Civil Engineering Summer Placement Student Review

The placement was enjoyable with lots of support available from both line management and HR, allowing for a good level of interesting and informative work to be assigned to myself whist on placement.

The colleagues in the workplace were very welcoming and ready to offer pieces of work to get involved within, this was good as it allowed me to feel valued due to the fact they were issuing me with various pieces of work with set deadlines and objective.

Support and guidance was offered by line management whenever it was required, this was particularly useful when vcming across new pieces of information or technologies to perform tasks.

Throughout the day I was kept busy through a list of tasks/objectives that needed to be completed, this list of work was of a reasonable length and new tasks were added as the ones were completed.

During my placement I was given a work package to complete that was expected to be completed by the other members within the team, the completed documents and outcome were then checked and reviewed by the team members. Therefore the level of responsibility given to me was a good level that would be expected from any of the team members.

The skills that were developed were company specific that also focus on a good varied range of transferrable technical skills such as civil engineering design and application of Eurocodes. This experience would be invaluable if taking a Fast Track Graduate Scheme programme that is offered at the end of a successful placement, and also the skills and training will be used in the final year of study and then further on in a civil engineer's career.

The general atmosphere within the office was positive with a fair treatment of all employees. Everyone within the office was welcoming allowing myself to settle in well and start working towards the objectives set,

The overall placement was well organised by HR, they ensured a high level of objectives were set in order to develop myself further, this was then built upon by the team in which I worked for who knew exactly what type of experience a student would potentially need and how this could be accomplished through the available projects to them.

The company did not invest much in personal training. They encouraged developing links with the ICE. The company focused around training and development of a person towards the role in which they were situated.

The future employment prospects are good within TFL as they provide an opportunity for placement students to be Fast //tracked on to a graduate scheme position.

There was a very good social scene among placement students, we arranged tours of areas within the company for other students to attend and also met up outside of the placement work regularly.

As TFL is based within London the cost of living and socialising was very expensive. This was somewhat reflected in the pay due to a higher level of placement pay compared to some companies.

The nightlife was very good as TFL is based in London the local nightclubs are very well equipped and there are lots of them.

There were lots of opportunities to do activities self organised outside of work but not organised through the company.