Engineering Intern Review

Conduct research into new and emerging forms of hydrogen production, including considering a range of factors such as practicality, compliance with regulation, commercial viability and electrical demand. This involved working with other interns from different streams to put together a group project report and presentation to be delivered to senior members. It was important to keep in regular contact with team members especially when working remotely as was frequently the case. In addition, there were individual tasks to complete such as organising charity volunteer days.

It was a refreshing experience to have responsibility in completing not only my stream-specific aspects of the group project, but also to be able to work on an individual piece of work where I was able to develop my technical skills and produce a deliverable that I could showcase and be proud of. Centrica also encourages all employees to take up a charity day of volunteering so this was an additional degree of responsibility that I had to organise.

I have developed vital skills such as public speaking which was necessary due to the large number of individual and group presentations that were part of the role. Networking with other interns, graduate employees and managers was also an important part of the role. On a technical basis, it was important to be able to quickly pick up new terminology and forms of displaying engineering information as part of the research aspect of the role.

It was very comforting being assigned a buddy throughout the placement who themselves was a recent graduate. Knowing that this support and advice was coming from someone who had been in the same position as myself only a year or so ago made it all the more useful. In addition the line managers and early careers team were so supportive and approachable and I always felt comfortable dropping them a Teams message if there were any issues that needed resolved.

This was a nine week internship and the first and last of those weeks was dedicated to making the interns all comfortable with each other and within the business so this was really appreciated given how daunting starting a new placement can be. Within the department I was working in, it was a small enough office that the culture was able to be casual and relaxed enough to quickly allow me to feel like part of the team.

This was my first ever industrial placement so at the beginning I didn't know exactly what to expect, but luckily so many other interns were all in the same boat so it was incredibly easy to fit in and through this I have made professional and personal connections that will last for many years to come. The work myself and my team put together felt like it was truly valued by the business and at all points in the internship our managers were incredibly supportive and appreciative of our work.

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