WSSE Undergraduate Engineer Review
at MBDA
Placement (10 Months+)
Computer Science, Computer Systems Engineering
Bristol
Review Submitted: October 2021
Overall Rating
4.9 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
5/5
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Overview of Role
4.8/5
-
Skills Development
5/5
-
Support and Guidance
5/5
-
Company Culture
5/5
-
Overall Experience
5/5
-
Future Career Prospects
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.
For the first ~5 months of my placement, I worked on my own part of a bigger project. I worked mostly in MATLAB & Simulink (which was not that usual for the department). I then spent the second half of my placement mixing between programming in C# and C++ (both more common), writing tests for the same project, and supporting the project's tester. Mostly worked 3 days from home, 2 days in the office.
Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?
The first 5 months of the placement were working alone on a vital component for a specific project (of which only about ~20% was done when I started working on it). Second half was writing the test specifications for the same project and had to confer with the lead developer and project head (for our department) on requirements and whether they were being robustly tested in the test specs. Also had to support project tester.
Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was
5/5
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?
Developed greatly on my existing programming skills. Learnt a lot about software development cycle and the different stages. Improved presentational and communication skills through fortnightly 30-min talks to the department which I hosted or contributed to 3 times. Great first experience in an office and working all day from home.
How would you rate the training provided during your experience?
4/5
How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?
5/5
How would you rate your development of personal / soft skills during the experience?
5/5
Please rate how these skills have helped you in your career development
5/5
Support and Guidance
How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?
Was sort of thrown in at the deep end but I believe that was much more valuable for me as I best learn on-the-job. However, lots of support and guidance were offered and line manager provided much help whenever it was needed with the programming, and help with general work life (setting up WFH for example) was always provided by TC (person in charge of your placement at the company).
How would you rate the support and guidance from your line manager?
5/5
How would you rate the support and guidance from the wider team?
5/5
Company Culture
What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?
Worked from home for 3/5 days a week, and was during peak of COVID so didn't get to experience the full company culture (as it would've been pre-COVID). But from what I did witness, was professional (as I assume big companies normally are) but not in any way exhausting. Lots of initiatives and commitees available. The department tried to organise what they could given COVID (such as christmas quiz over zoom).
How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?
5/5
How would you rate the social opportunities?
5/5
How would you rate the diversity initiatives?
5/5
How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?
5/5
Overall Experience
To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?
Very very much enjoyed my placement. Was part of a great development team and great department. The work was enjoyable, some tasks here and there such as documentation and technical documents which you do not look forward to, but is all part of the software engineering lifecycle and is to be expected. Am looking forward to going back on the graduate scheme.
Please rate your level of enjoyment on your placement / internship
5/5
Please rate how your experience met your expectations
5/5
Future Career Prospects
Please rate the future employment prospects at MBDA
5/5
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend MBDA to a friend?
Yes
What advice would you give to others applying to MBDA
The assessment centre is not too bad and is strengths-based (as opposed to knowledge-based). Be sure to show you're capable of adapting to a situation and understand that working and communicating well with your peers at the centre during the team exercises is better than trying to stand-out and drown everyone else out (save that for when you have to do the individual tasks).
