Engineering Placement Student Review

Whilst the work wasn't so bad I didn't feel that my manager engaged with me enough. I was often a bit bored at work and when I was given tasks I wasn't given enough time to complete them. My manager was hard on me for this at times. This may be different depending on your manager/department/plant.

My colleagues were great. They were supportive and helped me when I needed them to. I feel we lacked a social atmosphere outside of work and the politics around the plant can be hard to avoid. I would happily work with the people in my office again and I will miss them when I leave.

My manager gave me support when asked for but I was treated like a bit of an idiot when I did ask which didn't give me any confidence to ask again. I think my manager meant well with his help but it didn't come across that way at times. I was his first student so he will probably be better now he has had the experience of a student for a year.

It was either far too busy or nowhere near busy enough. Again, I was the first student in my department so I'm sure that it will be better in future years. When there wasn't enough to do it felt like the placement would never end and when I was too busy it wasn't helped by coming under fire about the workload by the management.

I was given my own projects from time to time and left to do them myself. I fed back what I had done and asked for improvements which I then implemented. I didn't feel like a student being micro managed with my tasks and felt that I have been a full employee.

I have learned a huge amount about how to work within the industry and in particular working with other departments and engineers. I have also learned a lot about Microsoft Excel and time management which will be a huge help in my final year at uni and in my future career. I have gained so much from this placement in terms of industry experience.

The general atmosphere in my office and around the plant hasn't been the best. A few of my colleagues were positive and good to talk to but the general feeling across the plant is negative. Everyone feels under lid and very very under appreciated by the management and the company as a whole. This negative environment hasn't been great to work in and affected my job significantly. There is no real opportunity to bond as a group of colleagues either.

From a company point of view it was very organised and the recruitment worked well! On my department level it wasn't so organised as I was the first ever student in my department and my manager was getting used to it as much as I was. I was often sat around waiting for more work which often never came and I didn't feel that I was needed in my department a lot of the time.

My colleagues taught me a lot when they could as they felt that they should help me. The company itself doesn't invest much in terms of training and everything that I have learned has been self taught. I would have preferred to have had more official training and technical training to assist more within my role and my future career.

I wouldn't work for the company again. The general mood around the plant is very negative and there are no benefits to working there. The role isn't very rewarding and I feel that many hardworking and talented employees are underpaid. There isn't a social atmosphere other than the Christmas party and so you don't get to have a laugh and a joke with your colleagues to blow off steam. I was dissapointed with the company in this respect, especially for a multi national organisation!

Despite a few of the students best efforts we never got a social scene organised. The company don't help you to do this and it very much relies on students being proactive to getting to know each other. Other than the Christmas party there was also no social scene within my department or plant. This didn't help the relationships with my other colleagues.

The cost is relatively high and the rent isn't cheap. I chose to live in my uni house and commute as it worked out cheaper than living near work. The town itself is rather expensive and there isn't much going on there. You have to go out of work to buy lunch also as the canteen only has vending machines in it.

There is next to no night life other than a few bars in town. These bars are very very expensive and the town is quite dead. I've only ever been out in the town once and it was awful. From talking to others in the plant they say it is dreadful also.

One colleague organises a weekely football game but that's about it. The company doesn't help in any social organisation and most colleagues don't know each other. The plant isn't very sociable because of this, I think the company should do more to get the employees socialising.