This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
The whole team at Egger made me feel welcome immediately. At Egger there is no predjudice based to the level of job you work. Everybody at the plant is approachable, whether that be an operator or the Plant Manager himself. This on its own made Egger a pleasure to work for. I have only scored a 9 due to the distance in which I had to commute each day to get to work!
To reciprocate what I mentioned previously, all of the staff at Egger made me welcome immeadiately. They even invited me to get involved with out of hours activities such as the Workplace Games and a trip to an outdoor activity centre. My line manager even bought me a bottle of Champagne to say farewell when I left back for Uni.
My line manager worked with an open door policy. Even though he had the responsibility of being the manager of the entire plant Pre-Production, I could enter his office at any time to as for help/questions. He was an extremely knowledgable man, particularly within the chipboard industry, and straight away brought me up to speed with anything I needed to know.
As Egger are a manufacturing/production company, there were times the work could be very intense and fast-paced. However, if when everything in the process ran smoothly , there were occasions when I would have to try and find jobs for myself. However, I believe this may just be the nature of working in a process role.
My line manager put 100% faith in my ability. I was given the responsibility of liaising with external companies regarding ordering parts and scheduling contracted work to the plant. I also deputised for my manager when he used 2 weeks annual leave, only after working there for 3 months. However, at no point did I feel under pressure due to this responsibility, as there was always somebody on hand to offer help if needed.
The experience I have gained from Egger is invaluable. Even though I had worked as an operater at an aluminium smelter for 3 years prior to higher education, I had never worked in a management capacity. I have alot more confidence in my ability as an engineer now. This is due to witnessing alot of the machinery/management systems/software that I have studied in action at the plant.
The Company
Enough can not be said about the friendliness of the staff at Egger. Everybody enjoyed having a laugh and joke, whilst still taking their work very seriously. On my first day, there was no locker available for me. However, the energy plant controller immeadiately cleared his spare locker and handed me the key. These sort of gestures are commonplace at Egger.
The recruitment process was very fluid and efficient, and they remained in contact with me throughout. The recruitment manager was a lovely lady, and always contacted me regarding next stages on the days that were promised. Straight away I had a computer/workstation to work from, and my line manager ensured I had a settling period to take me around and meet all of the staff and familiarise with the process. They also provide a very insightful induction week into the Egger group as a whole. I only score this 9/10 as the induction week did not happen until a month into the placement, as it had to be conducted with other new apprentices/staff.
Egger leave no stone unturned when it comes to training. Like previously mentioned, I was part of an induction week which included off-site team building days. I travelled to many of the Egger group's sister companies, such as Timberpak in Washington, Egger Forestry at Kielder and Egger Barony. My manager was an expert in his field, and ensured he taught me as much as possible about the process on a day-to-day basis.
Flexi Time
Subsidised Canteen
Sports and Social Club
Subsidised/Company Gym
Financial Bonus
Company Parties/Events
Above 25 days holiday
Egger like to recruit from within. Once they invest in talent, they like to keep that talent to benefit the group as a whole. There are many long-servers within the company (30years plus!), which is a testimant to the companies commitment to the welfare and training of their staff.
The Culture
The plant spans a very large site, so I very rarely had opportunities to spend time with other placement students. However, as the staff were so friendly, this was never an issue.
I have a unique situation for a student, as I am a homeowner. I commuted from Ashington to Hexham each day, which was unfortunately a very costly endeavour. Unfortunately, as Hexham is a little out of the way, commuting tends to be an inevatible factor. With regards to socialising, I never took the opportunity to go out into Hexham to socialise as I lived so far away.
Although I never actually went out into Hexham as previously mentioned, I am under the belief that the nightlife mainly consists of pubs and bars rather than nightclubs. However, Newcastle is just 20mins away!
Egger has a sports and social club which regularly organises events, such as Race Nights at the dogs, nights out in Blackpool, sporting competitions etc. They also have a society called EggerRuns, where employees are encouraged/funded to get involved it charity running events.
Details
Placement (10 Months+)
North East
September 2016