Trainee Project Manager Review

I shadow project managers in my team, attend external meetings and internal catch-ups, have been involved in four projects and currently am fully involved in one of them. Main responsibilities involve ensuring effective communication between external and internal team and the client, collating contract documents, creating dashboards, cashflows, reports and other documentation, attending site visits and keeping overall progress on track.

In terms of soft skills I have improved team working, communication skills, problem solving and time management on very high levels. Apart from that I have gained lots of technical knowledge in the area of construction and architecture. I have also gained lots of skills when using Excel, Sharepoint, Power BI, etc.

I believe I was given a fair amount of responsibility. The projects I was working on involve high level technical knowledge and require good understanding of the industry so it was fair that I was not given full autonomy when making decisions.

I received very high level of support. I was supported by my "buddy" for the first three months of being in the company and I was supported by my line manager throughout the whole experience. Additionally, on every project there was a project manager who would directly work with me and help me with every task.

Company culture and the general atmosphere is very friendly and feels satisfying to work in. All the people in the business seem to have a shared desire to work towards the mission of the company which inspired me a lot. All the people in the company are very friendly and always willing to help.

I fully enjoyed it, I have broadened my network to some extent and was very fortunate to meet some very high skilled and dedicated project managers and cost consultants on the way. I have gained very relevant experience in many fields such as architecture, digital innovations, business management and more.

Yes

I would tell a future Arcadis employee to be ready for some ambiguity. I have joined Arcadis when I had no previous experience in construction, I had only previous experience in business management aspect, so it is completely normal to feel confused the first couple of months.