Construction Engineer Review

My internship at Fluor was brilliant, I learned a great deal and was able to gain some invaluable experience. The people I worked with had a wealth of experience for me to learn from and some great war stories too. I worked on a variety of projects, gaining an insight to a vast spectrum of Construction projects and I also went out on a site assignment for about half of my internship. This allowed me to experience both the office and site work environments. It was insightful, beneficial and enjoyable, what more do you need.

Though being an intern I always felt valued during my placement year. I was given assignments that had a real purpose and were important to moving projects forward. Placement Students are given menial tasks, but this definitely was not the case with Fluor and I given plenty of responsibility. Everyone within my department and project teams were great to work with, they had the ability to socialize and be friends while maintaining professionalism. In this, I cannot fault Fluor at all.

I worked for 3 different Construction Managers during my placement, which was great for my development. All 3 of my managers supported me in my work, looked for development opportunities and took the time to teach me. I was given a good level of responsibility and left to get on with my work, but I could always ask when unsure.

My work load varied from time to time, some days were full on and others were more slow but in general I was very busy and there was always something to do. During my time in the office and the occasions that Project work was more quiet, I was kept busy with training and other tasks for the Construction department.

I was made accountable for developing project deliverables and plans that would later be used on the project and I was put in charge of a variety of aspects during my time onsite. Many of my classmates were given a lot of menial tasks and admin work, but this was not the case with Fluor. I was expected to play a key role in the project execution.

The experience of working on projects provided me a real insight into the dynamics of the construction industry, and allowed me to better understand the wider implications of actions on the contract, budget, schedule, quality and safety etc. All of this allowed me to improve the quality of my degree coursework as I had real situations to relate back to. Further to this, my outlook became more professional, further assisting my studies, and setting me up perfectly to start my career.

Very social and friendly atmosphere. We always managed to have a laugh while maintaining a professional and strong work ethic; there was always a focus on hard work and meeting deadlines.

The placement was well organized, despite not following a set path like many placements do. This is due to the fact that Fluor focus on learning by doing and I was actually performing project work. This real exposure was great in preparing me for graduate work.

Fluor have a very good internal training system. I completed a lot of courses on Fluor and the industries they work in, Construction, safety, engineering, cost & schedule, among many other. I also completed several external courses that were relevant to my job such as the CCNSG safety passport and IOSH Managing Safely.

Very appealing. Fluor offer the opportunity to work on large, complex projects around the world, and the financial benefits are the best I have seen for a graduate job. I am currently working as a graduate for Fluor, and it is as good as they say it is. A challenging job, great people, travel the world and earn loads of money... what more do you want?

My fellow placement students were great, including the interns from the year before, as they all had similar interests to me. The social scene was therefore good. Fluor also have a graduate group which I was part of, they regularly meet for a drink, bite to eat or for a gathering outside of work.

Farnborough varies a lot, I rented a flat while I was there, which was quite expensive but you can easily get a cheap houseshare / rent a room, if you want to save a bit more.

Farnborough is well located to get into London or to go to Guilford / Reading, so there is always an option to travel there for a night. Farnborough itself is more quiet but has some good pubs and a few good restaurants which were good during the week.

There was quite a lot of opportunities, with work socials, sports team and the graduate group. Definitely not short of options there.