Undergraduate Engineer Review

I highly enjoyed my placement. There was a good variety of work for me to get involved in, in terms of both the disciplines and software mediums involved, and also the level of challenge and responsibility of the work. The variety of projects at all different stages that I was able to see and get involved in was very interesting.

Everyone was both friendly and supportive. But still treated me like an equal and a colleague, and not just a visitor.

My supervisor was able to give me a lot of guidance, and when he was away, other members of management ensured I was still being given work, and that I had someone I could refer to if I needed.

This varied from day to day depending on the schedule demands. The initial few weeks had quite a lot of reading up, but progressively I was given more work as the placement went on. For the latter half of the placement, I consistently had the appropriate quantity of work to complete.

Initially, I was predominantly reading through contextual information about the project and elements of the construction process, along with shadowing my reporting manager. As the weeks progressed I was trusted with more and more responsibility, and given steadily more work to complete that was relevant to the project, meaning I began to progressively have more responsibility.

This is currently not discernible as I have only just finished the placement and do not return to my university studies for a few weeks. However, I believe with the skills I have developed, along with my increased knowledge of the construction industry, I will be in a much better position when studying concepts at university, as I now have an appreciation of their professional application.

The atmosphere was serious and professional, as opposed to being laid back and relaxed. However everyone was still friendly, and people would make the occasional joke.

The placement was well organised, as in the initial weeks, a training plan was set out for me. This detailed the various tasks and associated learning outcomes for me to complete over the course of my placement. This was then reviewed towards the end of my placement to ensure that of my learning outcomes had been covered.

The company funded my taking of the CITB Health Safety and Environment test for operatives, in order for me to obtain my CSCS card to allow me onto construction sites.

Future employment prospects are extremely appealing, as Sisk have a 3 year graduate scheme that they have recommended me for. This means I have secured a position for when I graduate.

There was a large (20 year) age gap between me and everyone in the office, so there wasn't much of a social scene.

Reasonable.

N/A

No.