Summer student Review

Great insight into the geotechnical industry.

Whole team was very welcoming and helpful. I was also assigned a buddy who helped me settle in and was always on hand if I had any questions. My line manager also was very supportive and kept checking how things were going throughout the placement.

I had a buddy always on hand to help give me support and the rest of the team were also willing to give support and guidance when needed.

I had the opportunity to get involved in a range of different projects that gave me a good overview of the work that is involved within Ground Engineering at a company like Atkins. The team were also very good at finding work for me to do or giving me background reading on topics related to the teams work even when they themselves were very busy.

I was given enough responsibility during the placement to feel like I was an asset to the team but not too much that would make me feel I was out of my depth.

The technical knowledge gained through working on projects and background reading during the placement will be extremely useful when completing the upcoming masters in Engineering Geology. I also gained valuable computer and excel skills which will be useful both in the upcoming degree and in future work. I also gained experience in using industry standards such as Eurocode 7, which will be useful in future work. Another useful skill learned was writing technical memos and reports for clients, which will be useful for the my degree studies next year and in future work.

Good working environment. Open plan office made it easy to talk to other colleagues about projects or ask questions.

Everything ran very smoothly from day 1 with access to drives and email all sorted before my arrival. Before the start of my placement I was all made aware in advance of my start date and who to meet on the first day.

I was given background reading that helped give me background to projects and helped develop my general technical knowledge. A colleague also gave up their time to give me training in using two computer software programs that the team use on a regular basis.

The line manager asked me to keep in contact with them and encouraged me to apply for a graduate role with them when I graduate next year.

The team would regularly go for drinks after work and there was lots of graduate events going on to help summer students and graduates socialise.

Computing from Edinburgh to Glasgow meant these costs were high, though if living in Glasgow the cost of living and socialising would be much cheaper!

Lots of things going on in Glasgow all the time.

I was told about the company football team that play games once a week on a social basis and also heard about lots of graduate events also going on both in Glasgow and other Atkins offices.