Junior Quantity Surveyor Review

I really enjoyed my time on placement with National Grid. I had the opportunity to get involved in a wide variety of different tasks which gave me great on the job experiences. In addition to that, I found as I became more experienced I was given more responsibilities and that helped me to grow in confidence within my role. I also felt that throughout the placement year, my soft skills grew and I became much more confident in communicating.

I feel really valued by colleagues both inside and outside my team. The atmosphere in the offices I have found to always be friendly. I also felt that management really valued my contributions and wanted to help with my development throughout the placement year. At the start of the placement year, I felt welcomed into the team and it was fantastic that people within the business wanted to help me develop my skills throughout the placement year.

There has been a great deal of support available from my managers. Upon joining the company, I was aligned to a very experienced colleague to shadow. Through supporting him in the initial phases of my placement year, I was able to build a substantial amount of knowledge and understanding of the processes required in order to successfully carry out my job role. I found that management always took a keen interest in my development and how I was getting along throughout the year.

I think my days were well balanced throughout. I was offered a number of opportunities to assist with various different tasks. I felt that as I became more experienced as time went on I got busier as more opportunities were available to me as I had more knowledge. However, even at the start of the placement year, there was plenty of training which helped to keep me busy and helped me to build my knowledge.

I think I was given a fair amount of responsibility. I gradually gained more responsibility as the placement year continued which was as I expected. This was pleasing as it gave me the opportunity to put in practice the knowledge which I had gained in the early phases of the placement year. This was an enjoyable aspect of the placement year for me as it gave me the opportunity to take charge of certain tasks as my confidence grew.

I think I gained a great deal of skills which I can use for my future studies and career both for the remainder of my degree and beyond. There are a number of skills which I have learnt throughout the year and as I completed more tasks, I feel like I can confidently complete most tasks and this will be helpful both for my future career and beyond. The skills I have gained through the year will definitely assist me with the completion of my degree studies.

The atmosphere in the office was very friendly. The office was split into different sections for each part of the business. It was nice to see the same familiar faces every day, I think this helped me to settle into the business in the early stages of my placement year. Management worked in the same spaces as us which made it easy to see and talk to your manager if you needed to which I found was a good set up.

The organisation of the placement year at National Grid was absolutely first class. Upon joining the business I was given a schedule which detailed all of the training modules which I had been registered on as well as their locations so I knew when and where I needed to be in advance meaning that I could notify my line manager well in advance of the training course. Online training modules were also very well organised with email reminders keeping me on track of when I needed to complete this training.

I was offered a large amount of training by National Grid which I found to be wide and varied and was very largely tailored to my job role within the business. I found the training offered greatly assisted me into settling into my role within the business as it gave me a good platform to gain additional pieces of knowledge which would greatly assist in my role. Safety training formed a key part of this.

The placement year offered me a fantastic opportunity to be employed by National Grid and the path to that was clear. At the end of my placement year I was offered a full time position which I accepted as my time during my placement year was so good.

The social scene was good, there were regular forums and events held which gave me a good opportunity to network with colleagues both in my own team and outside my own team. There were also regular opportunities to network with those from across the business. Training courses also offered a good opportunity to network socially with colleagues from other areas of the company as the vast majority of these courses involved an overnight stay at the training centre.

I don't feel that I'm the most qualified person to answer this question as I lived at home during my placement year which was about a 40 minute commute from the office. However, I understand that the cost of living in the area around the office is generally reasonable and there are generally properties available for a reasonable price on the rental market. Whenever I left the office to purchase lunch, the costs seemed reasonable.

As I lived at home in another city around 40 minutes drive away from the office, I'm probably not the most qualified person to answer this question. However, the office which I was based in was located around a 20 minute drive from both Nottingham and Derby which I understand both have a good nightlife scene.

I felt that there were a number of good opportunities to get involved in activities outside of the office. In one of the offices I was working in there was an opportunity to play football with your colleagues. In other offices there were trips to the cinema and local attractions available for people to join if they wished to. Therefore I feel that there were a good amount of opportunities to join activities outside of work.