Graduate Summer placement help please
Graduate Summer placement help please
(OP)
Right story is I left school at 16 with good GCSE's in maths, and separate sciences. At the time i hated school so left and applied for several apprentiships. I landed a killer advanced apprentiship with a top engineering college in the North west of England sponsored by Shell. After 2 years in college I went to work at Shell's oil refinery (Stanlow) to finish my apprentiship for a further 18 months until i came out of my time and then worked there as a mechanical technician. The work was interesting pulling apart huge compressors, every type of pump, working on Turbo Alternators, it was really good. I started getting a bit bored of just working 5 days a week and missed learning so i started a HNC in mechanical Engineering and after two years i finished with a distinction.
Now at this point i started having a doubts about work, It wasn't that i didn't appreciate the money (i was earning far more than any of my friends) or the class of job i had working for such a big company but i was just bored of the routine of a 9 - 5. My girlfriend who is younger was starting to look at universities to go to as she was about to finish college and i ended up taking her round several of them to look around. While at the universities i would sneak off and have a look at the engineering sections and i was hooked. Cut a long story short i applied for some good quality University's with the best reputations in the UK and i was accepted into them where i chose one and left work.
I am currentley in the second year of a three or four year course (depending on whether i want to gain a masters or not) in Mechanical Engineering and im now thinking about what i would like to do when i graduate. I could always go back to the refinery i was working at before as i left on good terms and work as an engineer instead of a technician but i want to have a go at different disciplines whilst still at univeristy to see if any of the other disciplines suit me better.
I want to take on a summer placement or two at a few different company's either in the UK or abroad and was wondering if anyone could suggest any really good interesting companys to apply for that i could see a few disciplines. I have plenty of experience so it shouldnt be to hard to gain a good placement i just dont know where to start looking
Any help is much appreciated
Now at this point i started having a doubts about work, It wasn't that i didn't appreciate the money (i was earning far more than any of my friends) or the class of job i had working for such a big company but i was just bored of the routine of a 9 - 5. My girlfriend who is younger was starting to look at universities to go to as she was about to finish college and i ended up taking her round several of them to look around. While at the universities i would sneak off and have a look at the engineering sections and i was hooked. Cut a long story short i applied for some good quality University's with the best reputations in the UK and i was accepted into them where i chose one and left work.
I am currentley in the second year of a three or four year course (depending on whether i want to gain a masters or not) in Mechanical Engineering and im now thinking about what i would like to do when i graduate. I could always go back to the refinery i was working at before as i left on good terms and work as an engineer instead of a technician but i want to have a go at different disciplines whilst still at univeristy to see if any of the other disciplines suit me better.
I want to take on a summer placement or two at a few different company's either in the UK or abroad and was wondering if anyone could suggest any really good interesting companys to apply for that i could see a few disciplines. I have plenty of experience so it shouldnt be to hard to gain a good placement i just dont know where to start looking
Any help is much appreciated





RE: Graduate Summer placement help please
RE: Graduate Summer placement help please
Outside of Oil & Gas, I can't help. You might check with your on-campus ASME chapter (if you haven't joined ASME yet, do that immediately. if you think you might want to stay in Oil & Gas join SPE immediately).
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
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"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
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RE: Graduate Summer placement help please
Trade magazines and journals, even the local papers could be sources. Look for people that are hiring; they'll generally love to pick up someone to do grunt work at absurdly low wages in the guise of interships.
TTFN
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RE: Graduate Summer placement help please
Go figure... Don't lock yourself down and BTW Goood Luck!!
RE: Graduate Summer placement help please
RE: Graduate Summer placement help please
The more i look around the more i want to spend my summer abroad and especially in the states. Seen as i suspect many of you are from the states do you think this would be a good addition to my CV and has anyone any idea how i go about applying for internships abroad?
I will be speaking to the careers center with my university on Monday or Tuesday but was just wondering if anyone on here could lend a hand first. Any good company's you think would be of interest. I think im going to be applying for oil and gas so anything in that sector.
Many thanks
Graeme
RE: Graduate Summer placement help please
First things first: for engineering internships and graduate programs I would use these 2 webpages: milkround.com and gradcracker.com , they both are quite useful and all of the top engineering companies are listed there. Use your careers service from your university to prepare your CV, but all of the job opportunities will be listed in those 2 webpages, maybe together with prospects.ac.uk.
Second of all, I´ll try to bring you to the dark side. One of the top engineering companies in the UK is Rolls-Royce, for which I got a graduate placement and I will start working in 1 month, I have been to the installations in Derby several times and I have to tell you that it is at the cutting edge of technology, if you would like to apply for them I think that you wouldn´t regret it at all.
Finally, my advise is that you should seriously consider going for a Master´s level degree since becoming Chartered in the UK is the standard regarding Engineering.
Good luck with your studies.
RE: Graduate Summer placement help please
However, some smaller companies if you contact them might give you a chance.
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?