School Work Experience Review

This was a week-long work experience while at school, which involved daily rotation around various areas within the facility, work shadowing, tours, attending conferences and simple admin-based work. The main focus was getting an understanding of what GE Aviation did, how they operated, and what it had to offer students and graduates. I wasn't really given much responsibility, but I lacked the knowledge and skill (at that stage) to be given it.

I learned the importance of professionalism, organisation and time-keeping within an industry like this. A new sense of independence, and the I got a taste of professional networking.

This was an insightful week - I may not have necessarily 'worked' completely, but GE were accommodating and keen to show how they operate.

At the time, I felt very valued, as the coordinator took the time to organise what we did and ensured we did a variety of things. However, I feel like I have just been forgotten about after sending in several applications for internships and jobs, but not receiving any human feedback; just automated nonsense. So it feels like the initial friendliness at work experience was a bit of a show.

Myself and my peers were exposed to a broad range of areas within the business, so it feels like the programme was well structured. Although on the day, our appearance may have come as a surprise to some of the people we worked with, they made us feel very involved and took every effort to explain the work they were doing and why.

There was always support on hand from the on-site coordinator, and from the school coordinator. However, this was unneeded.

There was always support on hand from the on-site coordinator, and from the school coordinator. Most of the members of staff, that we met, knew the coordinator at GE well; this made it easy to get support if needed. However, this was unneeded.

This was unpaid, but travel expenses were minimal and it was for a short period.

I didn't really find out about this

Yes

It's a big company with loads of opportunities that span such a broad range of skill-sets that are required and developed. It helped me decide what I wanted to do, and the people I met were all very friendly and accommodating.

I went through the simple way of emailing a cover letter and CV directly to a HR email that I found on the website, and it worked. So my advice is just to go for it, and use your contacts.