Town Planner Review

I enjoyed my time at Arup immensely. The people I worked with were all so friendly and up for a laugh, and the projects I got involved in were very diverse and all intriguing, I never had to perform a task that wasn’t directly related to my future career.

I felt like a valued member of the team from the first day. I was given the responsibility to complete tasks independently, and at no point did I feel like I was being given pointless tasks just to fill time.

My team were always willing to help but equally didn’t try to hold my hand through the tasks. The work I was given was always thoroughly explain with background context, and if I needed any help there was always someone in the team that would pause their work to aid me.

I was always kept busy, but not to the point that I was stressing over tasks. Due to the length of the placement I was able to engage in jobs that spanned weeks, so there was rarely a moment that I had nothing to do.

My team treated me like any other member. I was actually surprised at some of the tasks I was given as I believed they were above my grade, but ultimately this responsibility proved so much more beneficial to my personal development.

Immensely. The work I was given was directly related to my degree, and I have already benefited from this placement in my degree. I was able to use the skills and vocabulary I learnt during this placement in one of my final pieces of coursework in third year.

The atmosphere was great. There was rarely any silence, and my workmates were so friendly and always up for a chat. We even had cake breaks on each Friday afternoon.

I was essentially an added member of the team. I much preferred this to a more structured internship which can feel as if you are being walked through the process. I was given a mixture of short and long projects from multiple departments in the company, even conducting work for the London and Leeds offices. My team even asked me if there were any projects I’d heard about, or subjects that I was particularly interested in so that they could potentially get me involved in the project.

My team invested a lot of time and effort into my development. They gave me a diverse range of projects to work on which really widened my experience, as well as the numerous lunchtime events that the company put on.

Very appealing. Arup clearly take good care of their employees and graduates through schemes such as profit sharing and the graduate field trips.

I was the only placement student in the office, but my colleagues often held weekly after-work drinks and went out for lunch.

Arup’s Manchester office is opposite Piccadilly Station, the cost of living and socialising is what you would expect from such an area.

Fantastic. Manchester is second to none.

Yes, Arup sponsored multiple events such as the Manchester International Festival or Bluedot festival, which they offered free tickets and volunteer opportunities for. Honestly I wish I'd made more effort to get involved in all there was on offer.