Vapour Consumables Intern Review

Item: Vapour Consumables Intern at BAT
Rating: 4.1
Author: Anonymous

at BAT

Placement (10 Months+)

Chemistry

Southampton

Review Submitted: August 2026

Overall Rating

4.1 /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!

4/5 - Overview of Role

4.5/5 - Skills Development

4.5/5 - Support and Guidance

4/5 - Company Culture

3.5/5 - Overall Experience

4/5 - Future Career Prospects

Overview of Role

Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis.

My role included a mix of lab and office based work depending on project need. It included the development of new formulations which were then made and tested in the lab, research, consumer testing and analysis of those results.

Were you given much responsibility during your placement / internship?

During my placement, I owned my own project meaning I got to experience the true nature of being a product developer.

Please rate how meaningful the work you were doing was

4/5

Skills Development

Have you learnt any new skills, or developed your existing skills?

Communication/Presenting - Throughout the placement we had many chances to present to different audiences, strengthening my presentation skills but also allowing me to develop the ability to tailor my communication to the audience i was presenting to.
Teamwork/Collaboration - It was great to see how the different teams within the business work together and how you won't get very far without the ability to collaborate.
Adaptability - Within the corporate world, things change very quickly so you have to be able to move with it.
Technical - I further developed my lab skills as well as data analysis.

How would you rate the training provided during your experience?

5/5

How would you rate your development of industry-specific skills during the experience?

4/5

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

4/5

Support and Guidance

How much support and guidance did you receive during your placement / internship?

Loads! At BAT as well as your line manager, you have:
A mentor who is someone in the business normally from a different team who can help guide you on different things. Some people used them to help develop skills such as presenting while others used them for advice or extra work in different areas of the company.
A buddy who is someone in your team who can help you with more personal issues and can be someone to talk to if you didn't want to go to your manager.
A placement buddy who could help you with any placement issues.

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?

4/5

Company Culture

What was the company culture and general atmosphere like?

In general BAT is very welcoming, full of kind people and is very diverse. They have been running this placement programme for a very long time now and it shows as everyone within the business is very aware that there are always interns and love to give us the time of day to ask questions or work with them - even relatively senior people. At BAT, interns are treated as normal workers and probably get more exposure to the business and senior leaders than normal workers do.

How would you rate the inclusiveness of the culture?

4/5

How would you rate the social opportunities?

4/5

How would you rate the diversity initiatives?

4/5

How would you rate the charity, sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives?

4/5

Overall Experience

To what extent did you enjoy your placement / internship?

I definitely enjoyed the placement and the company is a great place to get experience. There was a great balance of support and responsibility and has been a great way to develop skills necessary for future work.

Please rate your level of enjoyment on your placement / internship

3/5

Please rate how your experience met your expectations

4/5

Recommendations & Advice

Would you recommend BAT to a friend?

Yes

What advice would you give to others applying to BAT

Be yourself. Everyone is very different - within the intern group and within the company. Don't try and become what you think they want. BAT is all about innovation and growth, for a lot of these roles, you don't need to know everything - they want you to learn and use your knowledge gaps to come up with new ideas.