Student engineer: Bridge department Review

Enjoyed the placement very much, was challenging however help was always available and technical queries were open for discussion. Worked largely on one project which allowed me to work to a reasonably high level, and engineering judgement was required throughout which helped me to expand from my degree. Also helped me to develop my skills regarding technical software, largely finite element software.

Very easy to talk to and more than happy to ask when I ran into problems. It was a close knit team (I worked in the bridge department), which meant I could get to know everyones reasonable. Buro Happold adopt a policy of everyone (regardless of position in the company) getting the same desk, which meant there was no imposing hierarchy, just a group of engineers trying to do their job to the best of their ability.

I was largely supervised by graduate engineers and engineers. They set me the problems to overcome, and whenever I came into problems, they always tried to give a discussion that would lead to ideas that could give me a solution. This was helpful as it allowed me to really think about the problem and how to overcome it, rather than them just giving it to me. I was also given support from the technical directors, which was useful as they had a better oversight over the whole project, hence they could tell me why it was necessary for my work to be completed.

For the majority of the 8 week placement I had plenty of work to be getting on with. As I mentioned, I was largely involved in one project, for which a lot of computer modelling had to be completed. There were slow days from time to time, however this taught me to always look for more work to be completed when I was close to being finished with my current work, a good practise to adopt. A few days there weren't many engineers in to give me work, however this is largely because I came in the summer months when many people went on holidays.

Due to my large involvement in one particular project, I had an end goal of my placement, which was to produce a report on a technical aspect of a bridge design - namely the effects of temperature variations. The technique we used was not covered particularly well in any Eurocodes so a large degree of engineering judgement and explanation of methodology was required. As a result of this, my role during the placement was important and I had a fair amount of responsibility to complete my work to a high standard, as it would be later used to refer back to during detailed design.

The computational skills that i gained using finite element software were invaluable, most notably as I will be completing a computationally based masters next year. However an even more important skill that I took aways from the placement was the ability to use rational engineering judgement as to how structures behave. This differs slightly from the theoretical analysis I learn in university and is more common sense and testing your theories using simple models. This will most likely be very helpful for my future career as a civil engineer and for this reason I would happily recommend the placement to anyone else looking along this career path.

There was a good, fun atmosphere in the office. Due to the fact that it was a small team, everyone knew each other well. Drinks on a Friday after work was always fun, and I especially appreciated the young engineers forum (YEF) which linked up young and graduate engineers to play sport, organise socials etc. It made it very easy for me to be welcomed into the office. Obviously during work everyone gets on with their projects, however at a reputable engineering firm such as Buro Happold, this is to be expected.

The work that I needed to complete was set up well when I arrived, my roles and responsibilities were clearly laid out and discussed in the first group meeting. This instantly gave me purpose for my placement and I appreciated that, I did not feel like a spare part that no one had assigned any work for, I felt valued. Perhaps a slightly better introduction into the style of report writing - maybe with some accompanying examples - would have been helpful, but this is a small criticism.

There wasn't a great deal of personal development given to me, but I was given time to improve my proficiency in computational software and code standards. I feel this was more useful than have an engineer spoon feed me, so I do not see this as a bad aspect. However Buro Happold did want to see me improve and so gave me pointers about mistakes in my work, and I had end of placement reviews and critiques which were very useful.

I enjoyed the placement thoroughly, and having seen how graduate engineers are valued within the company and the interesting work they get given, a future career with them is very appealing. Although the placement doesn't guarantee you a job outright, a good performance could help with a future application. This is what I intend to do.

As mentioned previously, young engineers had their own organisation called the young engineers forum. This was a fun and engaging society which created a great social scene among the engineers. Everything from drinks to sports to engineering events were suggested, and I feel this was one of the strongest aspects of the placement. Moreover, the students themselves were introduced to each other, and this made it easy to socialise among different sectors in the company.

As I was working near Oxford Circus, it is no surprise that the living costs would be very high. Going out anywhere in that section of London is expensive. Luckily I live in an area in which it is very easy to commute into London so I wasn't paying for any living accommodation, however drinks after work did hit my wallet hard.

As we were in London, there is obviously loads to do, from drinks in bars to clubbing to karaoke and restaurants. There is plenty to do in London, it just depends on what your budget is.

Within my team there were often group emails relating to activities the team were thinking of doing, to which I was always open to join, and as said previously, the young engineers forum gave even more opportunity to join in with social events. It was only up to you to decide which of the events you could fit into your schedule.