Quantity Surveyor Review

I really enjoyed my placement at Laing O'Rourke and one of the leading reasons stems from the opportunities to work with a diverse team of people from different cultures and in varying roles of the construction and engineering industry. I would give Laing O'Rourke - the Early Talent Development team (who manage the summer placement and graduates) a 10 out of 10 as they definitely show that they invest in talent.

From the very start I had felt valued by my colleagues; they had clearly prepared for my arrival and had a set amount of tasks ready for me. It was a great balance, challenging enough to keep me busy and learning and eased my transition into the team. What made me feel most valued was when I was offered an extension to keep working for a full 3 months.

I was given support and guidance every step of the way. I had a close knit team of varying experiences. I quickly learned that anytime you needed help or a solution, your line manager will not always have all the answers but collectively you can solve anything. This encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and speak to the team members in other departments, of whom all were happy to help. Laing O'Rourke emphasizes on a 'One Team' approach in their core values.

I was kept busy every day. Not so busy that I would be burnt out - busy in the fact that I was never bored and always had a project or task to work on. Whenever these are complete, as long as you are willing to take on the challenge and are enthusiastic, there was always work going around the office. A great balance between burning out and being bored.

I was given plenty of responsibility over my placement and this had helped me to work with various departments outside of the commercial team - to the site engineers, planners and digital engineers. From the start I was tasked with managing the return of contracts from our subcontractors - this definitely exposed me to the companies that we work with and gave me a bigger picture of the scopes everyone had to play in the project delivery.

From the training and development I received to the practical and technical skills I learnt in my role, I believe that the skills I developed have been en-grained in the way I prepare and overcome the challenges to come in my studies and for the future. For example, we were part of a weekly presentation/conference call which taught us various specialisms i the construction industry and were part of a workshop on first impressions and making the most out of the summer placement.

The placement was well organised. Welcome event in a prestigious venue in Kensington, where we were introduced to other placement students from across the country and would be working with for our group presentations. Every week we had leaders from all aspects of the construction industry speaking to us via conference call and presentation - this truly was an experience that I valued most as it gave us an insight into the career opportunities and paths of the different roles at Laing O'Rourke.