Vacation student Review

Arup gave me a real taster of what line of work I could go into and overall I enjoyed it a lot. It was a completely new experience and put the things I learnt in my degree into practice. Working on real projects really made the whole experience interesting as I could see how everything I have learnt at university is used.

My colleagues made me feel very welcome and the frequent work load made me feel part of the team.

Whenever I was in doubt of something my colleagues would try and assist me and when set new tasks my supervisor would explain everything clearly and cover areas which I was not familiar with. I was very happy with the support I had as it helped me settle in quick.

I was given tasks to do relating to several big projects and so this kept me occupied a lot. I was busy most days though occasionally I would finish my work and find I had nothing to do for a while.

Considering the work I was set was linked directly to large scale projects and a lot of what I did would be reviewed and submitted it made me feel like I was given quite a bit of responsibility.

At Arup I developed a lot of computer skills which will be invaluable when going forward into industry as I learnt to use different softwares. I also developed my understanding of things I've learnt in university by seeing it in practice.

The atmosphere was relaxed. I felt very unstressed working there and it was a nice place to work. Everyone was friendly and as far as I could tell people were happy to be working there.

It was quickly set up and they fitted the dates around the times I was available. Overall I was very pleased with how organised the internship was as they had everything ready for me and they knew exactly what they were going to have me working on for the two months.

I was trained in new software, to an extent, in order to complete my tasks and I was frequently being taught new things by supervisors in order to help me with my work. I was invited to guest lectures in order to develop more skills.

I personally am interested in trying to pursue a career at Arup.

While at Arup there were many graduates who had only left university a few years ago and so I had things to talk about with them and I enjoyed socialising with them. There were also quite a few technicians who were my age who I would spend a lot of time with. I didn't find it hard to make friends with colleagues and fitted in well after a week. The social scene was good overall.

I lived at home during the placement and so only had to pay for fuel in order to drive to the campus.

Solihull has a bit of a nightlife, there are bars and a club, though Birmingham which is slightly further away from the campus is the much better option for a night out.

There were a few things set up which you could do outside of work times. These were mainly social or charitable events such as hikes.