Assistant Project Manager Review

I really enjoyed my placement with Mott MacDonald, a superb introduction to the construction industry and working life.

I made a lot of close friends and everybody was very friendly to me. I felt like one of the team very quickly and I was encouraged throughout my placement.

I received a decent amount of support and guidance from my direct Motts Project Manager, but due to long periods of absence (which was unavoidable) I had periods when I would have to guide the programme of works on my own.

Due to the scale of the programme and the amount of responsibility which was bestowed upon me, there was always something to do - keeping on top of it all was the tricky part!

On my second day at Mott MacDonald, I was sent on secondment to work for Network Rail as part of a three person team on a £30m programme of works. This showed that they trusted me to represent Mott MacDonald in the clients office. I was trusted to take on programme affecting works and developed systems which helped to keep on top of the rapid pace of works. Due to periods of absence, there were a few occasions where I was the only available member of the team, so I managed to get a lot of valuable experience interfacing with contractors.

My skills were predominately focused around Project Management due to the objectives of the programme, however as a graduate engineer it is often difficult to gain management and commercial experience, so I count myself as very fortunate to have received the opportunity to do so. I believe my placement will allow me to put aspects of my degree into perspective and help me to meet my development objectives when I am on the road to chartership.

The atmosphere in the Motts office was very quiet and intense, however I spent most of my year in the Network Rail office which was much more lively and relaxed.

There was no set plan for my year when I arrived but the initial training system on the Motts intranet was very thorough and easy to use.

There was a lot of initial training which covered many aspects of workplace safety and procedure. There were also lunchtime seminars every month or so and an introduction to Building Information Modelling which I attended. Motts also paid for our company team to take part in the MERIT business game, which is used as a tool to allow people to understand the multiple aspects of running a large scale construction company.

The management in Mott MacDonald were eager to give me a reference for my preferred graduate Motts office (Manchester - due to location) and I truly believe that if I went back to Bristol once I graduate that they would welcome me with open arms.

There was only one other placement year student for the majority of the year. However when summer arrived there were a lot of summer students on placement, so we used to go out after work at least once a week.

I was in a house share which I found on Gumtree for most of the year, so my cost of living wasn't excessive. I thought going out in the centre of Bristol was fairly pricey but not excessive, though that's probably just because I'm from Manchester.

Bristol has something for everyone - sophisticated bars and pubs, clubs, student haunts and cider on tap everywhere!

We had drinks every Friday after work for starters. There was a Sports and Social Club which organised many heavily subsidised events, normally about two a month on average. A company wide sports day (/drinking session) has to be the stand-out event of the year. The social side of Motts had to be one of my favourite aspects of the placement.