Vacation student Review

There are both good and bad points about my time at Arup. The office space is amazing and people were friendly. They have socials between the groups, which if you have access to the emails would be great, however I did not and it took too long for IT to get round to tasks. The work environment is rather relaxed, so you have quite abit of freedom to go at your own pace given the deadline isn't too soon. The majority of people are approachable, and will help you if help is needed. There are three kitchens on each floor of the building so coffee is never too far away.

This is a debatable area. On my first day I was introduced and welcomed into the building, shown around by the office coordinator (I think) and seated by my colleagues. There was some talk between us but not much, which left a rather stifled tension between us where I felt I was just "an intern" to them. I would then later only be referred to other colleagues to seek work, even going to a different floor/team simply for more to do. The lack of work is understandably due to them having busy schedules and not having time to find extra work I could complete. But all in all those I sat with I felt like I had become more of a problem than of any use, and hence sought work from elsewhere.

When I initially had work offered by my nearest colleagues they had been rather helpful, I would seek help when I was stuck, and then carry on and go back to them when the assignment had been completed. But later as they no longer offered any work and kept passing me onto others and I felt less useful to them, I no longer felt comfortable to ask for any help of them. To those I went to later, they for the majority of the time helped me, however they were off on meetings for a large amount of the day, which in a sense benefited me to solve the problem myself.

As said in the above answers, I had a fair share of a lack of work. This appeared to be common among the interns especially the mechanical interns, and also a few graduates. I feel as though the majority of the time I was seeking work to do as opposed to doing any work. Senior figures kept saying that "they would get back to me" and then forget about it for the day in which I felt I hassled them into eventually giving me work to do. In the meantime of waiting around for work, I self taught several programs that the mechanical and structural engineers used through the few tutorials available online in order for boredom to pass.

Not much to be quite frank. Other interns had larger roles in which their work was used in presentations and had multiple pieces of work to do in which their line managers would constantly check up on them with their progress and offer other bits of work to do no matter the amount of labour it would take them to complete. I on the other hand hadn't even been introduced to my line manager, and was given rather small roles to do. Whether this was because I was a year under their usual intake or not I felt like my time there made no impact or added any quality to the projects I was "involved" in.

The skills I learnt are mostly to be more proactive in seeking work, and to constantly ask for guidance which should help me when I do my third year individual project and I need to be more adamant on meetings and checkups done by my supervisor. It has given me most importantly insight into the work environment of a professional firm and the expectations they expect of everyone.

It is a nice office, open plan as most offices are nowadays, nice white lights, optimal temperature as expected given what their trade is. It is generally friendly, more so if you had been with the company for a while or are a graduate, not so much as just an intern.

It could do with more structure, starting off with an introduction to your line manager or those you will be working with and report to. Perhaps have more events for the interns to integrate with each other and fellow colleagues. And possibly weekly meetings with HR or the office coordinator to give feedback between them.

For personal development there were a few online resources available and lectures given by others in the field which were rather interesting. There were I believe sessions available for them to learn new skills or programs online however as an intern these were not available to me hence cannot comment about this area that much.

From what I have heard from colleagues they have been with Arup for many years and plan to stay. One had been with Arup for 9 years, and had the opportunity to travel to different countries where the company is based.

This was mentioned earlier where there are a few socials that are organised by individual colleagues of each team that you would be emailed about provided your email is correct. Meetings/events outside of these are dependent on your relationship with your colleagues.

It's central London, they're bound to be rather expensive.

N/A

Only what was arranged by someone in the team.