Infrastructure Summer Intern Review

I really enjoyed my experience at Bechtel this summer. I had the opportunity to work on a massive project like Crossrail, which was an invaluable experience, where I gained an invaluable insight into the inner workings of a large scale engineering project.

In the department I worked in, I never felt like 'just' an intern. I was treated like one of the team from the start, and given real work with real responsibility. I was always included in all team meetings and activities, and was made to feel like my work was just as important as the work being done by anyone else in the department.

Having a dedicated supervisor right from the start was a great help. I always knew I could go to my supervisor with any questions I had. Additionally, all members of the team were really open and willing to help at all times, so if my supervisor was busy, I knew I could have asked them.

I was definitely busy everyday of the internship. My supervisor was really great at arranging lots of meetings for me with different members of the team, organising site visits and allowing me to accompany her to any visits she had that might be of interest to me. There wasn't many days where I was in the office, just working on my goals all day.

Through goals set at the start of the internship, I was given real responsibility from day one. In my case, perhaps I wasn't fully aware of the importance of the work I was doing initially. However this soon became clear as I began to understand the department and its function more as the internship progressed.

I didn't necessarily develop any engineering skills on the internship. However, the experience of working on such a large project like Crossrail is invaluable, and you certainly gain skills that you wouldn't at University. Additionally, Bechtel have numerous training courses you can complete via the Bechtel University. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to access any of these courses, however, if you took the time, they would definitely be helpful for your degree.

The atmosphere in the office was generally quite serious, and everyone was keen to get on with their work. However, in no way did this create a negative working environment. I think this was mainly due to it being a critical stage of the project, and thus there was a lot of work to do.

The organisation of the internship was superb. Before I even started at Bechtel, I was given a brief outline of my schedule, and events I would be attending week to week. Also, I was told quite early which project I would be working on, so I could prepare before I started.

Although I didn't have time to enrol in any formal training with Bechtel, I definitely felt like company invested a lot in me during my time there. My supervisor dedicated a lot of time and energy to me, and was always available for catch up meetings if I wanted to discuss my progress. Also, I felt like everyone I came across was really keen to help and ensure I made the most out of my time there.

Throughout the internship, I got to hear about Bechtel's graduate programme as we were given numerous opportunities to network with other grads. I really enjoyed my time working with Bechtel, so would definitely welcome any further employment opportunities with them, whether it was a graduate scheme or another internship.

I was pleasantly surprised that the fellow interns were all very social. We frequently went out for drinks and dinner after work and enjoyed a few nights out together.

I worked in Central London so the area was fairly expensive. I rented a place in Zone 2, which was reasonably priced and Bechtel pay you well so it didn't eat into my salary too much. Again, socialising is expensive as it is Central London. However there is always cheaper places available to find food/ go out so this was never something I worried about.

Central London so nightlife was really varied, something for everyone.

Bechtel have a group called NextGen would frequently invited the interns to events outside of work. Also, interns were always invited to internal Bechtel events, such as the 'All Hands' meetings.