Summer Student Review

Enjoyable experience, variety of work provided ranging over numerous disciplines both civil and structural. Each day came with a different challenge which made it much less of a chore. People all very friendly and helpful however socially the location of the office makes it difficult to do things outside of work with colleagues.

Moderately valued by colleagues. I helped the majority of people within my team with work when they needed help and they all helped me greatly with any questions I had about the work. Although they provided work, as expected, the majority of the work was non technical and relatively basic. However it still made for good experience.

Management and supervisors were very good and friendly throughout the length of the placement. However in terms of support and guidance there was little. This is probably due to my lack of seeking guidance, because the work was relatively low level, the need for support and guidance was low. I am sure that if I looked for support and guidance it would have been available.

Good balance of work. Had a near constant supply of work available. However often had to go looking for work as opposed to it being presented to me by colleagues. Very rarely had any days in which I had nothing to do and similarly there were no occasions where I felt suffocated by the volume of work I had on my plate.

The majority of work that I was given had very little responsibility attached to it, which can be expected for a placement of this nature. However there was one piece of design work for which I took full responsibility of the initial design, although obviously it was further checked by senior staff. This was rewarding work.

Considering the basic level of the tasks which I was responsible for throughout my placement, I do not believe that many skills will be transferrable to my further studies. However valuable experiences can be taken from working in the environment of a busy engineering office on major engineering projects.

Overall everyone in the office was very busy all the time, which meant the majority of the time the office was relatively quiet. However on occasions there was a good atmosphere in the office, everyone was very friendly and this made for a good atmosphere. At times the project stresses could be felt in the atmosphere.

All in all very well organised work placement. Very well integrated into the team and an almost constant stream of work made for a very well run placement. Very few occasions where I was left without work and also managed to get out of the office on a few occasions to go to meetings with clients which was great.

Considering the placement was only 12 weeks long, the training was very minimal. The only training which was completed was the initial Atkins onboarding training e.g health and safety stuff which is standard for any company. Other than that there was little investment in my training and development by the company.

Very appealing. Lots of information on the company intranet about possible career paths and different job role profiles which gave a good understanding about potential career paths. Also speaking to colleagues about their careers gave a good insight into the potential job opportunities within atkins, which there are many opportunities.

No, there was only 2 summer students in the office including myself. Also considering the remote location of the office and the fact that everyone drove to work made any social engagements outside working hours very difficult. Furthermore didn't really hear any mention of any social activities going on between colleagues during my placement.

Standard

Didn't live locally so didn't go out

Not that I was made aware of