Overall, I did not enjoy my placement very much. Over the year, there was very little work at all that I enjoyed doing and the placement did not meet any of my expectations at all; I expected far more of a technical element having applied for an "Electronic and Electrical Engineering Placement. I was not given very little work to do, and very little responsibility. I think there was an overall lack of understand of what the placement was supposed to achieve both in my direct colleagues and colleagues who oversaw the placement, and a breakdown of communication between colleagues overseeing the placement on a local and national level. I very occasionally felt uncomfortable in the environment I was working in. I think there are a number of improvements that could be made to the placement scheme to make it vastly superior.
I thoroughly enjoyed my year in industry with Network Rail. My year was made up of 3 rotations, all of which offered project based work which was challenging and engaging at the same time. I was very surprised by the level of work that I was involved in and the responsibility I was given. I felt supported throughout the whole year and was actively encouraged to challenge upwards in order to improve my understanding or get my ideas across.
My time at Network Rail has been up and down. It took a while for me to integrate into what department I wanted to work in. This lead to the beginning months being very slow, unmotivating and did not challenge me. However, once I began to find my feet and request to move around other departments more, I learned to enjoy what I do and have gained a lot out of the time here.
I had a great time during my placement - this was mainly due to the people. The work was not overtly interesting if I am truly honest, but I was able to see many high level projects, and spend time in various departments seeing how they interlocked and what they did The sub-manager heavily contributed to my experience - he has had 4 year in industry students previously, so he was aware of what type of things he could offer me / give me to do.
Overall I have enjoyed my placement at Network Rail. There is a great balance between challenges within my role as well as many opportunities outside my role to get involved in. At times, like any jobs, there are peaks and troughs with the work, but there is usually something around the corner to get your teeth stuck into.
My time on the placement has been fantastic. Every week there have been different activities for me to get involved with, and I was given responsibility straight from the off. Work was always challenging, yet I was never left to struggle on my own, there was always help available. This came from working in a friendly office environment where each of the members of the team were all approachable should you have any issues.
Overall, I really enjoyed my placement year. It was my first full-time office job, having previously experienced office work through a few weeks of work experience, with my last permanent role being in retail- a very different environment. I've learnt new skills whilst on placement as well as refining and developing those that I've brought with myself into this process that I hope will stay with me in the future, More importantly, it's also given me an insight into a sector that I'd never considered looking at before, but one that I would now consider working in, in the future.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on placement. Most of the work was interesting and challenging, but I especially enjoyed the additional activities I was able to get involved in as part of the graduate scheme, including organising a safety day for a primary school year group and helping run our national women in IT competition ("Could IT Be You?").
I thoroughly enjoyed my Placement at Network Rail, I worked as a HR Placement and I always had some work to do. I worked in three different areas within the HR function to ensure that I was gaining as much experience as possible. Doing this also kept me on my toes, as I didn't know what to expect in my next placement rotation. However each one was better than the last and I loved every second.
I thoroughly enjoyed working for Network Rail. I was working with the London North Western (LNW) route placed within the Structures team, see figure 1. The route runs from Euston to the Scottish borders and consists of 4,500 miles of track and is the busiest mixed-use (freight & passenger) railway in Europe. During my time, there were various exciting projects that I got to be a part of, which was the highlight of my placement.
My placement with Network Rail was genuinely a great experience. From the jobs I was given to the support I had from my mentor, I valued my time with the company. My team also made me feel welcome from the very beginning and were happy to answer quires I had, whether they were work related or about the new city I had moved into!
I fully enjoyed my placement mainly due to my team, as they were extremely welcoming and really keen for me to get involved in some of the projected they were working on straightaway which made me feel very valued.
Overall I did enjoy the placement. The staff at the company are all extremely friendly and there was plenty of opportunity to socialise with everyone after work playing football and squash. The work was interesting and varied which made it more enjoyable. I was mainly office based managing projects, but managed to get out on site around once a fortnight, My only comment on improving the enjoyment of this placement would be to try and get out onto site more to get more 'hands on' experience.