Placement Student Development Engineering Review

I am enjoying my time at caterpillar, the work is challenging but enjoyable. everybody is very friendly and always willing to help when you have a problem. everybody has a laugh and a joke whilst getting the work done to a high standard, no day at work is boring as they are all very different the work given has a wide variety

my colleagues I deal with on a regular basis treat me as a permanent member of staff and not just a placement student only working her for a year. All of my colleagues are very friendly, here to help when needed as well as making the workplace a nice place to be.

Support and guidance given when asked for and when given, support and guidance was very useful. More support given by co-workers than management, however I did not feel like I was lacking support and guidance at any point. Weekly meetings with my supervisor only helped get me support where required.

had enough work to do every day, and the work given was varied. it was challenging but enjoyable. all of the work had value for the business and was not just to fill my time. if I ever needed extra work, my supervisor was always available to give me work. I never felt like I had too much work to do and not enough time, the balance was always about right.

I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility on the project I was involved with, dealing with suppliers and designing components, I was not given too much responsibility due to not knowing much about the products. only being given responsibility where I felt I could do the job to a satisfactory standard

my skills have developed a lot during my time at caterpillar, through a mix of formal training such as APQP, online training, on the job training as well as informal training from colleagues. the skills have been useful for my time with caterpillar as well as the rest of my degree and my career after that

The office had a general atmosphere of joviality whilst maintaining the high quality outcomes required working for such a prestigious company as caterpillar. everybody ensure they had a laugh whilst at work but still got the work done in a timely manor to a high standard. All of the colleagues were happy to help where possible and if not then they would show you to somebody who could

the placement was well organised and everything was set up before I started my placement with caterpillar. I had spoken with my supervisor at the assessment centre and also with the other placement students before I started work so we were not complete strangers when we started. however the HR department struggled with the cost cutting measures effect on the placement students

during my time with caterpillar I constantly had training sessions, whether this be required on line learning for all staff to complete, through to instructor led training on topics like APQP. there are also opportunities to take part in training courses all the time . they were very useful for me to learn how to use the CAD software as it is completely different to what I was used to before starting at CAT.

due to current cost cutting measures the company cannot hire any one, however hopefully these will have been removed before I finish my placement with caterpillar.

I regularly met up with the other placement students whether this be for meals out after work or for nights out in the local town, there were also regular nights out with the other employees for meals and trips to the pub. the vast majority of employees got involved with the social scene and it helped everyone to get to know each other better.

n/a as lived at home

nightlife is reasonably good for a town, not city life by any means but the pubs are always busy and the night club is reasonably good

lots of chances to get involved with whatever you want outside work