Electrical Engineering Intern Review

As part of my 9-week internship, I worked in a multi-disciplinary team with a mechanical and process engineer. I worked within Centrica Energy Storage+ as part of the hydrogen team working on electrolysers and the production of hydrogen. I helped identify various considerations specifically looking at the electrical connections. My main project involved working the the team to complete a feasibility study on implementing an emerging hydrogen technology at Centrica's Easington gas terminal. Furthermore, we worked with commercial analysts to evaluate the economic as well as technical feasibility of installing the technology. My day-to-day work involved analysing, summarising and collating technical documents and specifications regarding my projects. At the end of the placement, I had a technical presentation on each of my projects, as well as a final development presentation.

Throughout my day-to-day tasks and overall in the internship, I was given a good amount of responsibility during my placement. I never felt as if I had nothing to do on any given day; I was always clear on what I should be working on next, whether it was specific to my projects, or specific to the Charity Challenge. The group project was initially quite overwhelming, as it had a very broad scope, however we were reassured of the expectations the team had for this project.

Throughout my time at Centrica, I have developed and learnt a large variety of skills including both hard and soft skills. I have learnt how to communicate in a multi-disciplinary team and get my point across in a concise, yet understandable way. Furthermore, I've learnt how a larger corporate company operates, and how the multiple business work together. By providing me with multiple opportunities, I've been able to improve on my presentation skills, public speaking and communication. By creating reports summarising my findings in each project, I've developed my ability to quickly read, understand and extract relevant information from technical documents and specifications.

Across my entire placement, I received an impressive amount of guidance and support. This ranged from my line manager who checked in with me weekly to ensure I was accomplishing my weekly tasks, as well as providing me with support during tumultuous times in my personal life. Moreover, my Intern Talent Manager frequently checked-in with the team, and gave us a space to talk with the other engineering graduate. The Emerging Talent Team was really helpful in organising the entire placement for all 80+ of us interns, and dealing with any issues I had and requests I made. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I received a lot of friendly support from my buddy who was assigned to me to help integrate into the company, and assist with any small admin issues I had.

In the office and during online meetings, everyone was really kind and welcoming. Especially in the CES+ Hydrogen team, I felt as I was considered an equal, who's opinions were respected and valued. They genuinely were very excited about me and my team working on this project, as it meant the project could continue to flow even during busier times as many colleagues went on annual leave during the summer holiday. Even outside of my team and business, everyone was very friendly and quite easily approachable.

During my time at Centrica, I really enjoyed my placement.

Yes