Land Surveyor Review

I enjoyed my placement a lot. Everyone was very friendly and excellent professionals. I took part in the team off-site activities like playing football once a week, going hiking in the nearby national park, and going out for a few pints at the end of the working day. All of this made my time at Costain very enjoyable!

I felt appreciated. My team was aware of my strong sides and my weak side. Whenever I needed something they were more than happy to help. The work environment was very friendly and not stressful at all, allowing me to ask all the questions I needed, to improve my knowledge and skill.

My team helped me out with everything. From giving me lift to the dentist(because I didn’t have a car) to calling the relative head office personnel for help when I wasn’t able to find some company information. I Was personally very impressed with my line manager. He was extremely knowledgeable and friendly and was able to answer all of my queries.

During my time at Costain, my department managed to get a perfect balance between site work and office work. We were always able to plan the work for the week well enough so that there is enough time to show me the procedures that were in place or to educate me in using the equipment, or in processing the data.

I was given the right amount of responsibilities for my level of knowledge and experience. In the beginning most of the stuff that was going on in the office , but with the help of my team, the brought me up to speed, and I managed to complete the tasks that were allocated to me without any difficulties.

I think that the skill that I developed will be very useful, in my future career. I have a practical experience with the surveying equipment and a better understanding and appreciation of the engineering surveying as a science. It would have been even better if I have done this placement last summer, since I have had my final course in surveying already, which is a real shame.

The atmosphere in the office was very friendly, but it the same time professional. The team does quite a few activities together off site, so they are all like one family. The weekly team breakfast was another thing that made the atmosphere felt more like family. Overall great working environment!

Overall the placement was organised well. A few improvement could be made- like the time table of my placement weren’t adjusted to the fact that I have started my placement 40 days later than usual. Also in regards to the tasks that I had to complete, I would appreciate a dedicated day with the designers and the business leader so I can get a better inside into what they do and how they do it so the report

The company invested in me to high extended. I was thought a lot of different skill, ranging from using GPS(something that I haven’t done in university at all) to using a digital level and a different brand of total stations(Leica and Trimble). I was also introduced to a few bit of software that I believe will come very handy next time I do surveying.

I would say that I am very tempted to work for Costain. It is a great company involved in some mega project like the London super sewage. That combined with the excellent benefit offered to employees and the excellent senior staff member would make the first choice if I decided to do site work!

I didn’t a lot fo contact with the other summer placement since my work was all over the site, furthermore, it was 50% office based. But in general, I managed to make a few friend from my fellow summer placement student. An idea would be to spend a few week of the placement with different department so you could meet more people and summer placement students.

The cost if living were covered by the company, and conveniently I was able to car share with a few friends from the team, so the company was covering those expense as well. In terms of socialising, it wasn’t too expensive, especially compared to Newcastle. One thing that I found a bit expensive was the train ticket to Cardiff, which was double the one to Sunderland(similar distances)

Overall the nightlife wasn’t too impressive, since I come from Newcastle, and Newport wasn’t able to compete with. But on the other hand Cardiff was 10 min away and there you can have all the fun that you may want.Overall I really liked Cardiff, and if you are in the area I would recommend visiting!

There was a lof of opportunities. On Tuesday we were riding mountain bikes. On Thursday we went to play football at the local pitch. Friday we were going out, and on Saturday or Sunday, we were hiking. So overall there was a lot of activities out there, to get involved in outside the working hours.