Undergraduate Engineer Review

I enjoyed my placement a lot, it was a huge eye-opener to the construction industry and I learned a lot.

Felt quite valued, they were very supportive and always there if I had any questions or needed any advice. I felt trusted with the tasks I was given.

Quite a lot of support in the beginning as I was starting out. I was given more independence in the end as I became more experienced.

Moderately busy, some days were somewhat quiet but most days I had many things to do. Mostly at the beginning there was a bit less to do because I wasn't given any independent projects until the 3rd week.

I got a fair amount of responsibility towards the end, being able to carry out site inspections without supervision from the site manager/line manager. As it was quite a short placement (8 weeks) it was somewhat minimal as I would have needed more time on site to be given further responsibility, but given the length of my placement it was good.

I learned a lot about the construction industry and a lot of technical things about construction, which perhaps won't assist me a lot in my degree which is quite design-focused, but will be very helpful if I choose to pursue a career in construction.

As a site office it was quite a relaxed atmosphere, everyone was very approachable and friendly and honest. I didn't really feel uncomfortable, it was quite casual.

Very well organised. I was kept well informed in advance about all the dates and arrangements, and was able to meet my line manager and visit the site office prior to the start of my placement which made me feel more comfortable when I started.

I received a lot of training in my placement, including being able study for and get my CSCS card at company expense, as well as Fire Marshal training, Assisting Buried Services training and others. As a lot of the site staff were fairly new to the company, there was a lot of opportunity for training during my time there.

Quite appealing, I hear they have a great graduate programme which helps you advance and gain chartership, and I hear most of their graduates are from summer/year placements.

There was another student on my placement with me which was quite nice as it made it feel a little less intimidating and I had someone to work with. Everyone was really friendly.

I was able to live at home so cost was nothing. The location was Birmingham so the cost would not be too high for living and socialising.

Didn't really go out, but there are a lot of great clubs in the city centre.

They organised a fair amount of social events outside of office time, unfortunately these all took place after I finished my placement and re-started university.