Trainee Mechanical Engineer Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year at Arup. Although Building Services was not something I had any experience in before starting my placement, I was given guidance throughout my time at Arup to ensure I learnt as much as possible. Importantly, I was also given space to develop on my own terms and find new ways of completing tasks. The wide range of projects (in both size and function) meant that every day had a new challenge that tested my developing skill set and piqued my interest.

Throughout my placement I felt valued by the teams I was working in, and by the company as a whole. Good work was always recognised and praised and my colleagues were always keen to give me new work which strengthened my feeling of value. It must be said that there were times when the work I completed did not feel valued by my colleagues. However, this was primarily at the beginning of my placement and I feel it was due to my lack of knowledge and the occasional need for more rudimentary/dogs body tasks to be completed. This is something I feel must be expected in any line of work and therefore did not really affect my experience.

Because of the wide range of projects I worked on during my placement I worked under a large number of different people. On the whole, I was given more than adequate support during my time at Arup. Most importantly (in my opinion), I was given every chance to solve problems and learn at my own speed and using my own abilities. This was beneficial as it allowed me to test different working methods and gain a deeper understanding of the tasks and software I was completing/using which consequently allowed me to learn far more than if I had been spoon fed the information. That being said, my supervisors and colleagues were always more than willing to explain and help me through issues whenever they arose. Their will to drop the work they were completing to make sure that I understood the work I was doing is something I am very thankful for. As well as having support and guidance from my work colleagues and supervisors, I was also given an appraiser. My appraiser acted as a confident for both any problems I was having but also as an avenue to express my feelings about working in different departments and learning new skills. Thanks to my supervisor I was able to learn far more than would have been possible without them.

On a day to day basis the workload I received was more or less perfect. Although there were almost constant deadlines looming, I rarely felt uncomfortably pressured to complete the work I was doing. On occasion I did stay at work past my contracted hours to finish tasks but this was of my own volition. Equally, there were very few times when I was bored from lack of work. When I did finish a task I was working on, more often than not another task would be waiting for me from the same colleague; where this wasn’t the case it was usually a simple case of asking other team members of other projects for more work. Having to disturb people to ask for work was at first daunting as on the whole, everyone is always very busy, but it soon became apparent that people were always willing to find new tasks for me to complete.

During my placement I was given a range of responsibilities on the projects I worked on. Initially, the work I completed formed only a small part of a wider task. This was understandable due to my lack of experience. However, as the placement progressed I was given more and more opportunity to take charge of the tasks I was completing. By the end of my placement I was responsible for writing various project reports and completing a number of other tasks that had direct and quantifiable effects on the project. Overall I was very happy with the level of responsibility I was given. I was never thrown so far out of my comfort zone that I worried about my abilities but was always pushed into new areas just enough that I was constantly developing.

The skills I have learnt on my placement are having, and will continue to have a significant impact on my studies and career. The knowledge I now have of building services has allowed me to create a project for the final year of my degree that reflects the work I completed while on placement and is allowing me to further develop my skills and knowledge. The most important skills I developed during my time at Arup where my soft skills. My ability to communicate in writing and speech as well as problem solve, work in a team and work independently has increased significantly. I have a much better understanding of team dynamics and have a much higher motivation to do well in my studies now that I have something to aim towards. I could not recommend completing a year in industry (at Arup specifically) enough.

The general atmosphere in the office was very good. The office was open plan which encouraged collaboration and team working and made everyone in the office far more approachable. Further to this, people regularly brought in different treats (whether from holiday or a birthday) and we held multiple cake sales for charity. This really encourage a sense of community in the office and helped me to get to know more people than would have been otherwise possible.

I feel that my placement was very well organised. I always had a sufficient amount of work to complete and I had meetings throughout the year with my appraiser to ensure that the placement was going well and that I was experiencing everything that I wanted to. Whenever any organisational issues cropped up (rarely), the management team were always very quick to help.

During my time at Arup I did not complete any formalised training in pieces of software. While this may seem negative, I was instead given time and help by my colleagues to learn the software myself. As a result, I knew the software better than most of the graduate engineers that had been on the various courses and was often approached by them for advice. I did however receive support in learning about business development (BD) from the BD team. Arup also holds a considerable number of talks and debates about engineering projects and practices every month which had a big impact on my personal development of skills and knowledge. I think it is also important to realise that a lot of the knowledge that is out there to be learnt can best be picked up from completing tasks, rather than going on courses.

I would like to think that my future career prospects with Arup are positive. While the sector that I worked for in Arup does not offer graduate positions to placement students, the positive comments I received from colleagues across the management spectrum have lead me to hope that I have a good chance of making onto their graduate scheme.

The social scene among my fellow placement students and colleagues was very good. Arup takes on a large number of placement students each year which meant that there was a good network of people in my position to befriend. Furthermore, the general working population at Arup is very friendly and willing to get to know you. Trips to the pub after work were fairly common as were socials to bowling alleys etc. There is also a Christmas party, which placement students and graduates organise which was fantastic fun as well as a summer party in August.

My placement was in London and living and socialising was therefore fairly expensive. That being said, London does have a wealth of free things to do and providing you are intelligent about the way in which you spend your money it is quite easy to ensure that the money you receive from working at Arup covers living and eating costs as well as socialising.

My placement was in London which arguably has the best nightlife available (in the UK at least). There are more than enough nightclubs/bars/pubs to choose from and the occasional pop-up bar that appears can be fun to visit with friends after work. Around the office specifically, there were a number of pubs that provided a good atmosphere to wind down to at the end of the week.

Once again, being in London means that there are more activities to complete outside of work than is physically possible. Personally, I joined one of the many sports clubs in London which kept me busy multiple evenings each week and was a great way to meet more people. On top of sports clubs there is a wealth of museums and tourist attractions to visit as well as hundreds of other clubs and hobby groups. I imagine that any club you might want to join probably exists somewhere in London and because of the underground they are never too far away.