Plant Process Engineer Review

I have greatly enjoyed my year placement at Air Products as I have had a variety of challenging work to keep things interesting but not repetitive. Also, there have been lots of good social events with both the large group of graduates at Air Products and the team I work in.

I have felt very valued by my colleagues at Air Products during my year here. I have been given meaningful work, that if I didn't do someone else would have to, and which has added real value to the company. In addition, my colleagues have been inclusive and friendly making me feel welcome.

Plenty of support and guidance has been provided throughout my year in industry, which has been useful. Be it online training classes at the start of the year, or clear descriptions of tasks and jobs that I was required to complete, and even being available for quick questions if I had got stuck too.

Day to day, how busy I was varied depending on upcoming deadlines and the work I was doing at the time. On shutdowns, I was very busy at times as there was lots that required doing, though other times there was less to do as we were waiting for the plant to cool down. In the office my workload also varied.

The amount of responsibility that I received during my placement was rather a lot. Within my first few months I was required to visit site and supervise a group of contractors filling a vessel with catalyst ready for later that year. I also was given my own projects to complete and roll out.

The general atmosphere in the office is quite pleasant. Although everyone is busy getting on with important work, people still have time to answer any questions I might have. People also say good morning and ask how you are, or what your plans are for the weekend as well which is nice.

I would say that overall, the year placement was moderately well organised. There were clear tasks at the start set out for me, but during the year priorities change, different things come up, or need extra work. Due to my department this meant that things needed to be more flexible and adaptable.

I have had a reasonable amount of investment in to my personal training and development. There is online web based and class room training to provide a basic understanding, but most of the training I have received has been on the job for individual projects that I’ve worked on where relevant.

Future employment with Air Products is very appealing to me as if successful I can be fast tracked straight to being offered a role on their graduate scheme, skipping any further application requirements, interviews of assessment centres. The graduate scheme is also one which will provide me with good experiences to give me a strong base to build my career on.

During my placement there were 4 other year in industry students, 4 summer placements and a large cohort of graduates as well. The graduate committee had organised events throughout the year, on top of other socialising with each other. My team also had a team building event in September, and various welcome and leaving do’s throughout the year.

The placement year was based in Hersham, Surrey, and with easy transport links to London. This made for things to be quite expensive, over £4 per pint was usual. Although accommodation and socialising was not cheap, I did manage to stay at a house within walking distance to work which saved me some money.