Vacation Student in Advanced Digital Engineering Review

The projects that I was a part of were extremely varied and interesting, the team was very welcoming and there were other interns sharing a similar experience

In my main projects I was given a considerable amount of responsibility and free rein, meaning I felt valued. The team were very friendly and made me feel like a real part of the team and company. For some other tasks which were admin based, I felt slightly less valued as I wanted to learn more of the engineering content of the project.

I knew I could approach my supervisor any time if I needed to talk about workload and he regularly got in touch to check that I had enough projects to be working on. As this was the second time I had interned at Arup, I sought to try to find projects to work on by myself as much as possible, though I perhaps could have had a little more support to try to gain projects in certain areas that I had interest in.

I had plenty to do each day and enjoyed having full days. Sometimes I would stay and work overtime when there was a project deadline, but this was my choice and it was very rewarding to be working to deadlines rather than have tasks which were less pressured.

In one project I was given a high level of responsibility and free rein on design, but still had my manager to ask for advice and other colleagues for suggestions. In another project I was in a small team and felt I was given considerable responsibility but also had the other members of the team to ask questions to when required.

A lot of the skills that I developed such as writing reports and design and the subsequent structural and mechanical calculations will be very helpful in future design projects at university as well as beyond university. Some other skills and experiences such as communication, going on site visits and meeting clients will be particularly useful for beyond my studies.

There was a fun and busy atmosphere in the office. Everyone was busy but also up for discussions and willing to meet up to discuss their work. Fruit and cakes were given throughout the week, providing breaks and times to catch up with colleagues.

It was mostly set up very well, as long as the intern knows to take on the responsibility of finding their own work during the internship. Induction courses are taken in the first day so that you work in line with Arup's ethics and are aware of safety issues. There could be some more training (either in real life or online) on some of the software (e.g. Primer, GSA) and some tasks that introduce the intern to the work of the different types of engineers, such as mechanical and structural, as there often isn't that much current work available in those teams.

I felt that the firm respected me and left me to create my own path. I really enjoyed doing this and was part of some very interesting projects, but I do feel that I could have had more personal development if I had been assigned to a mechanical/structural engineer from the start and had been allowed time to shadow them a bit more and not have to assign all my time to job numbers, as this implies that our purpose is to get jobs done rather than have personal development (I understand this is how consultancies operate, but perhaps a different system should be adopted for the interns?). Perhaps some more organised group teaching for the interns (perhaps company wide) would be useful. That being said, so many colleagues were very willing to teach me software and give advice about my future career, so I feel that the individuals of Arup did invest in me a lot.

The work is extremely varied and interesting, working with clients from varying demographics and working with charities too. This all makes it very appealing to me, as I can see how I would directly apply what I have learnt on my degree to lots of different projects.

There were 7 other placement students in ADE which was great for socialising and quickly feeling settled in the role. We were able to ask each other questions about work without bothering other employees and they were all willing to socialise at lunch and after work.

It wasn't cheap, but given it is in central London it was understandable and there were lots of affordable places for socialising.

There are lots of pubs which we went to after work and Arup also holds some catered evening events which were invited to.

Arup held lots of lunchtime talks and debates which were great to feel part of the whole company rather than only your team. They showed me the breadth of projects Arup was involved in and also stressed the strong ethical responsibility that Arup operates with. Talks from partnered charities were particularly eye-opening. There is something for everyone running in the office... there was a Christian fellowship group which I got involved with but also sports teams and charity groups.