Power Generation Aftermarket Service Engineer Review

I really enjoyed my year at Cummins for a variety of reasons. Firstly I worked in a team that was very knowlegable but also friendly allowing me to learn a lot while being in a fun environment. Additionally my role meant that I got to travel not only to other Cummins plants/ distribution centers but also to see the product actually installed at a customer site.

I felt highly valued by my colleagues because I greatly reduced the workload allowing them to focus more on other work as well as investing time in my learning. Although I regularly completed admin related tasks, my colleagues were confident in my ability and trusted with many technical complex issues. This made me feel confident in my ability as well as feeling appreciated.

My managers changed multiple times throughout the year and resulted in me not receiving as much managerial feedback as I would have liked. They were also unaware what I was doing on a day to basis which was both good and bad. It was good as it allowed me to work independently and take responsibility for the decisions I made but I believe would have benefited from having more direction.

My role meant that there were workload varied but the majority of the time it was very high with many urgent pressing issues. I nearly always had something and if rare chance I didn't there was always opportunity for more and I was happy to take it. This meant that I rarely found myself with nothing to do.

I was given a lot of responsibility in my placement, which while initially daunting was extremely positive as it allowed me to show my ability and showed me how to work under pressure. Additionally the team was always more than happy to help if needed support with any issues.

I feel what I have learnt this year has been extremely beneficial, both in terms of my understanding of business process and structure but also the technical knowledge that I have learnt. Additionally I feel I am much more prepared for future project work as this year has taught me the criticality of planning to meet set deadlines. It has also taught me how to effectively manage groups of people which will be particularly important for future group university projects. Finally I have truly learnt the power of Excel using it on a daily basis, I am definitely more aware of opportunities to use it where before I never fully appreciated its functionality.

The Service Engineering team were great to work with as they were both knowledgeable and friendly. The made it very easy for me to quickly integrate myself into the team. There was never any awkward tension between anyone in the team making work life relaxed and enjoyable. Due to the nature of the job though, there were times when I was the only person in the team as they were visiting site. I didn't find this to be an issue though.

Due to the managerial change that I experienced, my placement become less organised and my exact role/ sense of direction somewhat diverged. There were many placements at the site that I worked at which allowed us to receive group training on presentation skills, business communication and team work. The placement scheme also offered a bursary scheme allowing the other students and myself an opportunity to reflect and present what we had done during the year to a panel and potentially be presented with a reward.

I received a lot of training towards the beginning of the placement to quickly enable me to adapt to my job. Unfortunately this did not continue throughout the year as I would have benefited from doing more. I did however get to travel to both other Cummins plants and sites as well as customer sites which provided a much greater awareness of the business structure and process. There was also set placement training (presentation skills, business communication and team working) which I found quite useful and interesting as gave context to some of my university studies.

Unfortunately it does not look as if there will be an opportunity to come back as graduate in my current role due ongoing business restructuring. I would however consider a role elsewhere in the company.

There were many placement students at the site which meant that there many opportunities to meet socialise with people of a similar age. I however lived quite a distance from the main placement population and therefore did not spend much time with them. As I lived locally from before the working at the site, this was not an issue.

It is hard to socialise cheaply and when compared to many cities there isn't much to do

The area of the site has very poor reputation for nightlife and Canterbury (the nearest city) is known for being the best place in the area for nightlife, though when compared to other cities and towns it quickly becomes apparent that it is quite tame.

The site ran a Sports and Social Club which I got involved in a couple times. This provided a good opportunity to do activities at a reduced cost. I went on a well organised trip with the SSC to Belgium for a weekend where I got to experience the Christmas markets and some ice skating at a very affordable price.