Summer Placements & Internships
As a university student your first experience in an engineering environment is likely to be a summer placement or internship. Summer placements and internships take place during the summer before the commencement of the new academic year. However, it isn't uncommon for university lecturers to use their contacts to arrange a visit to a local engineering company. Being honest, a placement or internship differs significantly from a few hours listening to "a day in the life of an engineer.”
No day is likely to be the same during your summer placement or internship, this is because every business is different, with each day and week bringing different tasks and challenges.
One of the questions I get asked most frequently from students is “how do you get a placement?”. There isn’t a straightforward answer to this question. There are multiple different avenues which can lead to a summer placement or internship.
So what can you do to increase your chances of success?
Prepare your CV, making sure you clearly present your skills, qualifications and experience.
Create a LinkedIn profile. Yes, companies look at profiles on LinkedIn.
Use friends or family who may work in the industry. Ask if there are any opportunities in the companies they work for.
Ask your university lecturers if any companies have approached the university with opportunities.
Apply for advertised posts. Gradcracker.com, Indeed.com and Linkedin.com are good starting points for the most up to date job advertisements.
Write to companies which interest you by letter or email.
Making sure you sell yourself, by standing out from the competition is key to securing an interview. Therefore, spending time preparing a structured, concise and evidence based CV is critical. Look out for the upcoming article “The Dos and Don’ts of a Strong CV”.
You have something to offer regardless of your experience in an engineering workplace.
The purpose of a summer placement or internship is for you, the engineer, to be exposed to the environment you wish to join. On the other hand, the company offering you the opportunity will use it as an extended interview with a view to employing you on completion of your studies. The company you spend 10 to 12 weeks with, will also use your fresh ideas to support the business. Despite not being an experienced engineer, universities are in many respects, at the forefront of industry - this is driven by lecturers who take a deep interest in the evolution of technologies, processes and “the way things work”. This may come as a surprise, but from experience, your engineering knowledge developed at university and your inquisitiveness is exactly what companies look for. This is why it is important that your CV clearly presents your interests and skillsets, helping you demonstrate that you are an attractive asset to potential employers.
Take every opportunity offered to you.
Depending on the industry of the company you are working for, you will get the opportunity to witness how engineers work on a day to day basis. You will also likely be exposed to the type of engineering your lecturers and tutors have taught you during your studies. This could be; witnessing manufacturing taking place on a CNC machine working to a tolerance of 0.01mm, sitting alongside an engineer preparing a computational analysis, witnessing pressure testing of pipework working to the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED), learning and understanding non-destructive examination critical to the quality assurance of a new nuclear power station, shadowing a principal engineer preparing the calculations required to plan a complex lifting operation, working with a project manager preparing a project programme prior to a progress meeting or visiting an operational site such as a wind farm or power station.
Visual learning brings the theory of engineering to life and provides context, which at this stage of your career is invaluable.
Don’t underestimate the skill of communication.
Regardless of your summer placement or internship, you will have the opportunity to test and further develop your soft skills, which in our industry is critical. Learning and mastering the skill of communication is underestimated. Interacting with clients, contractors, senior management, team members and fellow employees may seem simple but learning how to communicate with each and how your approach should differ, is a useful and incredibly powerful skill. Making phone calls, sending emails, hosting remote and face to face meetings are all part of the soft skill catalogue. After all, competency D in the UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence and Commitment (UK-SPEC), which covers the competency requirements for EngTech, IEng and CEng, is Communication and Interpersonal Skills. This is the competency you are most likely to achieve first, as it is confirmation that you can use the english language to communicate in a business environment. Showing effective communication includes the skill of asking questions. If you don’t ask you don’t get.
During your summer placement or internship, asking questions helps you learn. Most professional engineers love telling aspiring engineers about their career and job(s) past and present, so starting by understanding how your sponsor, mentor or line manager got to where they are today will give you good context of some of the challenges you are likely to face. This will also give you an idea of the different journey’s people have been on to progress their career. Asking questions is critical to your learning.
Thank you for reading this article.
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