Undergraduate tunnel engineer Review

I enjoyed it very much. Although I think that I don't want to become a tunnel engineer, I definitely learnt a lot about how engineering is used in the real world and not just in the idealised situations in exam questions. I really felt part of the team and both my line manager, [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions], and mentor, [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions], really put effort into keeping me busy with interesting work.

Although I have only finished my first year and so don't have the technical knowledge that the qualified engineers on my team had, the team made me feel valued and listened to my opinion, whilst explaining things to me that I had not come across before. My colleagues made me feel like I was actually contributing to the team, something which I definitely appreciate.

When ever I had a question [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] or [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] would always help out. They would take the time, away from their own work, to patiently explain concepts and show me how drawings can be interpreted and how to use software. [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions], especially, gave me lots of help on how to use AutoCAD when I was producing schematic drawings for the different decommissioning sequences.

[This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] and [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] always tried to keep me busy, which I was a lot of the time, but some times I had periods (say a few hours) where I didn't have any productive work to do. Luke tried to fill these periods by giving me a few textbooks which I could read and try to fill in some gaps in my technical knowledge. He also gave me some old calculations that he had done which I worked through when ever I didn't have anything productive to do.

[This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] was very good at letting me get on with a task myself, only giving me advice when I asked for it whilst I was carrying it out. However he always reviewed my work when I had finished it so as I knew exactly where I needed to make changes and improvements. He patiently went through all my work with a red pen to make corrections, including drawings, report writing and calculations.

My degree has offered me, and will offer me, a lot of technical knowledge. However, it is hard for a lecture to expose one to how the principles learned there are applied to real life engineering applications. This is what the placement offered me. Although I did learn some technical things, such as some geotechnics which I have never been exposed to before, the main thing I will take away is how engineers actually work together to complete a project whilst interfacing with eachother and the client.

The office was very friendly, with people always happy to answer questions.

It worked very well. Having a mentor who set my work was great because, as he was almost solely responsible for me, I wasn't pushed around people always looking for work to do, but it was given to me. Before my placement I had enough information given to me, with the few questions I had getting quick replies. I was surprised at how well the placement was put together, although I suspect a lot of it was down to me being lucky with both my line manager and mentor.

I was given all the software packages I needed, with the time taken to let me go through any tutorials that I needed to. Both my line manager and mentor put their own efforts into giving me work and explaining things to me. Atkins also paid for me to complete the Health and Environment test to qualify me for a CSCS card. More or less, anything that I needed was provided for me.

My mentor seemed to be quite positive about me going back to work at Atkins next summer, although I would like to change the division I work in to work as a structural engineer in Design and Engineering.