Vacation Student Review

I very much enjoyed my internship. I was never bored as I had plenty of interesting work to get on with and I got on well with my coworkers.

I felt very valued - my colleagues were eager to let me know when I had done a good job, and made it very clear that they appreciated the amount and standard of work that I was doing.

I felt comfortable asking for help on anything, from solving engineering issues to figuring out how to input my work hours onto the HR timesheet system. My supervisors and colleagues were always helpful.

There were very few moments where I felt bored - if I was out of work to do at a particular moment it was very easy for me to ask around if there were any other tasks that needed doing,

I feel I was given an appropriate level of responsibility. While I was responsible for my own work and projects I had a good enough level of supervision in order to maintain the correct standard of work,

At times I felt like I gained more applicable knowledge in engineering during my 5 weeks at Arup than I had in my previous year of university. The experience itself will prove invaluable when I come to choosing which aspects of engineering to specialise in for my degree.

The atmosphere was relaxed yet professional. I felt that we were able to have a good time at work without it affecting the amount of work getting done.

While there was no set scheme for me to follow, the process of being given projects that needed extra attention or had been on the backburner for a while (and essentially having my resources allocated where they were most needed at the time) was very beneficial for me. I had the opportunity to experience work at different stages of completion and to work for extended periods on some projects. This non intern-specific work environment gave me a realistic insight into life working for Arup.

While I didn't receive formal training in any of the following areas, I was informally taught a lot about the use of various pieces of engineering software and various other engineering practises by my coworkers. In all the things I was trained in I was very quickly made able to work proficiently, showing that I was given a high quality of training from my colleagues.

I would be very willing to work for Arup when I graduate, it seems like a fantastic place to start in civil engineering. I feel that I would have a very good chance at being accepted for further work at Arup in the future. However, until I graduate I expect that I will look into other engineering fields before I settle with civil with Arup.

Social scene was good, colleagues all friendly both in and outside work.

London is expensive. But making choices such as walking instead of taking the tube where possible made things a lot cheaper.

While I didn't go out much during my placement itself, I know the area well and know that there is a huge variety of great nightlife options in the area.

There was often the opportunity to attend talks organised by Arup, though not necessarily directly related to work, and to participate in other more social activities.