Student Engineer Review

A highly enjoyable experience - looked forward to going to work every day. Felt valued by the team on site from day one . Given opportunities to do extra curricular events throughout my placement further connecting me to the team.

The Costain team on site where super helpful and would regularly give up their time to help answer any questions I had. They also gave me opportunity to put forward my opinions/ ideas and also implement them on site.

The management team on site where very approachable and open to questions. It didn't feel like they where too busy to help at any time. Supervisors regularly checked how I was doing, organised socials and made sure I was enjoying my time on site.

As I was on site most days, it was generally very busy every day of the week, though I was never forced to do more than I wanted and the workload on site was very flexible. I also chose to do extra little tasks too keep myself busy.

The placement started with me having very little to no responsibility but as the placement progressed I gradually gained more responsibility. Eventually I acted as the site engineer on my last week. Though if I ever felt a tad out of my depth the team where always very understanding and always offered to help.

With all the extra tasks that I did it will defiantly help my future skills in planning, time management, people management. Also the on site engineer greatly helped my understanding of geotechnical engineering and temporary works. working on ITP's and check sheets also further increased my understanding of the processes on site and the importance of safety on site.

The office was generally busy and active throughout the day, yet it stayed fun and comfortable and never felt to serious when there was an issue on site or when tensions where high. People regularly brought in snacks to share and the office had free fruit for staff. there was also a photo competition which created a bit of a buzz.

In the beginning there was some delays due to projects changing there timeline etc, but once I had settled on a project it was a very smooth transition to site. My line manager responded very quickly to my emails about the site location PPE, and upon arriving I was given a laptop etc.

Costain supported me with my dissertation at uni by putting me in contact with members of industry. Throughout my placement I was also given the opportunity to join various sessions on temp works, drainage and company strategy. I was also shown how to use various pieces of equipment by surveyors and given a lab session with a material engineer.

The future employment prospects are very appealing with Costain offering lots of support to become a charted engineer and with the ability to change what sector you are working in it really is an appealing company. I have also joined the grad scheme within Costain which will give me the opportunity to experience various roles within the

On my particular scheme there was only one other student who I quickly become friends with as we both had the same level of experience and therefore asked a lot of the same questions. On site there was also graduate students that had only recently finished uni and therefore where easy to talk to and ask question about the grad scheme. This made for good fun in the office and at events.

The area around site was relatively in expensive and as it was situated between two cities there was lots of things to do around the work area and places to go for lunch/dinner etc. I actually stayed away from site 30/40 min drive and thus didn't spent too much time in the site area but I never felt like anything was expensive.

The site team went on various nights out and was really welcoming to new people, it was inexpensive and offered a good time for conversations to site engineers. It helped to get to know the rest of the team also and develop team relationships. There was never any trouble finding lifts or being pressured into doing things.

There was loads of extra activities such as golf, squash, football and go-karting that the team organised throughout the week. There was also regular social events and night outs throughout my placement. There was even trips to cricket and other one of events that people had organised. All these activities provided much entertainment throughout the summer.