Materials & Process Analysis Intern Review

The role involves the use of metallurgical analytical methods, combined with metallurgical knowledge to provide consult to process partners as needed during production and development. This would include visual and microscopic analysis, alongside more hands-on aspects through sample preparation, and subsequent sample quantification.
Throughout the year, a project is also assigned to span the length of the placement, with a presentation/report at the end, as well as opportunities to present and gain feedback.

From the start, the training was thorough, with the team taking every opportunity to show you how to use the range of equipment. This was prevalent through the 1-month handoff period from the previous intern, which not only included training, but also some supervised handling of the equipment.
Responsibility was also provided through the individual project, which was internal, though previous intern projects have been external, allowing for more responsibility to network and communicate.

Key skills:
- Manual dexterity due to the extensive amount of hands-on work
- Metallurgical knowledge due to the large amount of knowledge available from superiors and existing report database
- Networking and communication due to meetings with process partners throughout the BMW group
- Ability to learn bespoke software on the fly, as the hardware for testing included software to operate and process results

Guidance was readily available as the team were always on hand, even if working from home. Additionally, several members of the chemistry team (Shared lab), were also equipped with knowledge and experience of the metallurgical side, so could provide consult at times where primary contacts were unavailable.

The company culture was fantastic, with a lot of opportunities to communicate and network with people from other departments, due to their reliance on my reports to quantify their next steps given a problem..
However, there would oftentimes be hostility from other departments when the results were not what they wanted (i.e. out of spec). This was combatted through the support of superiors and my line manager.

I enjoyed it thoroughly - when there was work to do. The big issue with the role is that it is on an ad-hoc basis, and I came at a time when they were planning the transition to another engine manufacture phase. This meant that the majority of issues that could occur, had already been addressed, and any further issues would be due to manual handling rather than material faults.

Yes