Building services summer intern Review

I enjoyed the work I had to do as I felt as though I was making a valuable contribution to project work. I really liked the company, people were keen to complete good work, they had a good attention to detail and they thought outside the box with their design solutions. I got the impression that there was a strong emphasis on improving coordination and communication between the disciplines, and learning from each others' experiences. I am now a final year student and I hope to come back as a graduate.

The work I completed was always very well received, and when reviewing work or progress, my colleagues were open to hearing my comments and suggestions. I was able to take design decisions, though be it in the very early stages of design, this made me feel as though the work I was doing and my ideas were of value. My colleagues were also interested to get to know me and hear about my background. There were also social events, such as bbqs given the nice summer weather, so it was nice to be immersed in the community.

When in the office, my supervisor was always available to my if I had any concerns or questions. I also asked at the end if we could meet to review my progress and have some feedback, and he was more than happy to meet with me. When he went away on holiday, he made sure that there were other people I could talk to if I needed more work. I was also approached by other colleagues of his similar level offering their support and guidance if I needed it. When completing work, I was always able to ask questions and people lent their time to be able to provide me with explanations wherever I had doubts.

Throughout most of my placement I was kept busy, as I was given continual jobs to do on one project at a time which required weeks to complete, which was nice as it meant I had deadlines to work towards and various stages of design and markups to develop up to submission. On occasion though, immediately after submission deadlines, there would be times of the day where I wouldn't have enough work, or small tasks to do which being able to do quickly weren't very rewarding. Overall though, I had a good amount of work to do, and I could approach my colleagues and ask for more work when I needed it.

On the first project which I worked on for four weeks, I was responsible to ensure cohesiveness between schematics, layouts and schedules for the pipework of a large laboratory/hospital building, and then communicate to the technicians changes that had to be made to drawings required for project delivery. I also had to carryout flow calculations crucial for plant selection. It was a big responsibility, coming new into the project, and it was very enjoyable to fully appreciate the project details and develop the work I was doing.

I was working in the building services department with mechanical engineers, and I have specialized in civil engineering in my degree so perhaps it was not the most useful placement in terms of helping me with my studies. Nevertheless, I think the experience will be very useful in appreciating that cohesive design means good integration and interdisciplinary work and coordination, and I think that having worked in this department has given me a good and broad understanding of further aspects of building design. Having learned how to use the computer packages prevalent in the industry will also undoubtedly be useful in my future career.

Within the office, everyone seemed very hardworking and they were focused at their workstation. The plan of the office was open, with tall tables giving the option to work standing up if wanted. I think this provided a comfortable working environment and made communication and work collaboration easy. Unfortunately, I was sat next to the window looking out onto a construction site which was constantly very noisy throughout the day, which made my location a little unpleasant.

The company offered a lot of flexibility in terms of starting and finishing dates to be able to accommodate for each student individually. This was very useful to be able to plan the rest of the summer. This did however mean that all the interns started at different times and there were not many events specifically geared towards all the interns as a group, which would have been good to get to know each other and hear about others' experiences. Individually though, we were all assigned a line manager who was responsible for us, and the support system in place to answer and queries we had was very accessible and available to all. The application process was straightforward, including the submission of a CV, cover sheet, questionnaire and interview.

I was hired as part of a sponsorship programmed, and thus am due to receive a scholarship sum at the end of the summer to go towards my studies or further development. The company thus has an interest in my development as these programs are typically done in the hopes of forming long-lasting working relationships. There were a number of CPD events which I was able to attend during my placement as well as departmental and company presentations.

I find these prospects very appealing. BuroHappold has many offices around the world, and I am interested in working abroad as a way lo learn about different cultures, learn languages and challenge myself further. The company also takes on a lot of large and intricate projects which I would very much like to be a part of. I think there is a lot more I can learn working within this organization and particularly within the structures department.

There were many opportunities to join sports games every week or go out for lunch or for drinks after work. In my time at the company there were also a number of summer bbqs running every week which allowed for socializing in the office. There were also presentations after which the company provided refreshments and nibbles for the staff, and so people could stay behind and chat about the presentations.

I was in the London office of BuroHappold, just off Oxford street, so living and leisure in the area were very expensive. This year I stayed with a friend over the summer and so my living costs were significantly reduced. It is possible to rent student accommodation from universities in London, the price of which reduces with length of stay, but all living in the center of London is bound to be quite expensive. There are many things to do in London which are for free and parks or bar areas where one can socialize. Socializing will not necessarily be expensive.

There are many pubs in the area around the office and they are always busy and buzzing on an evening. They get full of people leaving the local offices. Oxford street is also very popular with tourists due to all the shops. I personally was not very attracted to the nightlife but when there was a celebration in the office, we went out for a couple drinks in the local pubs. There are many options of bars and restaurants and places to buy food for lunch.

There are very many things to do in London outside of work, the list is possibly endless. As a summer placement student, I was only expected to stay until the working day end at 5:30pm, unless there was some exceptional reason to stay later, which gave me plenty of time to enjoy evenings in London. This included going to the park, the theatre, restaurants, a trampoline playground, and many more activities. I also joined a gym which offered short membership times and I had time to attend fitness classes when I wanted.