Well the time has finally come for me to down tools and head back to university. I have had a fantastic year in industry and would advise any of you reading this, doing any degree to consider it. I feel that the benefits you gain go way beyond the fiscal realms!
I have had the sorry task of saying goodbye to everyone but am looking forward to returning for my final year of uni - what a relief in some respects. The first task I have is to take the new freshers out on a pub crawl - straight back into the swing of thigs as you can see - and then initiate them with the sordid task of having to get up in the morning of the first week with a hangover! Oh, I remember my fresher's week like it was yesterday! Well... the bits I can remember at least.
For those of you starting university this year: be good, be safe, and have copious amounts of fun! I hope you all settle in well and don't find the prospect of learning for another 3-5 years too daunting!
So, in summary, it has been a great year on internship. Look back here throughout this next year to get a true grasp of life as a chemical engineering student. Of course, I will omit any sordid details! In truth though, it will be a hard year especially having to come back to theoretical knowledge after a year's respite!
Until then..........
Wow - 15 months working for a multinational company are nearly over. The last few weeks have been quite busy but I have definately had time to calm down before going back to uni!
Last week I went on a technology network forum. This was a great wrap up to the year. It gave me a good conclusion to the internship and also helped to remind me of all the varieties of work that I have completed this year - that proved to be extremely useful for my final assessment.
So I arrived back at the office this Monday and had to contemplate a 3 hours final internship appraisal and technical assessment. This proved to be a slight culture shock after a 6 week break from typical office duties! I suddenly realised that after being away from fundamental chemical engineering theory for a year (e.g. thermodynamics, reaction engineering, etc.) was going to be a struggle. I had to try and solve a problem around the processing an acidic or
sour stream.
The good thing with this was that I was being assessed more on my problem solving abilities than my technical memory. This basically involved the assessors trying to determine how I tackled a problem and the logic of my thinking. It seemed to go ok - I hope!
The other components of the session were to present a technical case study that I have worked on this year, and to have a competency appraisal to talk about my hard and soft skills that I have improved on this year, or more importantly the ones that require some more attention.
All in all the feedback that I received during the session appeared positive. I won't find out officially until the start of October whether I have an offer to join the graduate scheme so I shall have to wait and see!
Today is my first day back in the office after an illustrious 5 week holiday! At the moment I am trying to organise and read around 800 messages that have amassed in my inbox! The joys of taking a holiday!
This post will only be short - I'm sure you all are empathetic towards my mad day(!) - but hope to give you a brieft outline of my next fortnight.
Next week I am out of the office on a technology conference. This will be my last official outing for my internship before I return to university. I return the following Monday when I shall sit an interview for a graduate position with my host company. this interview will include both technical and core competencies assessments. I then have 2 weeks in which to write a report based on my internship that must be submitted to my university when I arrive back in October.
So all is go at the mo! Hopefully I will have more time in a couple of weeks to give you an insight into my interview and last couple of days being an intern!
