My placement year - summary & COVID19 change

Hello! I am second year student, currently doing Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence and I am completing a placement at BMW Head Office in Farnborough in the Product Support team. I would like to share my overall thoughts after those few months, together with how COVID 19 affected it.

COVID-19 change

Given the current circumstances, it changed the way my internship looks. Many companies decided to finish placements earlier, but fortunately BMW wasn’t one of them. The virus situation changed my plans as I was supposed to complete an internship at Rolls Royce and MINI as well, and explore the brand and company a bit more. When the situation got worse, BMW showed me a lot of support – my team was e-mailing me asking how I’m feeling and how I feel about the situation while being far away from home. Some of the interns were put on furlough leave, while some of them just started working remotely – with me being one of them. Because most of my team is in furlough leave, I don’t get to do a lot things right now. It’s for sure interesting to see how the company handled the crisis as they all stayed really committed – with lots of online support, very quick IT chats support since there is a very complicated system of connecting to the folders, even online group chats and meetings that would happen usually in the office.

My typical day at work before COVID-19

My days vary a lot! As the company policy is flexible working hours, I get to do a lot of interesting things during the day. I have some tasks that I have to do on a weekly basis on certain days, such as preparing Newsletter, drafting campaign files or different lists. Usually, I come to the office around 9-9.30 and check my e-mails if there is anything urgent going on or if anyone needs any help. Later, I do my usual tasks and the daily responsibilities I have to do. In the meantime I have many meetings to attend with various people, and there are always new things such as visiting other BMW facilities, getting to know Konica Minolta or MINI Retailer in Reading. There are also lots of training sessions I participate in, that makes my days very varied. My floor is actually very talkative so I get to talk with people a lot, and there is always something interesting going on here.

Moving from North to South – differences in working styles

When I was applying for placement internships, I wasn’t focused at all about specific cities. My main goal was a big company and head office where I could get an insight into more various positions and how the business really works. In the end, I secured an internship that is in Farnborough, a small city 30 minutes by train from London, which is above 200 miles from Leeds.

At first, I didn’t think it will be any struggle to move, as I have already moved to UK from Poland, so moving in between the country should be even easier. I quickly realised I was slightly wrong, when many moving companies refused to help me as they wished to move only whole houses, not a student room. I asked my friends with a car, if they could move me – which they agreed for! In the end, I had to leave some of my boxes in my old flat and come back for them in August.

Many people were asking me about the difference between Northern and Southern people, how they behave, work, live etc. Honestly, I wasn’t noticing it at first – I have always found Londoners nice and never agreed with the stereotype of them being rude or not helpful, I just always admired how busy they are! After some time though I started noticing the differences in working styles between North and South. People here are mostly families or young, extremely ambitious and smart people with lots of career plans. They are much busier, their e-mails seem to be more cold and direct, and the conversations are much quicker – and honestly being Polish, I had no problems adapting to that! I still find them nice people, but it’s true there are certainly differences in working styles!

Adjusting to full time working lifestyle & working as an International student

It was quite a challenge at first to get used to working lifestyle as I was very used to going to sleep whenever I want to and doing basically whatever I wanted to. Since BMW has a very flexible policy, it wasn’t that hard at the beginning – they were very open and my manager stated from the very beginning that as long as I stay committed and available to people, it’s all okay. Working as an International student gave me a bit of troubles, since working in automotive industry and having an opportunity to rent a car, we were supposed to have a check on our driving licence – which took me longer than expected given my Polish one. But besides this, everyone was really helpful, even when I had a bit of trouble with adjusting to various accents! Among our team of interns, they were another International students including countries like Portugal, Singapore and Indonesia. Overall I didn’t feel any difference between me being an International student and other British students at the company. I think BMW is very approachable company and very helpful in many ways!

Summary

I just love it all! I would never think placement would be so developing for me. Any challenge I have is never a problem, it’s just a situation that I have to overcome – and there are lots of people around to help, I’m never alone. I can say that placement changed the way I see working life and corporation. I did have doubts before whether I fit into that world and I needed to see it with my own eyes. I would never go back in my decision and I can’t wait to see what will happen during the next few months! It gave me much better insight into industries. After I saw how many opportunities are here to actually develop my own ideas in a start-up, company, etc. I began to think about creating something on my own. Having lots of thoughts, I got a bit confused which path I actually prefer, and spending time working in an office, gave me lots of insights and helped me putting my thoughts together. It also helped me deciding whether I want to stay in UK to work or create my start-up, or if I want to explore other countries before settling down. The experience of meeting new people, asking them about what they were studying/doing in life, also showed me many new things connected to my career choices.

Additional things about my placement before COVID-19:

Interesting projects during my placement

I enjoy the most just exploring the business and meeting new people – as simple as it sounds, BMW makes it so easy to get to know different parts of the company and their policy, and to meet new people to see their career paths, experience etc. It’s just amazing how many wonderful opportunities I had a chance to participate in here, from Coffee Club to exploring different roles within the company and volunteering during events (e.g. PGA Championship), to training in multiple topics such as negotiating, confidence in groups, communication or even coaching sessions! I also had a chance to explore MINI and Rolls Royce facilities, or even a Retailer in Reading to see how it all actually works. Besides, I have many interesting projects going on, e.g. I’m currently creating an internal website for Technical and Warranty to gather all the needed information or links there for people to find them easier. It’s very interesting as I get to talk to members of the team to adjust the functionality of the website to their needs, so I have a chance to know what they actually do and what’s the most important in their jobs. My daily tasks are also very interesting as I take care of Technical Campaigns and there are certain things I never considered about – it’s not only working with Excel, but also getting to know what’s actually happening after the car has been sold!

The most important thing I have learnt

The most important thing I’ve learned during this year is that changes are weird but in the end everything is fine – it made all my fears go away. What is more, I stopped stressing about my future so much, because I’ve noticed there is always a solution to a problem. Being an international student, I’ve also learnt how to communicate diplomatically and efficiently in English – I had a bit of troubles as I’m a very direct person and it happened I came across as rude to some people. Additionally, I learnt so many things about the business and Aftersales department itself! There were so, so many small things I would never think about. BMW gave me lots of chances to explore not only my role and the other roles in the team, but the whole company, including MINI and Rolls Royce. It also taught me time management and positivity. I had those things before going to placement but as it’s such different environment, now I’m able to adapt to new situations even more – time management in an office environment is totally different than in a student life, and I really had to be careful not to just watch Netflix every evening after my work and not to follow routine too much! It helped my creativity, the way I think and organize my day, but also how I see the world!