Placement and internship case studies

I had completed 13 months on my Year in Industry already and wanted to experience either a different role, industry or company. I looked at scholarships for working abroad and found Generation UK. It was a supported placement scheme in China that sounded like a great opportunity to do something really different!

Speculative application

I submitted a speculative application with information on my interests to plant managers based in Shanghai. Then, projects and a line manager were assigned to me.

I ended up moving within the same company as hosted me for my Year in Industry. The company is active globally and has a range of exciting projects geared towards transforming the business and looking at a range of new technologies. It was great to see how rapidly the industry is changing!

* Support site projects as required, engaging with vendors and site stakeholders (e.g. different engineering departments). Engineering design, document control, etc.
* Contribute new ideas to plant projects, included attending the World AI conference that took place in Shanghai in September 2019
* Develop data analytics reports for the plant using PowerBI software
* Share knowledge and best practice between my original site in the UK and the sites in Shanghai

I worked between two plants, attending meetings covering a few key projects. I was able to bring fresh ideas and a new viewpoint on projects which were well established. I helped with scoping, discussion on project progress, some design work and document control which was required for a new software installation.

I really enjoyed the freedom in my work and the opportunity to see different manufacturing environments within the company. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore Shanghai and the surrounding cities too. A summer working abroad is a great way of testing the waters of doing it full time, risk free and without signing a tenancy agreement!

The length of the day and commute was challenging, it took almost 3 hours round trip to get to and from the site! The commutes are typically quite long in Shanghai as the city is so vast and there are a lot of different business areas.

Don't be afraid to engage with managers from engineering companies on LinkedIn, you may end up being able to make a speculative application!