Undergraduate Placement Student Site Engineer Review

I very much enjoyed my placement as I was working within an inviting and highly knowledgeable team that provided me with stimulating and varied work across many departments within the project. My work included site and office work which gave me a variety of different tasks to experience and learn from.

As a first year undergraduate I expected to come into the business and be given mundane and simple admin like tasks, however my colleges trusted me with more challenging and stimulating work that stretched me. They were also incredibly happy to teach me and help me learn instead of being condescending when I did not get tasks right first time.

My supervisor has worked very closely with me throughout my placement. For example I have been able to shadow him in his work, with him letting me join in where appropriate, but also he has given me tasks of my own that he has worked through with me, or given me free rein of and reviewed with me after.

My workload varied dramatically throughout my placement. As I gained the trust of my employees to competently complete tasks, my workload steadily increased. On the other hand I did sometimes find myself in quieter periods, however this was not fault of my colleges not distributing work, but it was fault of delays or slow points in the project itself, an inevitable outcome in construction. Alongside my placement the company set us a group project, remote learning sessions and an individual report, these task were always useful to fill quieter periods.

At Laing O'Rourke I have found they are very happy to stretch you and give you adequate responsibility proportional to the work you put in and are capable of. Although they strive to push you outside of your comfort zone and stretch you, I have never once felt out of my depth without help being available.

As well as the technical insight I have gained both out on site and in the office that will help with my degree, I also feel like my organisational and team working skills have developed. I hope to use these skills throughout my second year of university to enable me to balance the greater workload and manage my time well.

I was working on a relatively small project meaning there were only about 30 people in the office on a day shift. This lead to a very friendly and jokey atmosphere which was very pleasant to work in. The dynamic within in the office was a mix of young graduates and older more experienced members of staff, this mix worked remarkably well leading to a well structured and functioning team.

I have been part of Laing O'Rourke's first year of their early talent scheme. Despite this being its first year it has still been extremely well organized with structured learning sessions, learning objectives and team projects that stretched over a core six weeks. There were also welcome and closing events which were well structured giving you an idea of what the company were expecting of you.

Laing O'Rourke work closely with placement students to instil the company's main values with the aim to working with their students in the future. With this being my first year's placement, I have been strongly encouraged to come back for further placements with a view to joining the company's Graduate scheme.

The company organised welcome and leaving events for all its placement students. These were held in nice venues with ample opportunity to socialise with other placement students. the company also put you up in a hotel for the night after encouraging a social atmosphere. They also paid for all your travel meaning there were no financial barriers preventing students from getting to the events

My project was based just outside the city of Sheffield. I have found this a lively city to live in with a large student population. The price of living including rent and food is very reasonable with the options of many different types of affordable well run public transport easily accessible.