Fire Engineering Vacation Student Review

My placement was a great balance of interesting projects and technical learning. The entire team made sure I was aware that they were happy to answer any and all questions (and never made me feel like they were stupid questions) and made me feel like a useful and fully fledged member of the team from the very first day.

My colleagues trusted my skills enough to give me my own projects rather than simply supporting other people’s work, whilst still checking in regularly to make sure I felt comfortable with the work I was allocated. I was included in team socials and treated as just another member of the team; rather than an intern.

My team members gave me several projects which I, at the time, felt would be above my skillset. However, I was assured that I was only given these projects because they felt I could complete them (they were right) and they ensured that I was given the support I needed when asked in order to help me through these.

As it was summer, the project workload was slightly lesser than during the rest of the year. However, that was great for a summer placement as it allowed time to study codes or look through previous projects to learn from. Furthermore, it meant I had more time to talk to the rest of the team and learn about their specialties and favourite projects.

I was given a huge amount of responsibility compared to my previous internship with the same team. I believe this was because they were more comfortable trusting me as they now knew where my skillset was. I was trusted to go to meetings with clients and produce and issue documents under my own name.

Given that my placement was specifically in fire engineering, I have acquired specialised skills which the rest of my degree cohort have not had the chance to develop. This has given me an advantage when it comes to holistic design modules, as well as allowing me to be better prepared for a fire engineering module taken in the later years of my degree.

The office was open and welcoming from the first day I arrived (and even in the interview stage beforehand). The kitchen was always fully stocked with all the teas in the world and there were plenty of breakout areas if you needed a change of scene from your desk or a more casual place for informal meetings.

I always had plenty of work to do (whilst still not feeling stressed and overworked) and was made to feel like I always had someone to turn to if I needed help with anything or even if I was just curious about a project. However, other interns in other teams did feel they didn't have enough work or weren't supported enough in the work they were given.

Aside from paying for travel to and from other offices and site visits, the company made significant time investments - particularly within my immediate team. Each of them took time out of their work days to talk to me about their favourite projects and their specialties, and were always happy to talk me through any difficulties I was having on assigned projects.

After my first placement at Arup I was offered another placement for the following summer (and was offered to even be moved to a different discipline within the company if I wanted to explore these). On my second placement (as this was going into my final year) I was offered a graduate job with them upon graduating, and given the chance to even pick which UK office I would prefer to work from. Speaking to other graduates, many of these also did summer placements beforehand, so this is quite common.

There wasn't much effort made on behalf of the company to allow placement students to meet. Whilst I did meet a few of those interning at the same time as me, this was purely due to chance rather than an active decision made by the company. However, there was significant effort made by the company to allow socialising between colleagues within the discipline, with several socials planned during the six weeks I was there, both discipline specific and office-wide.

Accommodation within Manchester can be somewhat expensive, as the shorter nature of the internships often require interns to stay in short-term lets in student accommodation. However, the price of other living costs such as food/social scenes is notably lower than further south. Further, a considerable amount of social activities were funded by Arup, making socialising a much easier experience for placement students.

Manchester has a good mix of student bars/clubs and more higher-end establishments. This gives a wide range of options when making night plans, and allows for them to be adapted for the situation (for example, you wouldn't want to go to a student bar with your boss!). The social committee also organise monthly payday drinks which do a great job of introducing you to some local bars.

There was at least one social organised per week for the duration of my placement (although I was assured this is specific to the summer). These ranged from more professional activities such as consultant team catch-ups and discipline-wide treasure hunts to boat parties. There were also sporting activities organised, such as the Arup Football World Cup and Golf Tournament, and weekly football and netball matches that anyone could get involved in.