Benefits of completing a year in industry

My placement at AIRBUS in the Flight Physics Department gave me real world experience in my field and network opportunities within a global and well recognised company. I grasped opportunities to work in other AIRBUS sites internationally, by working in Toulouse and at the Paris Air Show. This enabled wider networking opportunities and broadened my understanding of the manufacturing process within a large engineering company.

I would highly recommend taking a placement – the year was valuable in showing me where in industry my interests lay. A first taste of professional work life was useful when returning as a student too. I gained transferable skills including management, organisation of projects and presentation skills which could be applied in my studies as well as providing examples in graduate applications.

I secured a placement with Proctor and Gamble (P&G), where I worked on improving their production equipment.

The services provided by the placement team really helped. Every time I applied for a placement role, I could have my CV checked to get the very most out of each opportunity. I also went to the mock assessment centres and interviews that really helped in preparation for interviews. 

During my placement year at Ford Motor Company, I was in the Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle team. My role was to focus on the instrumentation of the vehicles, the energy management of them as well as collecting data to drive efficiency.

The careers team offer 1-1 sessions to look at CVs and cover letters, practice interviews and mock assessment centres. This was a great help in securing my placement and highlighting my experience there on my CV for future job opportunities

At Jaguar Landrover during my placement year, I was part of a team delivering an engine assembly line for a new engine. We started with an empty shell and got to the point where we had an assembly line building engines. This experience changed my career prospects immeasurably and best of all, I got a job out of it!

I completed a placement year at Infiniti Red Bull Racing. My placement was involved with the the electronics team, I perfored a variety of diagnostics tests and learning more about the Infiniti design and development process. 

All in all it’s been a great experience so far – I’m excited for what’s to come next!

I spent my placement year working for Bouygues, one of the biggest construction companies in the world. I was working on a student accommodation project for The University of Essex where my main job was to manage the design of the façade of the building. 

The placement team helped me a lot in finding this placement, getting my CV right and being successful at interviews.

Undertaking an industry placement will prepare you to enter the professional world of the sector you want to follow, in both technical and social aspects. A major thing about a placement is that it gives you the chance to build contacts with people. This kind of networking plays an extremely important role in employability. My placement has given me a clear picture of what this profession is like and I would definitely like to return to my employer upon graduating. 

During my placement at Uniper, I was able to expand my knowledge beyond what’s possible to being taught in a classroom.

Some days, I'd spend a lot of my time in the office working on a modelling and simulation project or doing calculations. On other days I'd be at the site learning all the different processes or doing a survey to improve operations

I am quite enthusiastic about renewable energy and reducing the carbon footprint. The move towards hydrogen is a massive step forward and I wanted to be part of it as soon as possible. The internship in Process Engineering at Uniper matches my career goals for the future and gives me the opportunity to make a contribution.

I spent my placement abroad in Thailand with one of the largest windsurfing companies in the world, Starboard. In my role, I worked as one of the designers of their new FreeWing products, helping design inflatable watersports wings that are used for wing foiling.

My typical week consisted of 3-4 days in the office, building new models of wings, performing CFD and FEA analysis on the wings, and making physical adjustments to develop and improve the products. I'd then spend 2-3 days a week testing the products on the water at the beach nearby.

The placements team offered me great support throughout the experience. One thing that helped a lot was the various emails I received from them reminding me of deadlines for different applications and things like CV drafts and interview sessions.

I spent my placement with MTC Engineering, a small drainage design company that design sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) for sites varying from small one-dwelling developments to huge housing estates.

The Placements Team aided in the fine tuning of my CV. Additionally, the numerous talks, preparatory team tasks and Q&A sessions expanded my knowledge on placement hunting whilst also providing opportunities to improve my communication skills.