Vacation student Review

My time at Arup was full of meaningful work. I really could feel part of the team and was given responsibilities that were relevant to my experience. The corporate culture at Arup is very good, I felt that my supervisors and other colleagues were listening to everyone regardless the position in the hierarchy.

Despite my little experience in the industry I felt that my colleagues were treating me very fair. They were very supportive, helping me understand the tasks that I was given and listening to my ideas as well. The people I worked with at Arup are very friendly and open-minded people, who value input of people at every level of the career.

I had the chance to work with several people in the team and each of them has given me enough guidance and feedback regarding the tasks that I was responsible for. When my colleagues were less busy they explained their projects to me in more detail and helped me understand the context.

During my 5 weeks at Arup I was busy every day. I was given one task to finish and then moved on to a next one, sometimes working with a different colleague. This gave me a chance to work on different projects, with different people and in different context , which I truly value.

I was not given much responsibility directly, however, I strongly feel that my work has been useful and that my colleagues truly appreciated my help. The work I did was used in presentations for clients, which made me feel that my work has been of good quality and important to the project.

During the 5 weeks I have learnt a great deal of professional skills and saw what working in a big company is like. I developed new software skills, which I will need to develop further and which are very useful in the professional and academic environment in urban design and planning.

The atmosphere in the office was positive and people from different departments were very friendly. Despite the intense workload the atmosphere was quite good and people were helpful and managed their time efficiently. You could see that the atmosphere was getting more tense before a deadline but it was coming back to normal quickly.

My internship was quite well organised and I did not have to deal with much paperwork and could focus on my tasks. My contract was emailed to me and the HR team contacted me directly to confirm my details. My supervisors and colleagues were very supportive with the formalities like timesheets and HR paperwork.

The company does invest in every team member. As I was there only for a couple of weeks I could not take advantage of all the possibilities that are available for permanent employees. Arup organises lunchtime lectures, days of skills development and runs Arup university online, all of which aim at personal and professional development.

In order to get a permanent job at Arup I would have to gain more experience and qualifications. Employees usually have many years of professional experience prior to Arup and I would probably try and do the same. However, having experienced working in this company it would be a pleasure to be a pleasure to get employed full-time.

The social scene among colleagues was quite good. People from different departments were hanging out together for lunch and after work in the pub on Fridays. Thanks to these social activities you could meet people from completely different departments of the company and to network on a more casual basis.

I worked in Arup in London and the office is in Fitzrovia, which is actually a good place for lunch with plenty of restaurants, cafes and shops which offer good lunch deals. There are food markets in the area and the work canteen offers diverse choice of food at discounted prices.

As I was in the company only for a few weeks I did not have a chance to get involved in many activities outside of work, however receiving the company's internal newsletter I saw that there are plenty of opportunities to do so, both professionally e.g. lectures and socially e.g. sports.