WSA&E Summer Placement Review

The first few week of the placement were slow - there was not enough to do and for at least the first 4 week I did not feel like I contributed anything to the team. There was a steep learning curve and I spent the majority of my time just reading at first. However once the role gained momentum I enjoyed the technical aspects and loved being able to contribute real work to the project.

My colleagues were extremely welcoming and made me feel comfortable from day one. They kept the work environment comfortable yet professional and once I had a real role within the project, meetings and consultancies within the team were thoroughly enjoyable as I seemed to be valued as a member of the team. All colleagues I spoke to were happy to help and answer any questions I had.

My line manager held a meeting at the start of the placement to see what I wanted out of it and what work I could be involved in. Although he was very busy and often not there to delegate work to me when things were slow, he did give me feedback whenever I asked and was motivational in his managerial approach.

This varied on a day to day basis. Most days in the first half of the placement were not busy and I found myself being bored especially towards the end of afternoons. Some days involved a large (but manageable) amount of work. I much preferred having a lot to do than too little.

I was happy with the amount of responsibility given to me once I had been working on the project for a couple of months. I did, however, feel under used for the majority of the time working as I wasn't given many important tasks to do until the last few weeks.

Working in a corporate systems engineering environment provided me with valuable skills. I gained a lot of technical knowledge and most importantly became familiar with how professional teams work on large complex systems from design, through engineering and delivery of the system. I feel that my approach to practical problem solving has improved by observing how my colleagues work and I'm now much more familiar with a professional approach to tackling issues.

Even when the work was boring or stressful the mood and atmosphere in the office was never dull or hostile. Everyone remained professional, composed and relaxed no matter what was thrown at them. I felt comfortable to ask for help when I was struggling with work. The atmosphere really helped to keep everyone's spirits up even when things went wrong.

I did not feel like there was much of a plan or structure to my placement. Many of my team didn't know what work I would be doing and I didn't either until weeks into the placement. When I was allocated work and put onto projects I did feel that I could contribute but I never felt that I was given a solid individual role in the team. Some introductory structure would have gone a long way. Also some aspects such as file access and security that was supposed to be completed before I arrived on site was not completed and I had to spend a lot of time chasing these thongs up.

I was not offered any specific training during my placement. However, all questions I asked were answered and many people took time to explain concepts to me that I did not understand. Most of the learning I did was down to exposure to meetings and through use of the skills/software required to complete my work. I did attend an optional technical training meeting and a large managerial meeting, both of which were useful for developing the understanding of and reason for the work I was doing at the time.

Although I did not enjoy the placement as much as I hoped, I do realise that it was maybe that the specific role wasn't for me and that the graduate roles will have much more structure and will offer the opportunity to move around in roles and projects to explore what is right for me. The work environment and people are fantastic and this makes future employment at the company a very appealing prospect.

The 'buddy' system introduced me to a graduate student who became a good friend throughout my time at the placement. Through this I met many other graduate students and I had a few invitations to social event on weekends and evenings. However it was not until more than halfway though my placement that any effort was made to connect the network of summer placement students, so I never really got to spend time with them. It would have been much better if this was done in the first week.

The area in and around Bristol was fantastic, with everything on offer that I wanted. However the renting price for housing was far more expensive than I imagined it would be. I ended up paying twice as much monthly as I do at university for less than half the space.

Although expensive, the nightlife in Bristol is brilliant and very friendly/student-y. I felt safe walking around the city and local areas at night. Although I was not out a lot - what I did see was impressive.

The company offers numerous frequent charity activities (e.g. 5-a-side, walking challenges etc). Although I was not at the company long enough to do any of these, I'm confidant that if I took a graduate role here I would get involved in many of these activities. There were also occasional emails from colleagues inviting teams for drinks in the evenings.