R&D Placement student Review

On the whole the placement was enjoyable, the enjoyability of each 6 month placements can vary depending on the department and the person but on the whole the experience is good. There is a lot of placements and grads here at the Peterborough site and hence there is quite a good social environment.

Always felt valued by the rest of my team members, everyone took time to explain new concepts despite walking into teams with little or no knowledge of the subject everyone was patient and welcoming and you would always walk out of the placement with a much more in depth knowledge of the subject.

Support from my supervisors has been excellent with regular desk reviews with my manager to review how I was getting on and discuss future work all team members in any team were more than willing to take time out of their day to help. On the whole I am completely satisfied with the support and guidance I received.

Workload could vary significantly especially when moving between placements you could be spending a lot of time learning about the subject instead of doing much work related to it however at times the workload could be quite high with there being some significant pressure to meet deadlines however all assistance that was needed was provided to meet these deadlines.

The responsibility was proportional to my knowledge of the subject and so as time increased I was allowed more responsibility, there is a very limited amount of responsibility that you can be given in a 6 month period as after the 6 months you will mostly leave all your projects behind. However I was normally made to feel a part of the team.

I have done a lot of very technical work which will no doubt help me in my future studies, it has been good to see a lot of the stuff learnt in university being used in an engineering environment. I have also gained a lot of professional skills which in general will come in useful when it comes to finding a job.

In my first placement the atmosphere was always very good, there was plenty of cake available to eat at all times and always a lot of banter going on between teammates. In my second placement the office was much quieter and there was a lot less team spirit so it varies significantly throughout the business however on the whole everyone is approachable.

Very well set up especially in comparison to other companies. The placement scheme here has been going quite some time, a proper induction and introduction to the new team was provided and all the admin work was completed in advance. You have a clear management structure for issues related to work and issued related to admin.

In terms of on the job training there was a significant amount of investment, a lot of employees took a lot of time out of their day to help you out. However in terms of formalised training there is minimal, possibly a few courses paid for by supervisors and maybe some basic courses in 6 sigma methodology however as previously mentioned most training is on the job.

For future employment this company (Caterpillar) is very attractive the Grad Scheme is a very good experience with 4 different 6 month placements around the company in various departments. The pay is also good. Overall I would recommend this company to someone again and would definitely consider returning to Caterpillar.

As there is a large intake of Grads/Placements there is an excellent social scene, Peterborough is far from a cosmopolitan city however with such a large number of young employees who all group together and go out the social scene is made good. The bowling alley is always a good night as it is so bad it's good.

Cost of living is comparatively very low to when compared with the likes of Cambridge or London however the area is proportionately less attractive. The cost of a night out in Peterborough is pretty cheap and won't break the bank and with a large group of placements it is normally pretty good however don't expect to be amazed by Peterborough.

The nightlife was pretty dull, Peterborough has a few clubs and they really are nothing special and describing some of them as 'nothing special' is generous. However there are some nice pubs in the area and Stamford is only a 20 minute taxi ride down the road so it's not all bad.

There are quite a few football nights throughout the week and various other sports going on that are easy to get involved in. There are also some nights out bowling laser tagging that are organised.