Stuctural Engineering Intern Review

I did really enjoy my placement and felt like I was given a wide range of tasks and had varied days. The company provided us with training, lots of guidance and help during the placement and even though I was in a smaller office there were good links to the rest of the company.

I was given jobs and tasks that actually were for projects they were working on and would help towards construction, which made me feel valued as I wasn't just completing pointless tasks. Everyone in the office made an effort to make conversation with me and I felt like I was actually a bonus to the team.

I had a half way through sit down meeting with my line manager where we talked about possible futures at the company as well as what else I wanted to achieve at my time there – but he was available to talk at any other time as well. Also the grad HR recruiter came in early on in the placement to tell us about graduate opportunities for internship students.

There were some days where I had loads of tasks to complete, meetings to go to and training sessions. But there were also days where I only had 1 or 2 tasks and my supervisors were so busy that I didn’t really want to bother them to ask for more work. Luckily there were always things I could practice and analysis programmes to use that I trained myself on for use in my next year at University.

I was given jobs that were for projects that were in various RIBA work stages, that were needed to be done and weren’t just ‘time fillers’ like I know lots of friends at other companies had. My jobs were less time sensitive though and I was never given an outright deadline like other members of staff, which allowed me to take more time to get my head around the technical aspects and understand it properly.

We were given a few training sessions on BIM and invited to office wide more management based training as well. Also through the company’s internal online website there was a video portal with loads of training videos on various analysis programmes which I watched to give me better overviews and understanding of the basics behind them. Obviously less structured learning occurred everyday just being around an office where there were time pressures and projects being completed day to day.

Everyone chatted and were friendly and there was loads of free food/snacks available most days. It definitely wasn’t deafly silent, people had a laugh but got their jobs done. People worked hard though, often staying a lot longer than I ever did so there wasn’t really the after work beers like I expected.

The communication with BuroHappold was really good, much better than I had experienced with other companies. Replied to emails quickly, the contract was sent on time and with clear expectations, my location was told to me in good time and when expected, and I was able to talk to HR on the phone as well.

They had specially organised training for internship students on various BIM/analysis programmes both in person and over skype, as well as being invited into CPD sessions that other office members may have attended. There was probably around 3 or 4 sessions over the 8 weeks that I was with the company.

We were talked to about Grad opportunities around 3 weeks into our placement and were encouraged to apply internally to any grad roles that would come up as with experience we would get prioritised over external applicants. At the end of the placement we were given a form asking if we wanted a grad job and if so which offices and disciplines to be based in – any job offers will be send towards autumn time for post graduation.

Honestly apart from organised office summer parties, there were no real after work drinks or socialising among the office. I was commuting in to work from a different city so often left straight away at the end of the work day but it didn’t seem as though anything happened once I was gone. I know other offices have lunchtime fitness classes etc but because we were quite a small office nothing seemed to happen.

It was relatively cheap as being in the north, but in an office and professional area means a lot of the pubs were slightly more upmarket. I didn’t live in the area as I commuted in from a neighbouring city and trains weren’t that cheap, around £75 a week, which wasn’t covered by the company.

Pretty close to loads of restaurants and bars and a line of clubs, and about a 20 minute walk to the centre of town.

Honestly not a lot whilst I was there – there’s an organisation called YEF ‘Young Engineers Forum’ and a trip with the other offices was planned for when I was gone but nothing in the time frame of my internship. I was expecting more as they hype up YEF quite a lot but my office wasn’t too proactive about it which was a shame.