Summer Infrastucture Intern Review

I enjoyed the placement because I felt like I learned a lot about the project management side of the business. My team were welcoming and collaborative and I feel like I have really made some good connections here.

I felt valued and felt like my work actually contributed to the project, as I was not just given mundane tasks to pass the time. To summarise, being part of the project controls division I assisted the Project Controls team in the reporting needs for monthly cycle. This included me creating new dashboards relating to risks, opportunity and recovery for the project, ready for the close out stage of the project.

Not only was my line manager really helpful in giving valuable advice to complete tasks in a faster and more smarter way, I feel that all my colleagues on my team shared any aspects they thought were useful for me to learn. Certainly the support and guidance available was much appreciated.

At the start I wasn't necessarily busy, but after I started picking up on the project and familiarising myself with the work, I found that there was more for me to do and that I could start to pick up more on the work that was directly related to the project. I found that when you prove to your team that you are capable of a task they will trust you more with more work and hence you become more busy. All in all I was busy but not too busy or stressed. The work load depends on the requirements of the project at that moment in time but there is always something for you to be doing. Furthermore there are online courses provided by Bechtel as part of the Bechtel university that you can enrol on to, choosing what courses you find interesting, if you ever find yourself free there is always a chance for you to start one of these courses.

I was given some responsibility but not too much. My work was checked before sending but all in all not too much responsibility. As I mentioned once you prove you can provide a good standard of work, you will be trusted to do more work and gain more responsibilities.

I am studying MEng Civil Engineering and one of our core modules is Project Management, in my final year I believe my knowledge and experience learned will allow me to be more familiar with the content of this module. Not only this, but during my summer placement I have enhanced my Excel skills and learned how to best present raw data to be visually understandable. I have learned in many aspects of my work to work smarter rather than just working hard. Not only has this placement allowed me to learn a lot in terms of what Project Controls entails, but I feel that you learn so much by just being in the environment that you are in. I believe this placement has provided me with a very good starting point for my professional career and I hope to join Bechtel in the near future after graduating.

Friendly, welcoming and collaborative. As part of the Crossrail central team there are other people from other companies also situated in the same office, working on the same project. For example I was also working closely with a Network Rail employee and managed to gain valuable information about how all the companies work together to deliver the project.

It was well organised, there were plenty of opportunities to meet other senior Bechtel people and understand the other aspects of the organisation. All in all good organisation.

There is sometimes training available if you request for it, for example for me I received a few cost training sessions. There is also the Bechtel university that allows you to invest in yourself and the courses that interest you. All in all there is always ways you can improve yourself, but I find that you should always ask and seek this knowledge rather than just waiting for it to come to you.

Very, I aim to apply to Bechtel for the graduate programme as I have learned that they try to offer you a wide variety of experience in various divisions in your time as a Bechtel graduate.

Yes, all the other placement students and colleagues were very humble and friendly.

Central London, Paddington area is affordable and cost of living is not too high.

There are opportunities to organise site visits to the main superstructures, and to understand the project more from a physical perspective.