Civil Engineering Intern - Pavements Review

Working at Atkins was a fantastic opportunity with a very well respected company. I spent my 3 months working with the pavements team in Birmingham which, personally, wasn't my ideal area of work. However, I had learnt from a previous internship that all work can be interesting, the only time it can get boring is when there is a lack of work! Fortunately, being with such a successful company, I felt that there was never a shortage of work in the office, which meant that I was always busy - happy days!

There was the occasional time when my line manager forgot my name (awkward...), but other than that, everyone was easy to get along with and very friendly. It was clear when people were appreciative of my work, which is always nice! Also, working in a small team meant that I was able to be of assistance when people needed help, which made me feel more valued.

Unfortunately I had very little interaction with my line manager, but I was frequently in contact with people whom I was working for. I was actually quite surprised at how supportive they were considering how busy they were, and if I ever had any questions then anyone in the office would be keen to give me a hand. The friendly environment was really something that made me feel comfortable very quickly in the company.

I was quite busy most days. From previous experiences, I know it can be hard for the first few weeks for interns because there are going to be a lot of times when you do boring work or have very little to do, but after the first few weeks this all changed and I was flooded with work - but not so much that I was too busy. Of course there were times when I had finished work and was waiting for some more, but this should be expected.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility at Atkins - at one point I was responsible for checking drawings and making sure that they were completed before the tight deadlines, so as an intern I feel this is quite a big responsibility! After the first month, I was basically left to myself to produce documents, which then would go for checking, so it was a good balance between having too much pressure and being spoon-fed.

I think the main benefit of these placements is to provide a better understanding of what you want to do when you graduate - so this experience has definitely helped there! I worked a lot on CAD so that will be very beneficial, but I didn't get that much experience of design which could have been a bit better.

I think it was quite a relaxed, chatty office, yet still very productive.

I had a poor start, with very little guidance. I was there for about a day and a half before someone told me that I had some online training to complete, so I think the communication at the start was poor. When I actually got into the real work, it was much better. People knew exactly what was needed to be done and how I could help them, and they were clear and helpful when I needed them to be, which was great!

I felt like we both knew that this was a temporary position, and there was no potential link between this summer placement and a place on the grad scheme, which was a shame. This meant that there was little investment that I could see (other than the standard online training exercises), and I felt like more of a helping hand for the summer months when most people go on holiday.

As I said above, I felt that this placement was a little disconnected from the graduate scheme so I don't feel tied to the company at all (which could be seen as a good or bad thing!). I think that the company is great, but I don't think I would return to the same area of work just because of personal preference.

There was only 1 other placement student in the office, but occasionally people would go out for drinks. Having previously worked in London, I think that places outside of London lack the social side of work - probably due to the convenience of the transport system in London and the ability to get home quickly after some drinks, but there were a few emails about sports and social events in my office.

I was living at home so it was very cheap.

Didn't really experience it, but of course Birmingham has a good nightlife as it's a large city.

There were occasional events such as running and badminton, but this was just by asking individuals rather than having any sort of club. It wasn't too bad and usually most people would rush home anyway but it was nice to know that if I ever wanted to join them then it would be very easy too - particularly when they were all so friendly!