Site Engineer Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement this year. I learned a considerable amount in such a short period of time.

I have just completed my third placement with LOR and with each placement I felt like a more valued engineer. I would put this down to me being a more competent engineer as a result of being more knowledgeable on the job role. Despite feeling more valued on this placement, I have felt valued on all of my placements.

Support and guidance was always on offer as and when it was needed. For some tasks, I didn’t require any support. However, since I came across many new tasks on this placement, I did require support and guidance which aided me to complete the tasks to the best of my ability.

Some days were busier than others however, the majority of the time my work area was always busy. If, for some reason, my work area wasn’t busy, I would go off to other work areas and try to help out and learn new things.

I was given a lot of responsibility during my placement. At LOR, if you are capable then you will be given responsibility which is something I really like about the company. During my first 2 weeks, the main site engineer went away on holiday and I made responsible for my own section of works.

The main skills I developed during my placement was communication and time management skills. These skills are vitally important when working on a construction site and I have witnessed first-hand the issues encountered when these skills are not implemented. I am now doing my masters in Civil Engineering whereby we need to complete a Group Design Project (GDP). I will be able to apply the skills I learned during my placement to the GDP which will hopefully benefit the project.

I was more site based so I was not in the office much however, the atmosphere was great

The placement was very well organised. Before the placements started, we had an induction day where we met up with all the other placement students in central London. We also had a mid-placement networking event where the placement students were grouped up and had to present a construction related topic.

At the start of the placement, we were given a range of competencies that we needed to get signed off with the aim of developing our wider knowledge about the company. We also had to complete an end of placement review which can be used in the future when working towards chartership.

The future employment prospects are great! I will most likely be offered a place on the Graduate Programme.

The social aspect doesn’t compare to that of other industries however, I knew this was the case. Social events depend on the site you are working on. My site this year was especially good for social events. The social scene between placement students was good as the company organised 2 networking events over the placement period.

I was working in London so fairly expensive to socialise however, I lived at home with parents.