Year In Industry Student Review

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 feel extremely valued by all colleagues. Nobody talks down to you or patronises you. It is easy to feel as part of the team.

I think there was confusion initially about what a year in industry student is actually supposed to do and achieve in the year which meant that little guidance was provided especially nothing from HR. However since then, I have never been denied any activity or event that I feel would develop me by my manager, so in that sense I feel supported.

At the beginning there was very little work for me to do even following requests for more. However, I now have a relatively good balance. Due to the nature of the business there are sometimes very busy weeks and very quiet weeks but this is to be expected.

At times, I was given significant responsibility which made me feel like a valued member of the team.

I think it is not likely to have a direct impact on my degree as the kind of work that I have been doing on placement differs considerably. However I have become more confident working in an office with different types of people and adapting to different situations I find myself in.

I have moved around various offices in my time here and they have all been positive experiences. There is always someone to talk to or can help and stopping for a tea break was positively encouraged!

It was very badly set up - nobody knew who we were and what we were meant to be doing. There was no structure or advice on what was expected from us. I believe we were the first in the department and so hoping in the future this will change.

This is something great about Network Rail. They were always happy for me to travel to different places to sit in meetings or look at sites. They organised for me to do a Personal Track Safety course which meant I was able to go onto the track to experience new and different things.

Quite appealing. I would be interested in doing the graduate scheme here as it seems well structured and well suited to me. I think it is a great company to work for all in all.

There was very little social scene in NR. In the business area that I worked In, there were 2 events held in the year to bring us together. However, other year in industry students did not have this and we did not meet them all. We were all in different departments which meant you rarely came across them.

It was quite good value, although I didn't spend much of my time on weekends in the city. Everything was available to me.

It was quite good value, although I didn't spend much of my time on weekends in the city. Everything was available to me.

There were a few occasions that we did things after work. Usually for birthdays or leaving events but it was good fun when we did this.