Placement Student Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement at Caterpillar, the support from those working with me really helped to take off the pressures of starting a new unfamiliar job role. Overall I have been kept busy, rarely bored and the team has been extremely pleasant and engaging often with socials and events outside of work also.

From the start I have felt like I been part of the team and have been given real jobs and responsibilities. Despite being a placement and having little experience I was still expected to do the same jobs as a fully qualified employee, this forced me to learn quickly and adapt to whatever was given to me. I definitely did not feel undervalued.

The support available from everyone I worked with was great, everyone was more than happy to take some extra time to explain something I was unsure of or needed help with. Regular meeting were had with supervisors to discuss workloads and any problems you had to ensure that your work was going smoothly.

On a daily basis I was kept very busy, the start of placement was less intense and I was allowed time to learn what was needed and how things worked. Once the initial learning period was over I was involved with multiple teams and multiple projects so having to balance my time and workload made it feel like I was very busy.

Throughout my placement I was in multiple teams and had various different roles, some working with others and some on my own, completely managing myself apart from being set targets to meet by the project lead. The projects ranged from very simple testing projects to others where I was required to design a critical simulation test bench, as long as I could meet the targets I was given more responsibility.

Despite working in a different field to my degree, my time at Caterpillar has been a great positive boost to my skillset and to competencies that can be applied anywhere I go. In particular the training of and insight into many of the processes used by many big companies (Six Sigma etc) I expect will be useful in my career. On top of this other essential everyday skills such as time management and organisation have been emphasised a lot throughout my placement and I feel have been much improved.

In general the atmosphere was very relaxed and easy going, everyone is friendly and there are lots of teambuilding events during work time and outside working hours for example: sports events, table tennis tournaments, pub crawls, etc. Good variety of people from all sorts of backgrounds within the office which helps to keep things interesting.

Personally, my placement was setup very well, I had ample support and plenty of work I even had a period of just over a month overlapping with the previous placement who could help guide me through the basics while I was still new. There were however training days that would have been very useful which took a long time to organise and only happened towards the end of placement.

Through my placement I was trained on lots of software programs such as Labview, CANape, CANalyzer etc. On top of this there were day-long training sessions all about the products that Caterpillar produce, these days were called appreciation days, so that we could better appreciate the work we were doing. These days included taking apart and building up engines, taking part in the factory assembly line for a day and spending a day driving a few different machines such as the Track Type Tractor, Back-Hoe Loader, Wheeled excavator and Wheel-Loader around a field and given certain tasks to complete. Days like this were not only fun, but actually quite useful for work as it gave us an insight into what an operator might want from their machine. Lastly, since Caterpillar is involved with Six Sigma, there are opportunities to get Green Belt Six Sigma training.

There are 5 placements in my department every year and at least 2 are offered a permanent role in the company for after they finish their University degree. However if there is a desire to they can take than 2 if not all 5, depends on the quality of the placement students. If you come back into a graduate position there are plenty of opportunities in essentially every department within Caterpillar.

There were plenty of attempts at a social scene between the students, however due to the area (Peterborough) there isn't a lot to do entertainment-wise (Night Life, shopping etc) that was close by. This lack of things to do made it difficult to develop a great social scene (Plenty of pubs though), although since there are approximately 30 placements every year throughout all the departments there are plenty of people in a similar situation to make friends with but if you want to do something with friends you will probably have to travel outside of Peterborough.

The cost of living in Peterborough isn't massively expensive and it is pretty much the average for England in terms of rent. There are some attractions like golf driving range, pitch 'n' putt, showcase cinema, and plenty of pubs for socialising that aren't expensive. Also some good food places that aren't expensive either.

Very little nightlife in Peterborough. There are a few good restaurants, a couple of bars, plenty of pubs, but only two night clubs, once of which is good. I don't think anyone has ever said "Let's go have a wild night in Peterborough". If you are into clubbing you'll have to go elsewhere. Can be good if you want to have a more chilled night out, dinner, drinks etc.

There were weekly games of football and other sports organised through work which are reasonably well attended. There are other monthly events such as meal nights to various restaurants throughout Peterborough and also other less common events helping out the Peterborough community helping to maintain places of interest etc. Finally there is an annual event called First Lego League whereby you get to work with a team of Caterpillar employees and help a group of schoolchildren to design and build a Lego robot to compete against other schools in the area, this event lasts for a few months (one day a week) and looks particularly good on your CV.