Undergraduate Engineer Review

Quite slow at the start; I didn't have much to do. The tasks I was given were mostly administrative (eg printing). Picked up quite a bit in the second half, with more frequent and more interesting opportunities.

My line manager was eager to keep me busy, and to make my time worthwhile, as were my colleagues.

With regards to the second half of my placement (where I was given more frequent tasks), then guidance was given on what to do, even if that sometimes meant independent research was to be undertaken.

Varied day to day, some days I had absolutely nothing, whereas other days I had enough to keep me busy all day.

Very little at the start. Frustratingly little. Did pick up near the end of the 10 weeks, but only for some of the tasks even still.

This is a little bit complex, but for the sake of honesty and completeness, I'll explain my circumstances first before actually answering the question. As a first-year Civil Engineering student, I wasn't sure about whether I wanted to go into Contracting or Consultancy, let alone where exactly in either of those disciplines. Being in the position I was, with the team that I was with (PreConstruction), I learnt about the roles of pretty much every entity in the Civil Engineering chain: client to consult to project director to bricklayer. In that sense, it was great in giving me a idea of where I wanted to be in that chain. That, to me, was the single most important thing I learnt. There were a few other things, such as building on my ability to use a Theodolite or Total Station, understanding the tender and bidding processes and just getting a general feel for engineering workplaces. Here's the catch. A civil engineering degree is very technical; lots of maths and stuff. But the most complex maths I did was multiplication. I didn't touch AutoCAD, or any other software besides the ones in Microsoft Office for that matter. Maybe it's because I'm more suited to consultancy, where those things are more likely open to students. Who knows? Compared to my other answers, this one is very long, but I felt that I needed to explain it all to give a fair judgement. And if there's any bias, you can assess that now that you have the whole account. TL;DR Degree-wise pretty much nothing, career-wise gave me an idea of where I want to be: not contracting.

Generally pretty quiet, a lot of hot-desking and site visiting.

Of the 18 students who were of the same intake as me, two were placed off site, me and one other. Having spoken to the site based students, I noticed that they had relatively structured internships. However, this is about MY experiences, and those weren't the same. I always felt left in the dark about what was to come. It wasn't a case of 'do this in week 1 and then this in weeks 2 to 3', it was more a case of 'let's see what we're doing a given day and assign some part of that as work for that day'. Administratively, it was well thought out. The application process, communications, settling in etc. were all great.

I requested that site-visits be organised during my time with the company. This was granted at the cost of the company with the bill running in to the hundreds. This, on top my already generous pay was appreciated.

This is a purely subjective remark, based on the fact that I am not currently planning to go into contracting (perhaps in part due to the internship).

There was an apprentice I met on one of my site visits. He was a couple of years older than me but he oversaw my visit and made it fun and beneficial. Relatable guy, what can I say? Weren't many others...

Lived at home. Travelled to work by car, fuel costs only in essence.

Don't ask, I'm not the type to go partying and I don't give a damn.

Some charity stuff I guess. Not much else I can recall.