Infrastructure Intern Review

The internship was quite different to what I've learnt in university and the last internship I did. It had to do more with engineering management which isn't something I was really into before but this internship was very enjoyable and really drew me into the world of engineering project management.

The people I worked with at Bechtel were great and very friendly. On my first day I got introduced to everyone in the team which I enjoyed very much. From then on, they felt free to give me work to do that wasn't too much but still gave me chances to really prove myself. I do believe that I was valued by them.

During the induction week, we were given the details of several employees within the company including my supervisor and the human resources people. The Human Resources team always answered any questions I had quickly via email and my supervisor was basically right opposite me always ready to help and provide guidance throughout the internship.

During the first two weeks of the internship, I shadowed a couple workers in my office to see how everything works. This involved going for meetings, asking people for some information and so on. After that, I wasn't very busy on a daily basis. Many of the other interns sounded much busier than me whenever we got together so it might have been my fault that I wasn't busy.

At the beginning of the internship, we were given a goals sheet to fill out with our supervisors so I arranged a time to meet with my supervisor and write out my goals. Apart from writing down the main goals, he gave me other responsibilities to be taken care during my time at the office. These weren't just a few tasks to try and keep me a bit busy.

The main skill I improved on during the internship was using Microsoft Excel to analyse reports. This may not be so useful during the rest of my time at university but from what I've heard from many other employees (and even my sister who is working) is that it will be very useful once I start working, especially if I get into project management.

The office's atmosphere was generally quiet and calm, especially when my supervisor was nearby. Sometimes it got a bit noisy because some people had mini meetings at their tables. Sometimes, some of the workers nearby my table would just gather around and start talking or making jokes but this never disturbed/distracted me.

The internship was very well set up from beginning to end. At the beginning, they let each of us know where we'll be working and who will be our supervisor. For the following weeks, my office had a couple of things set up for me as well as the main office having an event every Thursday for us interns.

For this internship, I wasn't given a lot of training and don't think I needed it for the kind of work I was doing. We were given access to the Bechtel University on the internal site but I didn't use it much as it wasn't needed. The main training I got was learning about the GRIP processes used in the project management for their projects.

I will be graduating next year so I will be looking for a graduate job very soon. One of my main life goals after graduating is becoming a chartered engineer. I've been told by several employees in the company that Bechtel has a very good graduate scheme that guides people in meeting the requirements to become a Chartered Engineer. Because of this mostly, I would definitely be interested in working here after I graduate.

In total we were about 11 interns. Most of the other interns were very social and friendly so I got along with them very easily. Because we all didn't work in the same office, we usually got together about once a week for drinks or dinner or both. We had loads of fun in Central London.

During the internship, I lived with my sister in North West London but worked in Swindon. My sister is a full time worker so she paid for the rent and the bill most of the time. I bought a monthly Oyster Zones 1 to 3 ticket so that I could get to Paddington while Bechtel paid for my journeys to Swindon from there.

I lived in London but I worked in Swindon so I hardly went out in Swindon. The only time that I went out in Swindon was to a pub next to our office which had decent drinks and a good atmosphere. I'm sure there are better places in Swindon I just wasn't able to experience them.

There were loads of opportunities to get involved in outside of work. Bechtel has this society within it called NextGen. They sent us weekly newsletters, detailing within it several activities we get in involved in including Lawn Bowls, Mountain climbing, Royal Ascot etc. Some of these were free while some were at reduced prices.