Product Development / Design Review

Caterpillar was a great place to work. On the whole, it was a good atmosphere to work in and there were a large range of opportunities and different projects to get involved with.

Everyone was friendly and approachable. Especially when starting the placement, people were helpful and gave advice on both work-related topics and the area I moved to.

Support and guidance was always there when required. I found I needed a fair amount of guidance towards the beginning of the placement and when starting new projects/tasks, but was able to work more independently with time. If I was ever struggling to carry out a task, almost anyone I asked gave me support or pointed me to someone who could help.

This varied depending on projects I was working on and when there were deadlines approaching. The first couple of months, my workload wasn't big as there was a lot to learn and I had quite a bit of training. However as time went on, I started to get involved with more projects and my workload increased. Most of the time I had a nice balance of work so I was busy, but not stressed.

I was given a good amount of responsibility for a placement student. Although this didn’t feel like as much as colleagues, too much responsibility as a placement student would have been overwhelming. Nonetheless, I had responsibility for the tasks I was assigned, and my responsibilities increased as the placement went on.

The skills I have learned and developed over the year have been very valuable. They will definitively help me when returning to study, and an insight into industry gave me a much better understanding of how and engineering company works and operates for the future. It has also been good to see knowledge and skills learnt prior to my placement being used in practical situations. With regards to the training I recieved, most was really useful, however I found a couple of course I did a bit irrelevant to the work I was involved in.

The atmosphere was generally a pleasant place to work. Throughout the year, people were constantly looking to improve working environment and looking for ideas to achieve this.

The placement could have been better organised. Depspite having a plan at the beginning to go around different engineering departments, this was quickly altered due to the nature of the project work going on at the time. However, there was some flexibilty and I was often able to get exprience on projects working with other department when requested.

I had regular meetings with my supervisor on my individual progress as well as being assigned a mentor to further help with my training and development. The company was also understanding and helpful with the university work I was required to do in addition to the placement.

Caterpillar have a good Graduate Scheme set up, that I am considering.

Yes, social events amongst people within the office I worked in were organised every month or two. There were only two placement student where I worked, however colleagues made an effort to ensure there were events

Despite being quite a bit more than university, the cost of living and socialising were reasonable. I found prices varied depending on where and when you go places.

There were a few clubs and bars in Shrewsbury, however there were plenty of pubs offering a wide range of atmospheres. Fridays and Saturdays were usually busy and events were often on. On balance, the nightlife was good.

Yes, Caterpillar do quite a lot of work with the local community and nearby school, as well as social events organised outside of work. I volunteered to help out in schools, participating both careers events and as an advisor for Young Enterprise. There are also a fair amount of activities going on in the local area.