Industrial Placement Review

I found this to be an enjoyable placement with variety of work and a good team. There were lots of interesting opportunities to go out and see work happening on plant mixed with office based work with real implications. I had the opportunity to go to career events and volunteer on STEM activities which is something which was important to me.

The nature of the department I worked in meant that most of the work needed to be completed by accredited physicists. Although I had graduated before undertaking my placement year I sometimes felt like my skills were not appreciated or utilised as much as they could be as I was considered to be inexperienced. That being said, when I did produce good work I did feel appreciated

I did not feel like the supervisor had been given sufficient advice or support about what to expect from an industrial placement student and therefore was not sure of the level of work I would be capable of. To start with I felt like the work was not suitably challenging and it was up to me to find interesting or challenging opportunities.

There were days when I was busy but other times when I felt I did not have enough to do. A lot of projects I worked on had periods where I relied on information or work from others coming back to me in a timely manner so I could be stuck waiting for this to happen. I enjoyed the placement most in the periods where I was busy.

I was not given a huge amount of personal responsibility during my placement due to the nature of the business and department and the need for personal to be suitably qualified and experienced for tasks. However I did have personal accountability for my work and where possible took on tasks which I had personal ownership of.

The real life work experience will be invaluable to my future career. I hope to have the opportunity to work with a few different departments during my industrial placement meaning I will have a better idea of where I might fit in the future. The opportunity to participate in STEM activities will I think really help my communication skills.

Friendly but quiet atmosphere, with approachable team members.

I think the placement system could be better organised. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of communication between the Early Careers team and the departments hosting placements and as such there is a huge variation in what students can expect from a placement year. I think it would be useful if there was more communication with the individual departments about the level of work they should be setting.

The company did invest in me in the sense that I had the opportunity to participate in future career events and was encouraged to seek out work which would be personally beneficial/helpful to me. I think the degree to which this happens could vary between departments but I felt I was supported in opportunities I found for myself.

I am keen to get involved with the graduate scheme next year and think this industrial placement will set me up well to do this. Everybody who works for the company seems very happy with their career and their treatment by the company and many people stay for their entire career. I feel encouraged by this and hope to have a good career with EDF.

There was a good group of industrial placement/graduates who socialised but this was not actively encouraged by the company. I was introduced through the previous placement but I think it would be improved if the company introduced all of the industrial placements to each other at the beginning. There were also no other female IPs or graduates at my station.

I lived at home during my placement.

There is a good night life in Edinburgh, although this was not important to me.

Some opportunities, but perhaps could be more.