Emergent Work Coordinator Review

I thoroughly Enjoyed my placement at EDF Energy, with each day posing a different challenge. Words cannot describe how much my skills, knowledge and personal attitude have changed over the past 12 months. I look forward to completing my degree, earning a high grade in the process and hopefully attaining a placement on the graduate programme.

I felt like an important part of the team within my department. This is because my core duties were integral to the day to day running of the department, often being trusted and relied upon to communicate and direct professionals from other departments / contract companies in their duties. At times i was also tasked with being part of a team, often having to give my professional opinion on a component / scenario.

From day one i knew what to expect from my department. this is because my manager informed me that he would match the effort and enthusiasm that i put into my placement. This meant that the more effort i put in, and the more duties that i undertook, the more effort he would put into me, including allowing me to undertake secondments in other departments.

Due to the nature of the work that my department undertook, the gulf in workload was immense, dependant upon the running status of the station. There were moments where my workload dwindled slightly and i was relied upon to find work for myself, however as mentioned in the previous answer, providing i made the effort to ask, tasks were always there for me to undertake.

Again, as mentioned previously, i played an integral part to the day to day running of my department, and often at times the station as a whole. This meant that a significant amount of responsibility was often cast upon me at times, however this wouldnt have been the case had my manager not been confident that i could handle the workload / responsibility.

In terms of new knowledge to help me with my academic studies, i havent particularly learnt much at all. Undertaking placements doesnt necessarily teach you much, it just develops the skills and knowledge that students already have in a way that university never would. The main skill that i developed was my confidence in professional communication.

Everybody within my office had positive mental attitudes. This therefore made for a nice environment to work in on a daily basis. The number of people working in my office also flutuated dependant upon the state of the plant meaning that there were always new faces passing though. This also aided me in my network of professional contacts.

With EDF being a large corporate company, there are strict regemented procedures for everything on site, including recruitment and the Industrial Placement Programmes. This means that for the administrative side of my placement, everything remained organised and structured at all times, meaning that you always knew when this such as timesheets and payslips were due.

I am fortunate to have worked on a site which had its own in-house training department, something which i took full advantage of. I untilised my contacts within this department to set up a training scheme for my fellow placement students and I. Part of which meant that every other friday, we would spend the mnorning in the training department with an experienced former Operations Manager who spoke to us in depth about the key areas of plant.

Part of my reasoning for applying for and undertaking a placement with EDF was my attraction to the Graduate Programme which they offer. All Industrial placement students are guaranteed an interview for this scheme, and those who are successful get to bypass the assessment centre which would usually be a par tof the application process.

My fellow industrial placement studnets and I had a regular weekly meeting in the canteen which first ran as a support group to help eachother with any problems, but quickly developed into a social gathering where we would often discuss our home lives. We also held a couple of out of work events where we all went of for a meal.

The cost of living in the area surrounding my place of work was relatively low, especially giving that it is the area that i had been brought up in meaning that i knew where all of the local ammentites were as well as knowing the best areas to reside in.

Given that it was near to the town that was brought up in, i knew what to expect with the nightlife in the town of Hartlepool. The only advice that i could possibly give to somebody looking to spend the evening out in hartlepool is proceed with caution/ go to Middlesbrough instead.

Again as mentioned before, with this being local to my home, i was already familiar with the local area and opportunites, so in terms of my life outside of work, nothing really changed from before i started my placement, apart from the odd gathering with my fellow Industrial placements, and the odd game of five a side football with my departmental work colleagues.