Assisstant Site Engineer Review

The work I was undertaking was interesting and relevant to my degree, and I was given a lot of support and training. I was given a range of responsibilities that changed throughout the placement as my abilities improved. This meant that I got a varied experience and I feel I learned a lot from it.

Despite there being an age gap of 10+ years with most of my colleagues, there was a very welcoming feel to the office and the workers on site were very approachable aswell. With time, I proved what I could do and was therefore given more responsibility which made me feel trusted and valued.

I was given an ideal balance of support and guidance and being left to think for myself. There was never a point that I felt out of my depth with no safety net, but I was also not treated like a child and was allowed to make decisions about how I carried out my work. I feel that this helped me to learn very effectively.

There was always plenty of work to be getting on with and, with good setting of priorities and time management, I found that the days passed very quickly as I had a good workload. There were quiet times and times that were very busy, but such is the nature of a construction project and on the whole I was not rushed off my feel or bored stiff.

This was my first project and I was completely new to the industry so it took some time to get used to the environment and learn what was expected of me. Once I had done this though, I was given a good level of responsibility and I did not feel out of my depth. I was even given the responsibility of training a new assistant to take over one of the jobs that had previously been down to me to complete.

This was an invaluable experience. I feel this placement has brought a new focus to my studies and I now know more what it is that I am working towards. In my mind I can visualise problems more clearly now that I have actually seen them out on site and this will make my studies feel more relevant. Other skills such as communication and computer skills are skills that I have improved that can be applied to life, not just my degree and career.

Everyone in the office had a good relationship. The management was very good, everyone was professional but also got along very well socially. I found it easy to build good rapport with every member of the team in the office.

This company has an excellent placement learning scheme set up so I learned about the company's current state of affairs and values aswell as learning how to be an engineer. the induction and end of placement events were well put together, well run and were a lot of fun.

I was given a good level of responsibility and team members were willing to spend time on helping me develop my skills and knowledge. I was sent on the relevant training courses and got detailed answers to any questions I had.

I was given very good feedback and they are keen to have me do placements in the future. I am excited about the future works that the company will be undertaking and hopefully have a good chance of securing a graduate job.

On the site I worked on I was the only placement student but I did have the opportunity to meet and socialize with placement students working on projects all around the country at the placement scheme induction and group presentation event. The office team at my site did occasionally go out for a drink after work which was a great chance to socialize with them.

I was working in London which is notoriously expensive but I was able to live at home in Hertfordshire and commute (which was still not cheap but the company paid me a travel allowance).

There is lots of nightlife in the area that I worked but given that I had to commute quite far daily I did not often get to experience it.

There were one or two events and socializing opportunities but the focus was primarily on working as the working day was very long (7:00-18:00).