Industrial Placement - Operations Review

Looking back at my placement gives me a strong positive feeling. Working with Operations gave me a good balance of hands-on plant jobs and more technical work at the desk. This was my first job in any kind of engineering industry, and I managed to learn a lot. Nuclear power has long been a subject of great interest to me, and the placement did not disappoint. I was given opportunities to look into every aspect of the station. I would definitely recommend the placement to my friends still in university.

One of the strongest aspects of the placement. The people were extremely kind, and I felt like I fit right in as soon as I arrived. I always had someone willing to help me when problems came up. And this feeling wasn't just limited to my team, but also to many other colleagues on site. I made a number of friends during my time there, and had a great time with them, including outside of work.

As part of my placement, I had a few tasks to complete for university and my supervisor was very supportive of that. He was happy to give me some time during work hours to focus on these things, so I didn't have to write my reports in my own time. He was also happy to review some of my work. Finding meaningful long-term project work was a bit difficult in the beginning, but once I found something I was happily guided along the way.

Once I was fully up to speed with the routine tasks, and had my own projects to work on my days were pretty full.

Getting responsibilities given to me took some time, and for good reason. This is the nuclear industry after all. After a few months however, I was allowed to make certain small operational decisions. This enabled me to gain experience working under pressure and delivering results. I was also given some leadership roles towards the end of my placement, such as training new arrivals to the department and leading a job on plant with a technician.

My placement has taught me as much as my two first years at university. I now have good understanding of how industrial safety is maintained, and how a large industrial complex can be managed. This was explained in textbooks, but being on the ground is what truly made me understand. I've built relationships with technicians and engineers alike, which will definitely be valuable in the future. I came in feeling completely out of my depth, but now I feel ready to tackle my next job with more self confidence.

The atmosphere in the office was really good. People were nice to each other and I felt my team was tightly bound. Lunchtime was always a laugh and I felt included almost immediately. The culture encouraged new recruits to express their thoughts about how things were done and how they could be improved. That made me feel valued and is a very positive practice.

Originally, I was only given a few small repetitive tasks to work on every week. Other than that, nothing was planned out for me before I arrived. I do feel like I had to push a bit to get some more meaningful work. However, once we agreed on something I could do, things worked out very well. Everyone was encouraging me in my work, and giving me insight when I needed it.

Other than my site induction, I was only given a week of formal training. Even this was still very linked to on-site safety. However, I do feel like colleagues spent a lot of time explaining and demonstrating things for me on the job. It wasn't formal training, but I am now much more qualified than your average university graduate to start a career in nuclear operations. I have indeed learned a lot about how the station works, and what it takes to run it.

Future prospects are very appealing. New nuclear build means the company is hiring more staff right now. The company is also looking for engineering staff at its current sites. The graduate scheme seems promising and I would be happy to join as it would provide me with further development opportunities.

There was a good social scene, as I happily spent time out of work with fellow placement students and graduate colleagues. However, it is a rural area and there is a limit to what can happen without buying a train ticket to the city.

I managed to find a relatively cheap place to live for myself, but the price of housing here is higher than student accommodation where my university is. Food was quite cheap however, mostly because there was an ASDA nearby. Socialising at the local pub was also quite cheap, however anything else meant that I needed to buy a ticket to Edinburgh, which made it more expensive. Prices within Edinburgh are probably higher than average.

There are a few pubs in the town, which can be quite full on weekends. If you go to Edinburgh the last bus back is at 1am, and takes an hour to get back here.

I was able to play badminton with colleagues towards the beginning. Unfortunately this stopped after a few months. There is a sports centre nearby where activities can be organised. There are however more possibilities if you live in Edinburgh, but then your costs go through the roof from driving into work every day.