Placement and internship case studies

I wished to get a competitive advantage when applying for graduate jobs next year and to meet inspiring people. I had interned before in bio-mechanical research and wished to investigate an entirely different sector.

Organisation website

There was a fairly long written application process in place of a traditional cover letter which pushed applicants to display their knowledge of the industry and insight into its future. Following this there were two rounds of interviews and a case study.

Another intern and myself were paired on a project within the bank working with our team to deliver a product. We programmed together and worked closely with our team to deliver a high quality solution, taking into account all stakeholder needs.

I spent a large portion of the day learning Java, necessary for my role, and then using it to meet my project needs. Outside of this, there were a range of town halls and talks by inspiring people, a hackathon, training and copious social activities. I took it upon myself to meet with a range of people with a focus on finding out about disruption within the sector and bank.

I really enjoyed how interesting and willing to talk every one of the employees at the organisation were. Organizing a meeting with the CIO was probably the highlight of my placement but I also enjoyed becoming friends with all the other interns (all 172 of them!).

Fitting in work and networking required forward planning and good organisational skills which I lack however the experience taught me effective ways of managing them.

Although the placement was not directly related to my course, I extensively used the organisational ability required to read an Engineering degree as well as skills such as report writing, quantitative analysis and a range of design skills. The mechanical engineering degree at Sheffield is centred around teamwork - in your first year you hate it and slowly you become more effective at it. This gave a competitive advantage in the workplace.

Yes!

Use contacts that you make to springboard your way to other connections. You may not want to disturb important people but as a millennial, you have a unique perspective on the markets and conditions which an organisation must adapt to in the future to service your generation's needs.