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.