’ to anything they ask you to do.

To what extent did this experience benefit your professional and educational life?

Educationally, my time management skills, definitely. Now that I am back to university it has been so much better. This year I’m a lot more focused in university, I can get things done a lot easier, and I think we have to be that focused during the day at work. And professionally, the company I worked for was quite a large company, and I think it will look very good on my CV to have that there. Also, I just think that any experience that you have that came out positively – and I did a very good job for the year – it’s a really good thing to back you up. In addition, it’s a year towards my chartership as well, which is nice.

What 3 key pieces of advice would you like to share with fellow students?

Pick a placement that you think you will enjoy and definitely don’t just apply and apply and apply. Do choose things that you think you would enjoy because you’ll have to do it for a whole year.

Try and make the most of the placement that you do get. If you are not enjoying it, tell your supervisor to get you moved around and try to do different things. It’s basically making the most of it, because you are there for the year.

And definitely just don’t say ‘no’ to any opportunities that were there for you, because you won’t get those opportunities again. I worked in some huge projects last year that I probably wouldn’t get the opportunity to work on if I was a graduate; it was just because I was there for a year. If you can do it just for a month it would be a really good learning experience for you, so take on whatever you can, I would say, to try and gain as much as you can from your placement.

Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are solely that of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of the Engineering Professors’ Council or the Toolkit sponsors and supporters.

Your Placement Journey Toolkit is designed to support you to get the best from your placement experience. It will help you to think about your placement, looking at your expectations, recognising your own responsibilities alongside those of your university and placement provider.

Aligned with the Engineering Placements Toolkit, designed for education institutions and employers, this toolkit aims to support your placement experience in three key stages: before, during and after placement.

Cristian Balan is an aeronautical engineering undergraduate at University of Salford. He had an exciting one-year placement in Airbus, working both in Germany (Bremen) and France (Toulouse). In his placement Cristian felt he was part of the team and worked in fast-paced projects where he had the opportunity to work not only in research and development departments, but also in production and quality management.

Tell us about what you did during your sandwich year and how did you find it.

I have applied to several placements and I had an offer from a UK company. However, I was referred by a lecturer to Airbus at a German plant and then I had an interview with them and got the job. My placement comprised of 6 months of work in Germany, in Bremen, and other 6 months in France, in Toulouse. I started in an engineering department, where I worked in research and development for The Composite Technology Team, then I got transferred to production to apply further the knowledge developed in the original department.

What did you enjoy the most and the least in your placement?

I think the best part was that I was seen as a team member in the department, mainly due to the high workload and the need for additional help. Upon my arrival, various positions were cut in the department therefore there was a real need for new workforce. From day one I was seen as a new colleague. I enjoyed that a lot because I could develop differently. I had friends in other departments that had basic interns’ responsibilities such as updating Excel spreadsheets, and I think this has an impact on the way you grow within the team as well as a young professional. I was very welcomed there, they appreciated the work I was doing and the feedback was very constructive all the time.

What I didn’t enjoy was the fact that I had to leave! I didn’t like the idea of not being able carry on working on the projects that I have started with the team, but there was no time left in my contract so I had to quickly move on. It is a bit frustrating when you see your work being taken by somebody else. Even in France, I left some projects that needed to be addressed with some final points. But I think it’s always the same when you have to leave from a place you like.

What do you consider to be the 3 most important features of a quality placement?

I think professionalism from the colleagues is one of the most important aspects. I think they need to understand why you are there and try to be less selfish. There are some people who think “Ok, I am a full-time employee, and you are an intern, so I don´t really care about you“. I think it’s really important to have amazing colleagues that understand your role within the team, and luckily enough I had great colleagues.

Secondly, the work itself. I think is very important to discuss with the manager during interviews the work you are going to carry out, because often the job descriptions are very nice and sound amazing, but behind the fancy words there are some weird tasks. So it is important to ensure the transparency of the tasks.

And thirdly, the location. At this age it’s important to be in a nice city, because you need to enjoy your life as well. I had an offer where the company was literally in the middle of the forest, and that’s not a nice placement location.

Has this experience benefited your professional and educational life?

There are a lot of positive aspects. First of all, I think people treat me with more respect. My CV is more credible now, and people call me with a different approach than before. I remember my interviews in the second year, when people were treating the interviews like they were talking to a kid, literally, and just trying to understand why I applied for a particular placement, and why I liked engineering. It has been just one year and a half, but the approach from all the companies that I’ve been in contact with lately is much different. I just had interviews a few weeks ago and I could see the change in their approach, a lot! And I think that’s really great. And also, the job offers are coming more easily, having companies approaching me just days after sending out my CV. From an academic point of view, I received master’s offers very fast as well. I think it benefited a lot and also, personally, I became more organised in many aspects, even with my own thoughts. When I put down a piece of work, I am more technical now than before, trying to avoid just talking for the sake of talking.

What 3 key pieces of advice would you like to share with fellow students?

I think everything starts from day one at university. So on first year you want to build confidence, build your personality and build a profile. I have seen a lot of CV’s during my placement that don’t tell me anything about a person. It’s important to find your strengths and build around them. Try to think outside the box and do extra things all the time. It is not hard to study and get great marks. If you do your work and spend some time studying, you can become very good academically, but then, when it comes to finding the right work, it matters a lot what you do outside your studies as well. So do as many extra-curricular activities you can.

Also, an advantage for me were the foreign languages I speak. I think it’s really important to learn at least a second language. I didn’t speak German beforehand, and when I arrived there I realised that all the technicians wouldn’t speak any English, so I had to boost my German in one month. So language skills and determination in this sense are crucial. Nowadays students around Europe speak three or four languages, and that’s our real competition.

And also try to do any sort of online courses, developing in different areas as well, such as business, economics and maybe international trade. Because all what we are studying in engineering degrees is very theoretical – mathematics and formulas – but it is important to know how all these things get integrated in industry. I know it’s hard to think on all these aspects in second year, when you are looking for a placement, but I believe if you are surrounded by the right people, read the right things and ask the right questions, you can find your own “recipe of success”.

Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are solely that of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of the Engineering Professors’ Council or the Toolkit sponsors and supporters.

Your Placement Journey Toolkit is designed to support you to get the best from your placement experience. It will help you to think about your placement, looking at your expectations, recognising your own responsibilities alongside those of your university and placement provider.

Aligned with the Engineering Placements Toolkit, designed for education institutions and employers, this toolkit aims to support your placement experience in three key stages: before, during and after placement.

Oishi Deb is a software and electronics engineering undergraduate at University of Leicester. She has finished her second year and is currently doing a yearlong placement at Rolls Royce where she is enjoying the opportunity to apply her knowledge in real world projects and also learn new skills that will benefit her future professional career.

Tell us about what you are doing in your placement and how did you find it.

I am working in Control – Software Engineering at Rolls Royce. I am part of the software design team for the Corporate, Small and Medium sized Engines (CSME). I am working on various software related work for the aircraft’s engine control system. I am also getting involved with the Electro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) testing software and learning more about the aircraft’s engine control system and safety critical software. I am really enjoying this experience and I find it very interesting as it’s very much related to my course.

I started researching various placement opportunities and applied to few companies. On the same time, I started preparing myself for interviews, assessment centre etc. I really wanted to work at Rolls Royce so I applied on their website by completing the online application. Once my online application was accepted, I was invited to complete a series of online tests and once I passed that I was invited to the Assessment Centre. The Assessment Centre was a whole day session which started with the numerical test, presentation, competency based interview, team challenge and finally the technical interview. It went really well and I really enjoyed that experience. Following that, within 48 hours I received a call from them and I was so delighted to know that they offered me a placement role.

What are you enjoying the most and the least in your placement?

So far the experience has been really good because I always wanted to do it and having this opportunity to experience that, is really satisfying. I have enjoyed every bits and piece of the work I get involved with. To be able to get involved with the development process of safety critical software is been a great experience. I am really enjoying the opportunity to see how the theory knowledge learned in University is actually been used in real world practical projects.

Additionally, I volunteered in few STEM (Science Technology Engineering Maths) events as a Rolls Royce’s representative. These events are targeted to young people to encourage them towards STEM subjects. Following one such event, the head of the Control-Software engineering personally sends me a thank you letter for my contributions to these events. That’s been the best part so far during my placement.

I haven’t found anything that I have enjoyed the least. When I started, everything was quite new so I adapted to that situation, it was more like interacting with people and finding out more about the team and the project work. It took a time to get settle and adapt to everything but I gradually started picking up things. Initially, it was quite challenging to understand the level of work, but I soon started enjoying the experience.

What do you consider to be the 3 most important features of a quality placement?

First feature is the opportunity to be part of such an experienced team, and to experience the real life project work. At university I do so many projects, but not anything like real life project that actually makes an impact to the business.

Second feature is the opportunity to learn different things. I am working with different programming languages and I haven´t used these languages (Ada95 or SPARK) in my university, and they [Rolls Royce] gave me the opportunity to learn different programming languages and various new things.

Finally, it’s great to have the real experience of working in a company. Here they treat the interns as regular employees and they give a pretty much same amount of work. I am going to meetings every week with other team members and in those meetings, everyone talks about what they have done last week and what they will do in the next week. So, they ask me the same thing as an actual employee.

Has this experience benefited your professional and educational life?

Definitely, it helped me a lot. The knowledge and the skills I am learning is going to be so much beneficial in future. Moreover, I am developing my transferable and professional skills like adapting to a situation, interacting with new people, meeting tight deadlines etc. The company is a new world, it´s not like the university, it’s a professional work environment. So this experience is really helpful because it’s good to get these experiences while I am still a student. I am getting industrial experience in the area I am really passionate about, so when I’ll graduate and will look for jobs I’ll be so much better prepared and it’s definitely a plus to my CV.

What 3 key pieces of advice would you like to share with fellow students?

I would say definitely gain an industrial experience. It doesn’t need to be for one year, you can do it for one or two months during the summer, but definitely do go for it.

Make sure to do something you are really passionate about then you will be able to enjoy it more. Companies are more likely to hire people who are passionate. They want to see if the person will be willing to learn new things or not. Here in Rolls Royce, I am learning new things every single day and I am so passionate about it.

And the last but not the least do network with people. Talk to your lecturers or career advisors, mention them that you are interested and looking for placements, they might be able to point you in the right direction or they might have contacts with some companies. You never know. So the best way is to start networking with people and don’t give up.

Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are solely that of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of the Engineering Professors’ Council or the Toolkit sponsors and supporters.