Graduate Summer placement help please 1

[geeovana]

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

 

[geeovana]

anyone?

 

[zdas04]

You left Shell on good terms. Talk to someone there about hooking you up with an upstream summer intern program, they have a great one. BP has a good system too. You won't believe how much different upstream is than refineries.

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

"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.

 

[IRstuff]

Doesn't your school have a department for that sort of thing? I know that at Berkeley, they're currently interviewing students for summer 2013 internships at places like Facebook, Linked In, etc. These are all arranged through the engineering departments, since the companies go to the campus to pick up busful of students and truck them down to Santa Clara for interviews.

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
faq731-376

 

[MiketheEngineer]

You are Young and DUMB as I say. EXPLORE everything.. Only God knows what you will end up doing... I started out in roof trusses, then real estate , then steel tooling - now I am chief engineer for the largest scaffolding company in the world.

Go figure... Don't lock yourself down and BTW Goood Luck!!

 

[geeovana]

many thanks for all the replies. Yes i was always told upstream was the 'better' half of the company to work in and i think thats why shell pulled from that refinery as it was costing to much for the profit they where getting back. There is more money in upstream i think. I am trying to look around just having trouble getting time at the moment the course is so hectic at the minute.

 

[geeovana]

I have applied for two internships so far Shell and an automotive at BP testing and developing the fuels and lubricants as i have had some previous experience in this and really enjoyed it.

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

 

[oiervillaluenga]

I´ll give you my inside track since I have just finished my MSc in Advanced Manufacturing.

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.

 

[KENAT]

Bigger companies (BAE Systems, GKN, Westland, RR... ) tend to have more formalized summer internships.

However, some smaller companies if you contact them might give you a chance.

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