Systems Engineer Review

I enjoyed my work very much, everyone I encountered within the business was amazing, giving their time to explain to me how things work or to take me into the operational environment and see that side of the business as well. One of the highlights of the year was being able to get involved with organising NATS' presence at RIAT 2019. This was run by a small group of placement students and graduates with additional access to extra parts of the event which the public would not be allowed to see.

From day 1 in my two departments my teams all made me feel very welcomed and open to working with me. I managed to build up a good network or different people I had completed work for and from this got asked to take on a role of responsibility on a project. In every meeting my input is taken onboard and in some cases used as the best solution, so there really is no stigma around being an industrial placement student, you are treated as an equal to all your peers.

My managers have been amazing too, constantly giving me feedback and guidance when needed, paired with a great number of internal training courses available to me when and as I want them. Any issue I had I felt very comfortable raising them to my manager and was confident that action would be taken quickly to help with whatever the problem may be.

My first placement I was seeking additional work regularly, however this is not exactly their fault as the project I was meant to be placed on was delayed and in fairness every time I asked for more I was able to get working on a new piece of work fairly quickly. That and it being timeline based it went through peaks and troughs of work so some times were busier than others. My second rotation however was quite the opposite, I moved into a software developer role working with an agile methodology allowing us to be constantly busy. This alongside working on two other projects ensured I was kept busy throughout which was great!

As mentioned before, I was put into a role of responsibility for one of NATS' sites for a very important project affecting a large number of controllers within the company. Following on to my second placement, after getting my footing within the area and with the technologies used, and upon my return from being out at RIAT I was placed as lead developer in one of the teams responsible for prototyping new products. So the level of responsibility you can take on is entirely down to how you want your placement to go, you can always ask for more if you feel like you can handle it.

My first placement allowed me to develop my soft skills within the office environment quite considerably, given that this was my first office based job it was a bit of an unknown as to how it would be. But by putting myself out there and helping on as many things as I could I was able to build up a good network of contacts within the business too, some of which would come to help in my second placement. Second placement tested me more on a technical skills side, as I was programming. This allowed me to develop my knowledge of a number of new to me languages and technologies which will in no doubt help when it comes to my return to university as I study Computer Science .

The office could be fun and have people chatting and very enjoyable, then also be extremely focused as deadlines or due dates approaching, but this always seemed to line up with everyone and everyone was on the same page when it came to this. The people I have had the pleasure of working around have been great, help when I need them to help, and fun when just wanting a chat!

I think it was organised well enough, we were brought in on a familiarisation day before our start date to meet others who were also starting (this also gave some time to meet people also searching for accommodation allowing you to sort out house shares) and to learn about the business and what placement has to offer. Following this I went through a induction period of a few days, meeting my manager, learning about the business area I'd be working in, meeting my assigned 'buddy' (who turned out to be one of the greatest guys ever) and get all of our work accounts set up. which then lead into a training course to learn about the business and the technologies used. Then when it came to the actual two, six month rotations themselves, they were entirely organised by the departments you were placed in, which in my experience was hit and miss just with the first placement having the project delayed. But overall it was quite well organised.

The company provides a large number of internal training courses available to anyone to enrol in and complete. These range from generic office package course to learning about more complex topics specific to the business and its systems. As said these are available for everyone to enrol in and complete as and when they want.

As air traffic is projected to continue growing, NATS is going to continue to grow with it. This means that there is going to be more people being brought into the company and more people being promoted for the skills they have already developed. So I'd say that future prospects are quite good within the company.

I feel like people split off into smaller groups, having two sites in which people were placed at meant that it felt like there was a bit of a detach between the two. However in saying this we all still did come together to socialise. As for with the smaller groups, people seemed to be out doing things quite regularly, but everyone towards the end of placement has started to agree that we didn't go out as a full group enough during our time here.

Coming from Northern Ireland, where living costs are incredibly cheap, down to the south of England I had a bit of a shock in terms of how much rent was, and that you had to pay water bills. But I quickly came to accept that it's just more expensive down here. But as for cost of socialising, I'd say its about the same as most places. Nothing really shocked me about it.

Having the office central between Portsmouth and Southampton gives you two options of city to go to. then from there you have a number of choices in where you want to go for your night out. Along with both cities having a university ensures that there are people in that demographic around as well.

Having a sports and social club within work has been great. There are a number of different clubs which you can get involved with as and when you want. Personally, I joined the badminton club, and had a short time playing with the basketball club as well. Each of these sports are played on the site courts at Swanwick making it not only easy to get to but it also means you don't have to battle with traffic trying to park at a leisure centre after work.