Student Engineer Review

Having had previous placement experience before, I was able to expand on the skills and knowledge I gained, further improving my ability. I was able to complete tasks making a real contribution to the team and project. There was a proactive attitude with all of the other engineers I worked with and were happy to help with any problems that arouse.

I was being given tasks by my team members which showed a level of trust in me. This trust was repaid by being competent and completing them to a high standard. Once they knew I could complete a task they weren't afraid to give me more chanllenging activities which helped my development and understanding of the role.

My actual surpervisor was one of the lead engineers on the project. Therefore, I didn't have a great deal of contact time directly with them, but, they assigned me an engineer that was able to give me the guidance I needed. It was important for me that I felt I could talk to them about anything and ask advice.

The placement got off to a slow start comparing it to my previous experience. But after a few weeks my experience showed when I was able to take intitiative with activities which kept me busier. This was noticed by a few different team members which resulted in them giving me more responsibility and finally being intergrayed into the team.

If I was to compare to my last placement I would say that this one I had less responsibility, although the reasons for this were clear and understandable. As the project I was on had to maintain a very high level of quality it was difficult to enable somoeone with a lack of experience to have such responsibility. However, I was still able to be pushed and found the project enganging.

I believe the skills I have learnt on all of my placements are absolutely vital for when I complete my degree. There is a huge advantage to gaining experience before you become a graduate and I will feel far more confident when starting work full-time in the future. I feel there is a lack of contractual work undertaken on my degree course therefore it is crucial I took the chance to gain the experience now.

The engineering team I was working with where made up of a lot of graduates and younger team members. This made it easier to communicate as sometimes the engineering jargon can become confusing. There was a feeling int he office that there was a lack of leadership at some points, although the logistics of the site were partly the problem as the site was so large it was difficult to fit everyone into one place. It will be interesting to see how the atmosphere changes when the project become more advanced in the future.

This was an area that I thought needed the most improvement. The reasons for the lack of organisation was because the project being so young, and it was made clear to us that we were being used as 'guinea pigs'. This being said there were plenty of feedback sessions set up for us to help improve the scheme and experience for the placement students in the future.

There was no specific training days that were set up throughout the placement although there were several sessions set up from both Laing O'Rourke Early Talent scheme and the BYLOR team. These sessions gave us an understanding of different aspects of a project and expanded of topics that you don't necessarily get exposure to during your summer placements. These were useful in gaining a basic understanding of the covered topics and something to expand on in the future.

I count myself very lucky to of been given the chance to do three placements with Laing O'Rourke. The company has showed me what they value, how they promote growth with individuals and given me an experience that I will use and value throughout my career. It is an exciting prospect that I am able to climb the ladder within the company and be pushed and rewarded for my efforts.

Towards the end of the placement there was a few good social events that we were able to attend. It was very useful being able to meet up with fellow placement student from all over the country and be able to share our experiences. It was valuable to myself as I will be looking to step up onto the graduate programme next year and to be able to meet the other potential grads was useful.

The costs of living was more than I had anticipated. My previous two placements have both been in London so I thought this placement would of been much better which wasn't necessarily the case. Having to sort your own accommodation out by just looking at photographs on the internet is hugely difficult and it is quite often down to luck whether you get a good place or not. It would of been helpful if we were able to talk to the other placement students before we started to see if something could be worked out with them or alternatively have some form of accommodation sorted for when people come in the future.

The local nightlife was very quiet and you had to go quite far away for find the nearest decent place to go out. This was one aspect of the placement that I didn't enjoy and it is always easier to work with someone when you get along with them outside of work and not just in work. This was just a logistical problem of the project but would be something to try and improve on in the future.

There did seem to be a few activities that you could get involved in on the project but these only seemed to be advertised if someone directly told you about it. There was not much advertised via email to us and this is also something that could be changed in the future. Socialising outside of work I think is important and improves the atmosphere in work and makes the experience more enjoyable for everyone.