Internships at Metis: Connie’s experience

At Metis, we offer 1-year internships that give budding engineers a chance to gain invaluable experience in the civil and environmental engineering industry and deepen their practical skills.

If you’re interested in an engineering internship in the UK, this is the blog for you! We recently caught up with our intern Connie to see what she thinks of her engineering internship at Metis since she started in September 2022.

So if you want to gain insight into the life of an engineering intern here at Metis to help you make the right decision for your own internship, just keep reading.

What sparked your interest in engineering?

“I was originally interested in studying architecture and applied to both architecture and engineering university courses.

Once I got offered a place in Sheffield University’s Civil and Structural Engineering course, I started looking into engineering a bit more. After thinking things over, I realised engineering was actually better suited to me, so I accepted the offer!”

How did you hear about the Metis internship?

“I chose to do an internship as part of my university course. So I started researching different engineering companies I could go to, specifically companies that offered water engineering internships.

Metis appealed to me because the office is near where I lived, I was interested in the type of projects they worked on, and I liked the fact it was a smaller company.

People who had completed the same degree as me, said that working at a smaller engineering firm often means you’re given more responsibility. So Metis it was! ”

What have you enjoyed about the internship so far?

“Everyone knows I’m on an internship placement, so they have given me a very varied set of tasks, allowing me to experience many aspects of water engineering.

I’ve also been able to work on quite advanced tasks from the start and have loved being put in the deep end as it’s made me learn a lot of new things.”

Can you give me examples of tasks you’ve been working on?

“One of the first things I worked on was a proposal for a funding application to Thames Water for a project that hasn’t started yet.

I’ve also been able to work with QGIS alot, which is a software that was once completely new to me, but I now use all the time to build a picture of an area and import/export the data to present different options for projects.”

What has been your favourite project so far?

“ Probably a project for a rain garden in a local area. I was tasked with putting together all the information for the client, something I quite enjoyed doing.

This task was a big part of the final outcome and consisted of little jobs, like risk registers, looking at hazards, and things like that. So it was a fantastic learning experience for me.”

What doors has this internship opened up for you?

“Having this work experience is something really valuable to me. Now that I’ve actually worked in the industry, it will put me ahead when I’m applying for jobs in the future.”

What is your plan once the internship is over?

“I think I’ll go straight into work after uni, as this internship has really cemented that this is the industry I want to be in.”

Why do you think an internship is important for someone who wants to work in this industry?

“With engineering you don’t have knowledge of how it works practically unless you do an internship. It’s not something you learn in school or even at university. You learn theories, but being able to come to work and do something practically is really helpful.”

If you were recommending Metis to a friend, what would you say?

“As a company, Metis has been very welcoming. Everyone is there to help you, and it’s nice to be at a company where you can feel the support at all times. Metis is open to giving you a lot of learning opportunities, making it easy to learn new things and gain new skills.”

Interested in engineering internships at Metis?

Keep an eye on our careers page to apply for one of our open engineering internships. You can also see if one of our graduate or apprenticeship roles suits you!

Our team here at Metis can’t wait to connect with the engineers of tomorrow, ready to help us pave the way for a more sustainable future. Are you one of them? If so, we’d love to hear from you!