Innovation and Technology Development Engineering Review

Since my first day at caterpillar, I have enjoyed my role as a placement student. In my role ,I was learning new things almost every day and as an engineering student, it introduced me to a variety of things, which made it pretty easy for me to specialise on that what I like the most and yet hitting my expected milestones and deliverables.

In my team, I really felt valued. I was given important tasks to complete just like everyone else. I also attended meetings with customers and my contributions where valued and sometimes actioned. I also appreciated the fact that my hard work and effort was always appreciated by my line manager and colleagues.

When I joined Caterpillar, I was given support from day one. In fact, as we were preparing to move to Peterborough, we were given useful links to different amenities which was pretty helpful. Each time that I had questions, I always had someone to ask, weather in our team or within the company. We also held one on one meetings with my manager periodically, which was a good platform to address any questions or support if I needed any.

My work load was variable and fair. What Interested me the most was the fact that, I could plan on my own the tasks which I wanted to complete on any particular day since most of my tasks had weekly or monthly deadlines and milestones. This made my work pattern to be variable and personally tailored.

During my placement year I was given huge responsibility. At first, I was afraid of making mistakes as I was a new starter. But as time passed and together with team support, I quickly got used. This actually motivated and encouraged me to have great attention to detail when being delegated tasks. And as a result, with huge responsibilities I really felt valuable in the team.

I personally feel that the skills that I gained during my placement year will to a greater extent benefit me. The organisational soft skills I gained such as planning and prioritising task will ease my studies in my final academic year. Also, during this year long placement I developed my software skills as I worked with Microsoft tools, Matlab, python just to mention but a few.

The office atmosphere was always free and relaxed. This was helpful as it gave a good communication atmosphere. The sitting arrangement was also great as I sat near my team members ,hence could ask for support every now and then and also enjoy some laughs here and there. Everyone was always positive minded, and this was a good sign of commitment to excellence.

My work placement was well organised. During my first week, my manager helped me to document my placement plan for the whole year. This included the company goals as well as my personal expected goals. This was followed and reviewed monthly which helped me keep track of the tasks I had covered. We also had performance reviews during the year which helped to identify areas of strength and those which needed improvement.

In terms of training and personal career development, I would like to think that the company was more than good. As placement students, we were required to complete several online modules. We also attended an Engine appreciation course which was hands on training, this improved my knowledge on the principle of operation of diesel engines.

During my placement year I had the opportunity to volunteer in the LEGO League STEM event. This was a wonderful experience working with primary school children in engineering events. I had the opportunity to help introduce what engineering is all about to them and how fun my job role was. We also had company planned BBQ’s which we all enjoyed.