QA Engineer Review

I enjoyed my placement a lot due to the range of tasks covering a wide range of topics relating to the industry giving me a good understanding of the entire business process in a short space of time. I liked having my own projects and look forward to seeing them finished and continue to be used after my placement has finished.

Definitely felt valued from the work and social side. In meetings my opinion was always heard and listened to and was trusted to lead a team as well as my own project. From the social side I was invited to different events from a variety of people that I worked with.

To begin with my mentor was away therefore I had a lot to take in in a short space of time and my supervisor and other colleagues supported me throughout despite them having their own responsibilities. Towards the end of the placement I was trusted to be given a task and not require much support or guidance however it was there should I need it.

Most days I had a number of tasks working with a lot of different departments so this can be busy when need to collect data and pass on results to different people. Due to the way the business works there are very busy times and times where it is not as full on but this is the same for everyone so not specific to a placement student.

I had a lot of responsibility from being the only person from my department attending different meetings then having to feed that back to everyone else, having to manage a team and write instructions to carry out tasks and finally having my own proposal for a task then completing it.

A variety of skills such as the ability to work to a routine is very important as university students tend to have a variable routine. Time management is a big one, working with different departments is similar to studying for different modules and having to find the right balance. Finally reporting and computing skills have much improved.

A work and social balance is key, obviously here to work however is difficult to do that every minute of the day and in a field like engineering it is vital to work together and share opinions so the need to talk and discuss things is essential. From things such as a coffee run with other members of the team is good to break up the day

Very well organized, the placement year was split into 2 6 month placements so this gives a chance to work with different people. I was disappointed to leave my first section as I found my feet and thought I contributed a lot however I moved into a section much more suited to me and my studies.

I have been on a few different training courses that involved both a technical knowledge of equipment and also the safety side. The company tried to get me to meet various people and spend time with different people to learn different things. I would like to have had more soft skill training as these were available.

Very appealing, I will be working to get and apply for the grad scheme as I hope to come back. they offer a similar set up in the grad scheme and being a qualified engineer will allow me to take on more things and responsibility rather than being a placement student.

Very good, to begin with there was a placement student group so people can see who they are working with before they have started and organize living arrangements. Once we had started the department started with a welcoming party and these happened throughout the year as well as summer and Christmas parties.

The north east is very good for cost of living so everyone that moved up here was happy and I am already from the north east so I knew what it was like. The plant is based in Sunderland where a lot of placement students live and Newcastle is not far where those local to the area tend to live so there are enough places to go.

Having friends in both Sunderland and Newcastle and being from Teesside means there was always different options for a night out, Newcastle is known to be very good with a lot of variety so very popular but for even cheaper or slightly quieter Sunderland and Teesside offer different things

Sport is popular at work with people of all ages playing football so there was always a game to be played if I wanted to and I know some other students got into other things like rugby. There was the option to go to different universities or charity events with work.