Infrastructure Summer Internship Review

This internship has been a very enjoyable and valuable experience. Being placed on the Crossrail Central project where Bechtel are currently working as a Project Delivery Partner has offered me a great and unique opportunity to work on such a large and high profile project for the Summer. I believe I have learned a huge amount over these 8 weeks and look forward to being able to travel on the Crossrail route when it opens, having contributed to the project and being familiar with how some of the complex systems involved operate.

My colleagues were very quick to welcome me to the office and helped to make sure I felt comfortable throughout the internship. I was fully integrated into the small team with which I mainly worked and was able to attend each meeting that was relevant to the project on which I worked. I received good feedback from my colleagues and supervisor and was never made to feel inferior in my role as a Summer intern.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount of time that my supervisor was willing to spend with me. The initial briefing and goal setting meeting as well as an intern feedback discussion lasted around 2 hours each and gave me valuable insight into the importance of the work I would do over Summer and how it related to the Crossrail project as a whole. My supervisor ensured I was fully included in any activities or meetings relevant to the project which allowed me to experience several different sides of the project from more technical work to commercial and project management discussions. He also made sure that I would be supported and had plenty to do whenever he was not present in the office.

I was a good level of busy throughout the internship. When I first arrived, my tasks were set out so that I would never run out of work to do and instead the aim was to complete as much as I was able over the Summer. I was also invited to attend several meetings which meant I wasn't just sat working at my desk all day and was able to learn about a number of different parts of the Crossrail project. My workload was manageable enough for me to be able to take advantage of opportunities to attend site visits at different stations without needing to worry that it would prevent me from being able to complete my assigned tasks.

I was given significantly more responsibility during my placement than I expected, however I am very grateful to have been given the opportunity to prove myself by completing work that will be essential to the progress of the part of the project I was working on. The large amount of responsibility was also very rewarding as I was able to see the direct impact of my work on the wider project. My supervisor and the rest of the team encouraged me to book meetings with them whenever necessary so that I felt fully supported rather than daunted by the responsibility.

I believe this internship has been very valuable in helping to prepare me for life beyond my degree studies as it offered the experience to work on a project with a much wider scope than any available opportunity within my University course. I have also been able to strengthen skills such as using Excel, writing meeting minutes and interpreting technical documents. Completing this internship has allowed me to work with and learn from a number of highly experienced engineers as well as exposing me to different styles of management and providing me with a greater understanding of what a career as an engineer could look like.

The general atmosphere in my office was pretty calm and relaxed. It was fairly quiet as everyone was very hardworking and there were a number of meeting rooms available for when collaborative work was required. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly however and seemed to have very positive working relationships with each other. Though mostly quiet, there were often general office conversations that everyone was able and welcome to get involved in.

I found that the internship was very well organised despite the interns being spread across a number of projects and locations with most of us working in client rather than Bechtel based offices. I was in regular contact with the intern programme manager both in the lead up to the internship and during my time working on project. I was fully informed before starting as to where I had to go on my first day and weekly activities were organised so that we were able to learn a lot about Bechtel as a company outside of the specific projects we were placed on.

I didn't go through any formal training however I did feel that my supervisor in particular invested a large amount of time and effort into helping me to get the most out of the internship opportunity and be fully involved in the project I worked on. I was also given access to Cross-train on which I could have enrolled myself into a number of different online courses had I not been kept busy enough with assigned tasks.

Throughout the internship we were provided with information about the Bechtel graduate scheme and were also told during the application process that Bechtel do often use the Summer Internship programme to eventually hire graduates. I have had a very positive experience on this internship and would welcome any future employment prospects with the organisation as I have found working on such a large scale project really enjoyable.

The social scene amongst interns was much stronger than I had initially expected considering how we were spread across different office locations. As part of the internship, we had scheduled activities at the main Bechtel London office most weeks and would often meet for drinks and/or food after this. The secret social organised by the intern programme manager was also a really fun experience. All interns kept in almost daily contact throughout the internship and we made arrangements to see each other outside of the scheduled Bechtel events.

I was based in an office close to Canary Wharf in London which isn't the cheapest area, however, as I was born and raised in London, I was able to live at home over Summer and so was spared from many of the true costs of London life by not having to pay rent. My daily commute to work was just under an hour each way and cost under £7 per day with an oyster card.

London offers a very wide variety of Nightlife over an equally wide price range. I enjoyed the opportunity to meet up with other interns for food/drinks in London as well as regularly meeting up with friends from University who had Summer internships at different companies based around London.

A number of activities were already scheduled for all interns such as a secret social and some food and drinks at a bar after one of the weekly intern events. Outside of this, there were a number of other opportunities for involvement through NextGen which included offers of reduced price tickets to Ascot and lawn bowls in Hyde Park.