Software Engineer Review

I have had a great time during my placement at Siemens, it has provided me a lot of different opportunities and I have learned a lot more than I originally thought I would. The placement year has improved my skills greatly and I would recommend it to anyone. I was always kept busy and everything I worked on was interesting.

It was really easy to mix in with everyone working here, everyone is easy to talk to and there are a lot of events during the year to expand communication within the workplace. I instantly made good friends and feel like I can go to anyone for support as well as providing support for others.

I was given amazing support by my supervisors and management, three training courses were set up for me as part of the placement programme which had me travelling to different parts of the UK and introduced me to other placement students working at Siemens. There were a lot of interesting tasks ready for me and there was always support for coming up with new ideas and tasks to work on.

I have been kept busy but no too busy, I would say it was a perfect balance between the two. I always had something to be working on and could see how my progress has impacted different areas within the workplace. Monthly reviews were a good way of getting feedback for the work I have done and to talk about future work.

As my placement was for R&D I ended up working on a lot of different projects, some which are to be released to customers and needed to have everything thoroughly tested on top of peer reviewed. I felt like nearly all of the work I did ended up with me having responsibility over the projects / sub projects.

I feel a lot more comfortable going into my third year of university now, looking at my programming skills before and after placement shows a very good improvement. I have learned a lot of different skills which I would not have learned at university and I think that it has taken a lot of stress off me going into my final year at university.

The office is lively when it needs to be, we are all close enough to be able to talk to each other when need be but also far away enough that you have your own area of work. It was never dull in the office and there is always a friendly feeling whenever I am at work.

Everything was set up and ready for me as soon as I arrived, I was introduced to everyone at the office and everything was organised perfectly. Had a lot of training sessions and online sessions which wouldn't take long and were really informative as well as being helpful. Everything was explained to me and I knew what I was doing, who to talk to and where everything is from the get go.

On top of the placement programme giving me a lot of training opportunities, it also provided me with ways of developing my network by having all the placement students meet and be introduced to what everyone does at other Siemens offices. There were a lot of online training courses and several training courses throughout the year that everyone from within my area of work would go to.

I would love to work here again after I have finished university as Siemens have a wide variety of jobs available within a lot of different areas. Siemens will be in touch near the end of my final year to let me know if there is a job open for me.

All other placement students were very friendly and I was always welcome to go to social events with them when we crossed paths. I have gone to a lot of different social events with colleagues and have met people who have a lot in common with me which has made working a lot more entertaining for me.

I live in the center of Newcastle and travel to work, this can get quite expensive but the placement payment as well as maintenance loan has helped contribute to this greatly.

The nightlife in Newcastle is amazing, so many things to do that it is perfect for a huge variety of people.

There were constant emails regarding activities outside of work that I could have participated in on top of any activities that were already planned for me. There were some activities out of work that I would travel to with colleagues and represent Siemens at, these were generally there to build up networking and try find people who had common interests in the line of work.