Ocean Modelling Summer Placement Review

My role is to investigate performance improvements to specific parts of climate models. On a day-to-day basis this involves coming up with a weekly plan with my supervisor and then working independently across the week to achieve specific objectives. There's also a large amount of collaboration with colleagues who are always happy to answer questions.

Within my project I was given full responsibility for my objectives and freedom to investigate and explore the topic in my own way. This allowed me to find methods for working that work best for me as well as bring new insights to the company from an external perspective.

I've developed significant computing skills in the area of high performance computing and parallelism. Producing presentations and reports has also helped me to enhance my communication skills.

My line manager and wider network were very helpful. The first few days felt like being put in at the deep end as there was a lot to cover but people were always willing to answer questions and help me with anything I needed. I had regular meetings with my supervisor to discuss my progress and work over any issues I had encountered.

It's a very collaborative culture. There were lots of events put on for summer placement students as we were all remote working which helped generate a nice atmosphere for the placement. We had weekly placement meetings between a small selection of students to discuss how things were going and also a social organised internally to hang out and get to know each other better.

I found the work fascinating, and really enjoyed the overall experience. The work was slightly different than expected, but my supervisor had crafted a series of objectives that helped introduce me to a very complex system in a way that I could understand it. I would certainly consider working here in the future.

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