Intern Abroad

• M.Sc. Automotive Engineering and Transport
• Great Britain, Brackley
• Mercedes
• 19.07.2021 – 15.07.2022

General tips for other interns

Prepare everything early. All processes are very slow and I’m afraid this has nothing to do with pandemic situation. Even though it is stated that it will take a certain amount of time at most to process, it will most likely take longer.

Preparation

After BREXIT everyone needs a visa to do an internship in the UK, this is a long process and you need to be very well prepared. For an internship you need a Tier 5 Government Authorised Exchange visa (link). To be able to apply for this, one must have a so-called Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS). This can only be provided by your employer or another company on behalf of the employer. Alternatively, you can get one through RWTH (contact Shari Uszynski). For me it took a long time to get my CoS. In general I would plan about 1-2 months for it. The processing time for the visa is 3 weeks, but you can shorten it to 5 days for extra fees. From my experience, it still takes about 7 days for the visa to be ready. Application process is very well described on the government website.

Internship search

LinkedIn is very popular in UK. One can find very much information and job opportunities in LinkedIn. For this, before applying, one can try to contact employees of the potential host company to find out more about the company, city, etc. If you search for a company in LinkedIn, it will also tell you how many people from RWTH work there, which would be a good reason for your cover letter.

 Now specifically regarding internship search in the Formula 1 industry:

I can warmly recommend the Formula Careers website (link). This is a website run by the mother of a girl who is very interested in Formula 1. You can find various useful information on the website, very interesting and motivating interviews and also job offers/internships. In addition, there is a so-called “Formula Careers Support Group” on LinkedIn (link), where many engineers and current/former interns from Formula 1 industry are present. I found my internship position with the help of this website/LinkedIn page.

Search for an apartment

For the apartment search I recommend the website https://www.rightmove.co.uk. If you can’t find an apartment, I recommend either renting an Airbnb or a room on https://www.spareroom.co.uk for the first few days of your stay.

Formalities on site

After arriving to the apartment (after quarantine, if necessary), one has to do some formalities:

1. you have to register in a hospital. Sometimes you can do it online, but most of the time you have to go there in person.
2. you have to pick up your BRP (biometric residence permit). You have 90 days to do this. However, this can change, so please pay attention to what will be written on the decision letter from the embassy.
3. register for the tax ID (National Insurance Number).

Telephone/Internet connection

For students I recommend to take a sim card from VOXI (link). VOXI is a company of Vodafone, which is especially focused on students. The conditions are very good and there is no minimum contract period.

Bank/Account Opening

Since the UK has a different currency, you need a UK bank account to receive your salary. There are two options:

1. you open a UK bank account normally at a bank located in the UK. This is only possible after entering the country, because you have to prove that you live in the UK.
2. you can create a Revolut account (link). This is an app for the smartphone where you can change currencies. This app is very similar to PayPal, but is accepted as a payment option by many companies. For each currency you have a separate account in the app and you can exchange e.g. Euro to GBP. If you use the no charge version of this app and don’t want to pay monthly fee, you are limited with 1000 GBP money exchange limit per month. I myself use this variant. Bank account of Revolut is virtual, but you can order a bank card with it if you want. However, I have never seen that you can not pay with your smartphone anywhere in the UK.

Kategorie: Mechanical Engineering, United Kingdom
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