Civil Engineer Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Costain. I made loads of new friends and enjoyed all of the experiences that Costain had to offer in the workplace.

My colleagues made a huge difference to the whole experience. I was fortunate enough to work in 4 different departments so I made friends across the whole project and it was these people who make the difference when enjoying work.

I don't normally ask for much help and advice, I always try to solve things on my own. However, I felt perfectly happy to ask for help, with my managers, colleagues and supervisors always going out of their way to help me out. This enabled me to learn so much more from experienced engineers and gave me a great insight into management.

It varied depending on each department but the project I worked on consisted of 3 companies working together in a joint venture. The Costain employees were always the first to work and the last to leave. They worked hard and to a high standard. Every job has its natural heights and falls of workload but I would say I had a good amount of work that was challenging but not too much to stress me out daily.

This is where my placement excelled. As there were a lot of small schemes within my project, it allowed me to undertake roles I had never expected. I worked as a project manager, a designer, a planner and a site supervisor. As the risks were small in comparison to some of the much larger projects, there was less resistance within the company to give me large amounts of responsibility.

I have developed a broad range of skills at Costain, allowing me to progress in the 4 departments I worked in. The only way this could have been improved is if I gained a bit more commercial experience. I learned a lot of valuable skills that I am already applying now that I am back at university, especially my time management and work skills.

The general atmosphere was casual in the office. There was a lot of fun to be had and everyone was very friendly. It was easy to talk to people and there were plenty of events going on to have fun in the office.

The placement had a good structure as the project had been used in previous years for students. There were a few hiccups with the initial plan along the way as some departments didn't have work for me at the time but it was worked around to ensure that I got a good experience.

I completed the Site Managers Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS), Cat4 and Genny training, First Aid at work training, Lean Awareness training and Costain behavioural safety training.

They are very appealing and I am looking forwards to coming back to Costain to work again as a graduate.

I lived with the other placement student on the project and there were a few graduates our age that we socialised with after work as well as playing football and basketball for part of the sports club.

The cost of living was fairly low considering I lived on the edge of Nottingham. Being a short tram journey from the centre of the city, there were loads of places to go shopping and drinking on weekends.

The nightlife was very good, especially as Nottingham has such a large amount of students. This resulted in nights out being cheap and loads of good bars and clubs being easy to find.

There were sports clubs such as basketball and football as well as ghost walks, spa days etc. that were available for a small fee, partially covered by the company.