How have you seen your role develop since you first started?
When starting it was necessary for me to spend a lot of the time shadowing people in my team, learning about what tasks the different team members do, but mainly to get a general feel of the company and how the department I was going to be working in operates, relative to the wider business. Since then I have become a lot more confident in my own role in the team. I know my way around the site and different departments well, and therefore no longer require to be constantly shadowing someone or having them talk me through everything. I feel like I constantly add value to the team now.
What was a project you were proud to be part of?
I feel particularly proud to be a part of launching the new vehicle and contributing to it. I have been a key part in developing a system for adding and changing what quality checks we have in place while building the cars. I also pride myself in gaining a good understanding of who does what across the plant as I have had the task to raise a lot of quality issues to the correct engineers, suppliers, process leaders, etc. Speaking face to face with people in the business has been essential to gaining a better understanding of problems and fixes we face during the launch of a new model.
What’s the best thing about being part of the Undergraduate Programme?
The amount of experience gained is like nothing you can learn elsewhere at university or in education. I was also impressed by how prepared my team was for accepting me on my first day and having things ready for me. This should be something I praise Jaguar Land Rover for as it immediately gave me some sense of worth in my position as an undergrad even though I had very little skills and knowledge of my new work place compared to what was to come. It is great to be able to work on “real life” issues and be able to make a real contribution to my team and feel like a full team member.
How would you describe your placement to a friend?
Definitely think that doing a 12-month placement is much more beneficial than a three-month placement in this company as three months will only give you time to scrape the top of the iceberg of understanding and implement yourself into your own team and department. Co-workers will appreciate and use you a lot more as you spend time getting to know them and the business.
