Summer Placement Review

I had a brilliant time, with various tasks to do in the office. There wasn't a moment where I was waiting for tasks, and everyone was extremely helpful and friendly from the very start. I definitely felt like I learned a lot from my placement since there was a whole team of engineers that were able to answer your questions. It was an excellent way to get the feel of professional work life inside a large engineering firm, from the people, the ritual and all the opportunities available for you for the future.

Everyone was extremely friendly; everyone was happy to answer any question I had, no matter how silly as they know that I am a student and that I don't know everything. I was given responsibility from the very start of the placement, and that made me feel extremely valuable to the team; I really felt like I was making a big difference, no matter how small my task was.

I was given a line manager in the beginning who I could ask and had to report to for tasks and if I had any queries about working there. I had an outstanding line manager who was always on the ball, asking me if I had any tasks, always looking for new things for me to do, asking me what I wanted and how I felt. It made me feel very welcome and I was guided along the way through by my line manager, my given buddy, who was a recent graduate engineer, and any of the other colleagues in the team. They were all happy to support and guide me whenever I needed.

I was always busy, and it was great that I had a range of different tasks to allow me to experience different work, and to explore what I enjoyed doing, what I needed to improve on and what I excelled in as well. It was all extremely helpful work that would ensure a professional career ahead of me. Although there was a time that I had to do a lot of admin work, like office library organisation, but even this allowed me to peak through all the different resources that I would not get otherwise.

As much responsibility as any other student would get. Since I am not a qualified engineer yet, I was given student/graduate tasks such as calculations and excel work. However, this was very much expected, and it allowed me to appreciate all the things that I have learnt and apply them to something real that would actually be constructed. I felt like all the tasks that I did, even if it did not have much responsibility in the grand scheme, was an adequate amount of responsibility given my level of credentials and the stage that I am in.

I definitely felt like I learned a lot more in this placement that I could do in the same amount of time in university. Using the core knowledge, I learned and developed a lot of skills, learning how to be an efficient worker and the different tools that I needed to use for my personal development and my future career. I think all the skills that I have gained would put me on an edge in my future studies and to excel in a career beyond.

Everyone was extremely friendly, and there were always people to talk to and interesting stories to hear during lunch time. I loved that everyone made me feel so welcome. Although, I think the work environment takes a little getting used to. Everyone is usually silently working hard at their tasks, either listening to music or indulged in their work conference calls. However, it is still quite a relaxed atmosphere, talking happened here and there, but the team dynamic was great. Everyone seemed to get a long with each other, participating in different raffle draws and events outside the office as well.

I think the best part about the work placement was that I also got to go on-site numerous times, which is really beneficial for any starting engineer. It was great to see the different tasks at hand, from the investigation phase to the construction phase. It was extremely helpful to see what everyone was responsible for, which really made me appreciate what was happening in the office as well. They got me started right from the beginning, and I thought the structure of the whole internship was great. I was doing work right up to the very end which really made me feel invaluable.

I think the company did a great job in developing me, through communication my line manager got me to do a variety of tasks from different departments which allowed me to develop my skills and learn about what other teams had to do, and what I enjoyed doing as well. It all came down to what I wanted to do, and through research and asking my line manager, she made everything possible and I am very thankful. I got know the ins and outs of the company, learning things from landscape architecture, ecology, management, offshore windfarming and the various geotechnical tasks.

Prospects look promising, I have asked many of the other colleagues about other students and the ones who have had placements with Atkins have a very high chance of getting a job with Atkins after graduation. I think most of the students who do decide to apply to the graduate scheme, and have had an internship with Atkins, do get the job from the familiarity and they know what to expect from us.

The way the internship worked was that only one student had their placement at a time in the same department, so I had no other placement students to interact with. There were a couple of other placement students in different departments, but I had no chance of interacting with them as we do not do work together, nor were there any events specifically for us. For my whole internship there was only one event with the graduate team, unfortunately I couldn't make it. It was also hard to determine when the other placement students would start. Unless the departments have a project together, it is hard to find out the happenings of the other departments and placement students. If I recall correctly most of them started near the end of my placement anyway.

This is my term time accommodation, studied and worked in Glasgow, so I already knew all about it. Glasgow is a relatively cheap place compared to the other big cities, such as Edinburgh. It was quite hard to socialise though since I did not get to interact with the other placement students, but socialising with my colleagues in the team was great. Although there wasn't much happening outside of work, I already had a lot of plans and an external football club that I participate in.

Nightlife is great during term time, but I didn't go out too much because it is summer time and I didn't know many students who had stayed in Glasgow over the summer. There are plenty of clubs and pubs that any student could go to though, Glasgow is known to have a plethora of great nightlife venues, from the city centre to the west end.

There were a couple of opportunities, plenty of sporting activities outside of work one could join, but unless you did those selected sports I don't think there were many opportunities otherwise. However, there was a big hiking trip that I got to enjoy at the end of the month with team which was great, and there were activities happening during some of the weekends.