Placement Student Review

My Placement was very enjoyable, one of my highlights was being a trip to Peterlee for the day and getting the chance to drive an articulated dumper truck around a disused quarry,

I found myself very busy working on research and development projects involved with current and future products.

The office atmosphere was good, there are lots of interoffice competitions from a ping pong tournament to who can grow the best chili plant, if you have any questions about the work you’re tasked with, your office colleges are more than happy to go out of there way and help you out.

You are given a set timetable for the first 2 weeks here containing various presentations about the business, these are very useful as you get the understand how big the company is and what each of the teams are responsible for in the office you work in. With CAT Electronics you are in the same role for the whole year unlike IPSD which you will have 2 placements which rotate after six months.

The company provided me several training events, the best one being a tour of the Peterlee facility in which I got to drive an articulated dump truck around a quarry. I was also given the chance to visit LAMMA 2016 which is an agricultural show in a local showground, this helped me better understand the industry as a whole.

I have been told I cannot extend my placement over summer and that they aren’t doing conditional offers for when I graduate from university next year. However it is a global company with great opportunities to work around the world on various projects providing you are good at what you do.

There was a good social scene with lots of events throughout the year such as bowling, nights out and BBQ’s. A lot of the placements and graduates play badminton on Fridays and tennis in the summer on Thursdays. There is also a football club that is run on Tuesdays meaning that there is always something to do.

My house in Hampton (Really nice) was £475 which included absolutely everything, however you can get the same deal for £375 if you didn’t mind a smaller room without an en suite. I only had a week between finishing my exams and starting, meaning I didn’t have time to shop around for better deals.

There are lots of pubs and clubs in Peterborough, the best one being Charters in the summer which is an old barge moored on the river with a massive beer garden, great for the summer! Brewery Tap is also another good pub in town which has live music and a general good atmosphere.

There were lots off opportunities such as the unofficial Perkins car treasure hunt in which you race other placements and graduates to random grid coordinates in the middle of nowhere to find answers to questions. There are prices for each event along with bonus questions such as take a picture of you in camouflage. To which we went to a local army barracks and took a picture with some soldiers which we hid between.