Operations engineering summer placement student Review

I enjoyed the office and the people, and when I had work it was interesting and insightful. However, there were many occasions where I was sat with no work to do or the work that I had been given was not relevant to my summer placement, i.e. printing documents, posting letters.

I think that my colleagues and I got on very well. They asked for my opinions on matters, respected the work I did which was relevant to theirs and came to me when they wanted a hand with something. I felt that I was treated as an equal and not as a student.

My Line manager was very busy due to the reorg and so he unfortunately didn't have as much time with me as he would have liked however he was very welcoming and accommodating. He always listened to the questions I had to ask and provided an answer as best he could. He also put me in contact with the right people when I was looking for work more in my field. He was very welcoming and a joy to work with unfortunately he just didn't have enough work for me to do.

Overall my opinion is that if the work I was given was condensed down from the 10 week period I'd say that it would fit in 5 weeks or less of a full days work. There was a lot of sitting around waiting for people to get back to me about whether they had any work I could do, even after asking around the whole of the offices. It was unlucky timing in that my placement fell in the same time period as both the company reorganisation and the arrival of an improvement notice by the ICP.

I was trusted with the work I was given and this was used by all tiers of company members. I was trusted to take notes in meetings which my manager could not attend and to complete work which was being used to review the whole company by the ICP. However, the work itself was not difficult and therefore hard to do wrong, but this is understandable due to me being new to the company.

Barring the last 2 weeks of my placement, my knowledge of electrical engineering was not relevant to any of the work that I was doing. I am reviewing my placement in week 8 and am hoping that the next two weeks I'll be able to work on more engineering based work which I have been given by the electrical TA. Other than engineering knowledge, my work within an office environment and my organisation when completing a task has greatly improved. The excel training was a benefit when working on stats with the logistics coordinator and I also understand the level of detail and approval necessary to sign off and complete a piece of work.

Very welcoming and chatty whilst still getting work done. Every one was willing to help with whatever queries I had and I was invited out on an office night out. I baked cakes and brought them in a couple of times to share within the office. We had perfectly pleasant conversations and everyone seemed to get on well.

The placement itself was organised very well by the grad scheme and the activities which were put on for the summer placement students were both helpful and enjoyable. However when arriving at my placement it became evident that there had not been a complete plan of work for me to do for the duration of the 10 weeks. Each day was very much me coming in and asking if there was any work for me, asking many different departments, and if not sitting and waiting for work to be sent my way.

The excel training which we received definitely improved my knowledge and how I now tackle work regarding spread sheets. I also consider the development day a vital part of the summer placement as it is a chance to bring together those students not based in Windsor and really emphasises the importance of working together and helping each other out when in a team environment which is almost always a situation you will be in when you go into working conditions. Present with an impact was also very helpful in addressing problems that a person may not have considered that they have when they are presenting to a large group of people. It has definitely helped me in preparing for my presentation as I am not the best public speaker and I feel more calm and collected going into the presentation day.

I'm hoping that if I were to be offered a grad scheme, the work that I would be given would be more engineering orientated and more time fulfilling which would mean that I would enjoy it more. The company as a whole seems very welcoming and seems to accommodated it's grad students and summer placement students very well offering them support and guidance wherever necessary. I also consider Centrica to be one of the leading companies in the energy sector which is what I am interested into going into which makes the company very appealing on the side of all the features it has to offer.

There were a few grad students at my accommodation who I met up with once or twice through out my placement. I also bonded quite well with the people in my office however they all had families and children of their own which meant that had little time to go out. We did go out for drinks with the whole office one night which was fun. It would have been a lot less lonely if there were another summer placement student in the same accommodation or offices that I could have spent time with. I found the first few weeks quite lonely but have since settled down and found other ways to fill my spare time.

Centrica paying for accommodation was a definite bonus; it meant that this was one less thing to worry about after being offered the placement position. Because Lancaster is in the north it is a lot cheaper than the prices that I am used to and so the cost of drinking and socialising were very cheap.

There weren't many clubs and as the university students had broken up for summer the atmosphere in Lancaster was a lot quieter than it would normally be however once you're out with a group of people it is very difficult not to have a good time.

I did join a local football team for a few sessions over the 10 week period and also joined the local university gym so that I stayed fit and active. However, if you are not a person who enjoys the outdoors, there is very little to do in Lancaster. Being so close to the lakes was a bonus and being within driving distance with Blackpool meant that it was possible to enjoy a nice day out there.