Customer Engineering Placement Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement year so far. It has provided me with a great in sight into what the industry is like. It has also provided me with multiple opportunities to develop my abilities and learn loads of new things that you don't get taught or told about at University.

I feel highly valued by all of my colleagues and others within the business. You get treat with the same respect as if you are a full time employee. They give you meaningful tasks that help them out but it also helps you get a better understanding of the business and the work that they do. They have also supported me with everything that I have wanted to do even in a different department.

I have received loads of support throughout my placement. Either from my manager or one of my mentors. I have had two supervisors, as one of them has moved to a different department, which both have supported me with anything that I wanted to do for example: they supported me with doing an engine tear down by finding out who I needed to contact and how to go about arranging it.

Throughout the placement I have been quite balanced. There have been times where I have had a lot to do however with the support from my supervisor and team I was able to balance it out. I have never not had anything to do throughout my placement and if I had some space for more work I could just ask anyone in the team and they would provide me with something.

I was given quite a bit of responsibility as I was the main contact for the customer on a project that I was apart of. I was also given the responsibility of providing my team with the IQA's that needed to be reviewed whilst also ensuring that I they all stayed on a strict 12 day target for completing the review.

The skills that I have developed during my placement will help me better manage my time for assignment deadlines and revision. They will also help me to not just resort to one source of communication when I need help as before I would just wait for an email. Whereas now I will go and see the person I have a question for.

The general atmosphere in the office varied from time. In the role I was in everyone traveled a lot so there where times where there was maybe 1 or 2 people in your department at a time so it was quiet. However, when everyone is in you would talk to each other and ask questions about something you weren't sure about.

It has been very well organised. There has always been work available for me and there have been a lot of opportunities for me to be out of office visiting the customer vehicles and conducting tests on them. There where also opportunities to go out and help the local community either by doing an activity for schools or activities to help the environment.

The company invested a lot of training into me. At the start I had a lot of online courses for my role the 2 weeks worth of class room training for my role. They also took me to health and safety training, driver training so that you could driver company hire cars for when you travel and a full course to develop yourself and better understand yourself.

I am very interested in getting a career with Cummins. They are invested in their staff and the job is always very interesting as you aren't just doing the same thing day to day. They have a good work / life balance. I would be very interested in getting a job with the department I am in now as I find it interesting and that I make a difference.

The social seen was good but it seemed as though everyone seemed to split off in a group and if you aren't staying in Darlington with the students then it felt as though you where a last minute thought. There where a couple of social events planned for the students to get to know each other better. There was also the students Christmas meal.

As I was already sort of local to Darlington I drove in everyday. Which didn't cost to much but some of the students have said that with the wage the cost of living is cheaper then what they where paying then they where at University. There are a lot of supermarkets close buy like Lidl and morrisons so you don't pay a lot for food.

I only went out a couple times due to not living in Darlington. But there are a lot of night clubs in the town and a lot of pubs so there is plenty of night life. There is also a cinema in the center that is cheap as it is a vue cinema and lots of other activities around with in a couple of miles from Darlington that are fun.

There have been loads of activities outside of work with my department. That have all been really fun are have been great for bonding with the team and getting to know them outside of work. I would highly recommend them as they hold one nearly every 2 months whether someone is leaving, joining or they just want to have a team activity.