Mechanical Engineering internships

Hi,
Subject to me getting the right grades in august I will be studying mechanical engineering (Meng) at Warwick University. Does anyone know of any companies that offer an internship or summer work placement after the first year of studying because from what I can see only offer internships for final and penultimate years or aren't i looking hard enough??
I’ve tried most of the large companies like Toyota, Corus, and Shell etc
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Reply 1

qmblix

Chris12345

Hi,
Subject to me getting the right grades in august I will be studying mechanical engineering (Meng) at Warwick University. Does anyone know of any companies that offer an internship or summer work placement after the first year of studying because from what I can see only offer internships for final and penultimate years or aren't i looking hard enough??
I’ve tried most of the large companies like Toyota, Corus, and Shell etc
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Your findings are correct, the large well known multinationals (e.g. Times Top 100 Companies) usually only take on penultimate year students. It is possible to find internships after your first year, but you have to look in places beyond the conventional career guides. I've certainly read of Summer placements after your first year but these are quite rare and tend to be offered by a company that has sponsored your undergraduate studies. Otherwise it's a case of who you know and personally contacting the medium and small firms.

You have to understand from an organisation's point of view, recruiting a student after the first year is not really that useful because the student generally will not have developed a certain level of maturity and academic ability. You could dispute this much as you like but in large firms, do not underestimate how important profit is to them. They want students who are at least capable of surviving a year in their company, coping with the everyday working environment like permenant staff do and be of benefit to the company. Although generally the responsibilities will not be as much as a graduate or a permenant worker, a certain level of academic achievement is expected to prove you can transfer those skills to the working world.

After two years of uni at least is about right.

Reply 2

CityMonkey

11

Chris12345

Hi,
Subject to me getting the right grades in august I will be studying mechanical engineering (Meng) at Warwick University. Does anyone know of any companies that offer an internship or summer work placement after the first year of studying because from what I can see only offer internships for final and penultimate years or aren't i looking hard enough??
I’ve tried most of the large companies like Toyota, Corus, and Shell etc
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

I did a internship after my first (and only as it turns out) year doing engineering. I don't know how regular it is but I was at Cambridge and our year to year progression criteria was we needed to have done 4 weeks engineering work experience in the summer and everyone on the course got internships so were able to progress. The company I got my internship at was very big and they stated they only wanted applications from atleast 2nd year students, but I filled the form in anyway and they interviewed me and took me on. So my advice is just apply, they might even appreciate your boldness! You should also try cold calling/mailing engineering companies, your department or careers service should have list or just think about a potential sector of engineering you want to work in and hit google to research them out, then just send off cover letters and CVs (good tip: make the cover letter/CV relevant to each employer, will take long time but worth it). The general success rate for 1s years is 1 internship offer in about 25 applications. So very low, but hitting as many companies as possible will increase your chances. I applied to 34 companies and got 3 offers, MBDA (which I accepted), BT and a motorracing team but they offered it me quite late and I'd already signed a contract :frown:

.

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Mechanical Engineering internships

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