Student Process Engineer Review

The placement allowed me to apply a wide variety of skills learned at university. I was able to use those skills to solve every day problems while learning new things at the same time. The placement entails a perfect mixture of office based work e.g. documentation, and MOC's and actually going out on plant and problem solving.

All of my colleagues are supportive and always willing to help as well as answer any questions I may have. I always felt like my hard work was reckognised and I was told that I was doing a good job, and if I made any mistakes I was given constructive criticism on which I could build my experience and learn from my mistakes.

My supervisor had set up regular monthly meetings to catch up on my progress and made it clear that I can contact him at any time with any questions or quieries. My supervisor had always done his best to ensure I get enough work to keep me occupied and he ensured that the work was relevant to my studies at university.

The work load varied vastly throughout the placement year, the first few weeks were slow as I was getting to know people and my colleagues were looking for something appropriate to get me involved in. Some days the workload was very high which meant that I would need to put some extra hours in to meet deadlines. This made the whole placement experience feel like a real full time job as I had the same responsibilities as permanent members of staff. I enjoyed times when I was most busy as I learned the most.

Initially I had only shadowed different engineers in projects to get familiar with the whole process of project implementation. I was then allowed to have some input into larger projects, together with process engineers and was given some tasks which would then be checked to ensure they were done correctly. Once I settled in, I was assigned as the project manager for a few small projects and was given full responsibility to ensure it is completed as efficiently as possible, I had great support from the engineering team if I ever needed it, but I was allowed to work at my own pace to learn from my own mistakes at the same time.

After the placement I had realised how important it actually is to get some experience prior to getting a graduate job. At univeristy everything we had learned was based on theory and once these skills are applied in the real world the outcome can be very different. The placement taught me different ways of applying these skills and linking them with real life situations by using them to solve real problems.

My office atmosphere was always very relaxed, as I was based in operational support I was sharing the office with operational experts for our particular area, who answered any questions I had very thoroughly and with detailed explanations. If there were any questions they couldn't answer, they would always point me to the person who could help. I always felt supported and relaxed.

The internship was well organised as the company had done this many times before, and they knew what to expect. As soon as I arrived I had all of my inductions within the first week and I had my desk and computer ready to go. The company has a full Intern and Apprentice programme and I could tell that it was very well organised and it was taken very seriously.

I was immediately allowed access to all of the company software and data which I had learned a lot from. I was offered opportunities for potential training courses and was allowed to attend which ever one I chose. I had full expolsimeter training which will come in handy when I go on to work in industry once I graduate.

With it being such a large company, there is always plenty of work to do. The main thing for me to enjoy a job is to make sure I have enough to do to keep busy and get enough of a challenge to apply the skills I learned at university. I believe that a full time position with the company would tick those boxes.

The whole atmosphere is very relaxed and friendly, I was able to take part in various meetings, ranging from intern and apprentice lunches to meeting with members of the site leadership team. All of the staff were happy to support me and were extremely friendly, regardless of their position in the company.

I worked near my home so I didn't have to make separate arrangements for accomodation and travel from Leeds into Bradford was extremely easy. Bradford has great links to Manchester, Leeds, Huddersfield and many other towns and cities where night life is great and there is always something to do, places to eat and many shopping centres and outlets. The costs were reasonable and very cheap compared to London.

As mentioned above, Bradford has great links into many cities in the UK either by train, motorway or bus. There are many univeristy students, so during term time there are always many discounts at bars and clubs which means they are always busy and alive. During holidays, many students stay and do not travel back home which means that there are still plenty of people around and there is always something to do.

We always had the opportunity to get discounted trips and tickets to events through the company. These included numerous trips to the zoo, differnent shows at the theatre and concerts as well as many other activities. Staff were also allowed to purhcase tickets for friends and family to come along, these were also discounted.