Civil Engineering Placement Review

I worked on a variety of real life projects with different areas of specialisms and felt like the placement gave me an insight into the work real engineers and a taste of the different roles and specialisms within a functioning office and team. The projects I worked on were interesting.

My placement was over summer hence a busy time in all offices, especially engineering ones, since I was working with a variety of team members on a range of projects I personally found it difficult to build strong relationships with my colleagues working within the team as I wasn't with the same person for a large duration of time.

As mentioned above the office was extremely busy at times due to holidays etc hence I sometimes found it hard to get support on certain aspects. For the most, however, the supervisors and colleagues were very helpful and explained concepts really well when I asked for clarification and extra guidance.

The vacation placement varied in busy-ness per day, but I believe this is similar to real engineers roles and the fluctuation I experienced is a good indication for the future. I always had jobs to do and was proactive enough to ask for more jobs and follow up work for the projects I was working on.

I was working within a large team which was relatively busy, the work I did therefore felt important - especially when there was time pressure and a rush to complete the tasks. I was given responsibility for design work, obviously I had to write assumptions but I felt this was similar to real engineers calculations.

I used a range of softwares, some which are specific engineering one and this training will definitely help with future work and hopefully help with university studies such as in coursework. I also used general softwares such as excel and used this experience to improve my skills for both my future studies and hopefully career.

The office had multiple communal kitchens and was a chatty office, for example everyone offered to make tea etc for each other and there were opputunities to get involved in socials such as weekly football meetings and the upcoming pizza social. Whilst I was there there was a coffee charity morning where i met other interns and socialised with my team

The company is very professional with an induction morning with HR and training in certain areas, for example somublsory site visit briefing for health and safety. Working in a big company meant the internship was set up well - both through the interview stage and the initial induction and IT help.

I had opportunities to join meetings, increase my skillset by joining training meetings for specific scenarios and training Skype calls new techniques and products. I also was allowed time to improve my skillet in softwares and use training videos to develop my understanding. I feel the company cared about what I got out of the experience.

I enjoyed working with the team and also on the projects I was involved in. I am definitely considering applying for future roles with them and looking at their grad schemes for after I graduate as there are many benefits to the scheme - talking to a few of my team members, it is how they first entered the company.

Unfortunately the office was rater large and different deaprtments worked in different parts of the office, hence I only saw the other placement students on the first induction day and at a social coffee morning. I would have liked there to be more interaction so that we could learn from each other.

Arup has a range of offices across the country, I personally found living and working in the city centre considerably cheaper than I was expecting and would highly reccomend it.

The newcastle office is based in the centre of Newcastle city, hence the area is renowned for its nightlife - I would reccomend.

There were upcoming social events, however these did not fall in the 6 weeks I was at the company. The company did however have a board with updates and invites on, for example to group sporting activities. Since I did not know that many of my team members that well I did not attend activities outside of work.