Careers & Placements - For Employers
Engineering at Warwick actively encourages our undergraduate students to gain some work experience during their degree via summer internships and/or a year-long industrial placement and also assists students in their search for a graduate role on completion of their studies.
Many of our industry partners advertise their vacancies with us and also engage with our students through a variety of activities and events that help prepare them for the recruitment and selection processes used by the vast majority of employers.
As a result of this engagement students are becoming more aware of the broad range of placement, internship and graduate engineering related roles available to them and the diversity of engineering industries who are interested in employing them.
Employer engagement also provides our students with networking opportunities, information and support regarding personal career direction and helps to increase self-confidence, drive and the determination to succeed both in their studies and then in the graduate marketplace.
If you would like to engage with our students whilst raising your company profile here in Engineering, there's a range of ways and opportunities for you to get involved:
Summer Internships
A popular choice for students to gain some valuable work experience for up to 3 months in an industry linked to their degree discipline, within another engineering field or to try something diverse with non-engineering employers who are also interested in our students.
Year-long placements
Engineering at Warwick offer a structured and assessed programme of training and development that provides students with the opportunity to apply and build on their technical and professional skills for up to 12 months in industry as part of an Intercalated Work Placement degree.
Benefits of employing internship or placement students
There are many benefits to employers who recruit students for summer internships and/or year-long placements and these include:
• You have an opportunity to work with some of the UK’s brightest future engineers.
• Our students can bring added value - new ideas, fresh perspectives, innovation and creativity to your workplace.
• You’ll be adding an additional low-cost resource to your team.
• Placement students can act as ambassadors for your company when they return to university spreading brand awareness to improve future recruitment for you.
• You’ll be working with talented students who may potentially become graduate employees as you’ll have the opportunity to assess their potential over an extended period of time in your work environment.
Vacancy Advertising
If you are interested in recruiting our students and would like to advertise summer internships, year-long placements or graduate roles please contact Luke Hall, Placement and Internship Officer, using the details on this page. Vacancy details will then be promoted and advertised to our students via our vacancies page for a pre-agreed period of time. There is no charge for this service.
Alumni Talks
Are you a Warwick Engineering graduate? If so, would you be interested in visiting us to talk to our students about your career pathway and how a Warwick engineering degree has lead you to where you are today? We run a series of alumni talks in Term 1 of the academic year for graduates from all engineering disciplines to give a 40 minute presentation followed by an opportunity for Q&A that will provide an insight into the company you work for, the typical day-to-day activity in your role and your main achievements to date along with some career guidance and some practical hints and tips for any students who want to apply for a placement, internship or graduate role within the company you work for.
Student feedback from previous Alumni Talks indicates that these talks are inspiring and help provide some career focus and direction.
To register your interest in being a speaker at one of these talks please contact Luke Hall, Placement and Internship Officer, using the details on this page.
Engineering SME Placement, Internship and Graduate Careers Fair
Engineering at Warwick holds an annual SME Careers Fair in Term 2 for you to come along with a stand to promote your placements, internships and graduate vacancies to our students. The event takes place during an extended lunchtime session and we'll provide you with additional set-up time and a light lunch.
There is NO CHARGE for taking part in this event as we run it for the benefit of our students and it is held here in the Engineering building which means there's little in the way of additional costs for holding the event.
Event registration will commence approximately 6 weeks beforehand and will be advertised here. However, if you'd like to register your early interest in taking part in this event you are welcome to contact Luke Hall, Placement and Internship Officer, using the details on this page.
Careers Workshops
A series of workshops and activities are offered in Terms 1 and 2 for students who are seeking internships, placements or graduate jobs to help prepare them for the Recruitment and Selection process they're likely to go through when applying for a vacancy within a company. These workshops include:
- CV's, covering letters and application forms.
- How to be successful at Assessment Centres
- Networking and Interview skills
- Mock interview panel sessions
All of these sessions should be interactive rather than purely a presentation of the facts and information, with students being encouraged to contribute to discussions and some group tasks where possible and applicable. The workshops will take place during the early evening (after lectures have finished) and we invite you as an employer to host one of these activities to ensure students are receiving up to date information that's relevant to today's job market and you're the best people to provide this as you're at the cutting-edge of the recruitment and selection process. You will also have the opportunity to promote your company and your vacancies to our students during the workshop.
CV's, covering letters and application forms
Hints and tips on making a CV, covering letter or application form stand out from the crowd, whether it's for a specific advertised job or is a speculative application.
What are you, as an employer looking for in an ideal CV/covering letter or an application form?
Hints and tips on making an application or CV and covering letter stand out so that you are encouraged to find out more?
What deters you from taking a CV/covering letter or application form through to the next stage of your recruitment and selection process?
These are just some of the questions that students regularly ask and this workshop aims to provide answers so that students can build a great CV, write a professional and informative covering letter or use the right information to complete the skills and experience sections of an application form so that they promote themselves effectively in the competitive job market.
If you would like to register your interest in running one of these workshops in Term 1 of the academic year please contact Luke Hall, Placement and Internship Officer, using the details on this page.
How to be successful at Assessment Centres
Whilst Assessment Centres are recognised by students as being an important part of the recruitment and slection process, information on what to expect when taking part is really valuable along with some hints and tips on how to stand out from the other attendees.
This workshop should address the typical activities included in an Assessment Day such as work simulation exercises, group exercises and presentations along with an explanation of why these are used and what an employer is looking for when they run these activities.
There should also be a detailed section on psychometric tests (with special emphasis on Situational Judgement Tests) and how to master them. Interview skills will be addressed in a separate workshop.
To register your interest in running one of these workshops in Term 1 of the academic year please contact Luke Hall, Placement and Internship Officer, using the details on this page.
Networking and Interview Skills
Networking is an excellent way to interact with other people, exchange information and develop new professional and social contacts. This workshop aims to highlight the benefits of networking and how students can prepare for and make the most out of any networking opportunities.
Interview skills is a big topic area and guidance and advice on how to prepare for and be successful at interview is the main aim of this part of the workshop. The workshop should cover the following elements:
- Different types of interviews - telephone, video, face-to-face interviews and second interviews
- Typical interview structure
- Types of questions asked at interview (including information on the difference between competency, technical and strengths based questions) and how to answer them
- Interview preparation
- Acceptable questions to ask the interviewers.
- Dress code and body language
- Calming nerves and making a positive impression
- Common interview mistakes and how to avoid them
If you are interested in providing some interview guidance and advice to our students during Term 1 of the academic year please contact Luke Hall, Placement and Internship Officer, using the details on this page.
Mock interview panel sessions
These sessions will take place early in term 2 of the academic year following the other workshops and will provide the opportunity for students to be interviewed in a mock panel interview situation.
These sessions will run on Wednesday afternoons and some evenings as required.
Your contribution and time as an interviewer at one or more of these mock panels would be greatly appreciated and you'd be welcome to bring one or two colleagues along as interviewers too or you could join a mixed panel of interviewers from the engineering industry who have also agreed to take part.
To register your interest in these sessions please contact Luke Hall, Placement and Internship Officer, using the details on this page.
Student Engagement Timeline
Student engagement can occur both during term time and outside of term time depending on the activity. Our students study in three 10 week terms across the academic year, with the majority of initial employer recruitment events taking place in the autumn term. Spring and summer terms are more often used for personalised engagement such as careers or skills workshops.
For a detailed breakdown of student availability across the year and suggested engagement points/activities, please click here.