Student Engineer Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my summer placement with Costain in Bermondsey this year. I found it to be a very informative few months. I am very much looking forward to my next placement and hope that I can take forward the things I have learned from this placement to the next.

Coming into work every day was a genuine pleasure. All of the people I worked with made me feel like part of the team. They were willing to listen to some of my ideas and thoughts when problem solving. Despite being the youngest person on the team, I was treated like an adult.

There was a good amount of guidance given and support when needed. All my questions were answered and everyone was extremely helpful. I felt comfortable enough to speak with the of the members on the team- most of which were male. I found the buddy system to be very effective in making me feel supported.

I was given a good amount of work to complete from day to day, and if I felt like I didn't have enough to do, I would always say and be provided with another task. I also had a good balance of office work and onsite work, this gave me the chance to produce documents aswell as get my hands dirty on site.

Despite not having a degree or any qualifications in engineering, I was still given some responsibility with certain tasks. It was rewarding to feel trusted by the team to do tasks for them. I was also given some training for certain tasks to make sure that I did them properly.

During my placement a new member joined straight from university- I was able to speak with him about the course I have just started and get some tips. I found most things I did will be relevant in assisting me with my degree and future career. Aswell as the practical elements I learned, my teamwork skills and interpersonal skills definitely improved and helped me to become more confident as the placement went on.

I found the atmosphere in the office to be mostly positive. Despite there being some stressful times for those around me, I got on really well with everyone I met. Everyone was so welcoming, it made getting out of bed in the morning completely worth it.

I found the placement to have a good structure. At the beginning I sat down with my buddy and line manager to discuss key areas of focus and things for me to achieve over the course of my placement- this helped to give me a sense of direction and I found it to be very rewarding.

I found myself in most courses being run at the office- anything that was relevant to me or my team, I was signed up for. The placement itself for me was the biggest investment- I learnt so much about the company and the project aswell as about myself in a corporate environment.

I think Costain is a fantastic company. To be given the opportunity to work for such a large company on a key project in London at a young age, even before university, was so rewarding. I really like the fact that Costain see it as important to invest in the younger generation, which is why I hope that I can work for Costain in the future.

Despite there being no other placement students like myself- there were other people my age doing apprenticeships with Tideway. I was able to socialise with both people close to my age and older. I was always readily invited out for socials after work- I was made to feek very much part of the team

I lived from home just outside London during my placement but commuted to London everyday. The train tickets and parking were expensive but Costain reimbursed these tickets as well as paying me a salary for my placement. This was extremely helpful and also a very big perk for a student.

The nightlife in London is probably one of the best in the country, but du to my long commute I didn't go for post work drinks very often. But when I did, we usually went to a local pub. I really enjoyed spending time with the people I worked with outside of the work environment.

Yes I found there to be enough activities to do out of work. I played football after work for a couple of weeks which was organised between the members of the team. Also Tideway organised an activties day where you were given a tour of London on either a bike or walking- so I do think there were some good opportunities to participate in outside of work to give a good life balance.