A Bittersweet Goodbye
It’s a bit surreal to say that my internship at BMW is coming to an end. The past six months have flown by, and while I’m excited for what’s next, it’s also bittersweet to say goodbye. This experience has been incredible, and honestly, I wish I could do it all over again.
One of the biggest highlights was the team. I got lucky—our group was close-knit from the start. We worked side by side, grabbed lunch together every day, and had some intense (and questionably competitive) kicker matches in the break room. It made coming to work something I actually looked forward to, which isn’t always a guarantee in an internship.
My main responsibility throughout the internship was working on the Future Vision 2035 project, and I was convinced of getting it finished. The best part was we actually produced a final version. There’s something really satisfying about seeing months of effort turn into something tangible. Whilst developing the project I improved my Blender skills, I became quite experienced with the majority of the programs in the Adobe Suite, especially Premiere Pro and After Effects and also became pretty proficient in NVIDIA Omniverse—which, if I’m being honest, was a bit intimidating at first. But that’s where the soft skills kicked in. Initiative, autonomy, and problem-solving became second nature since I was given full control over the design process within the project’s boundaries. Basically, if something needed doing, it was up to me to figure it out (which sometimes meant panicked Googling, but hey, that’s part of the learning process).
Beyond work, one of the biggest perks of doing an internship in Europe is the travel. On weekends and holidays, I made it to Austria, Italy, Denmark, Slovenia, and plenty of cities across Germany. There’s something surreal about wrapping up a week at work and then hopping on a train to explore a new country like it’s no big deal.
If I had to give one piece of advice to future interns, it would be this: if you have the chance to do an internship like this, take it. Working for a global company, gaining hands-on experience, and traveling across Europe. That’s not something you get to do every day. It’s challenging, rewarding, and just a ridiculously cool opportunity.
Lewis Webb
BMW Group Design Intern, 2024
