Current Product Support Engineer Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed the entirety of the placement, the expectations placed on myself were realistic and developed accordingly as my confidence grew in the various processes. The team were supportive and welcoming as were the members of other cross-functional teams i worked with throughout.

Understandably work was often checked and analysed to begin with, however throughout the year this reduced to the stage my work was trusted to the same level of the other members of my team pretty early on. They often rely/trust me to complete tasks and respectfully expect them to completed to the same level of excellence and time frame as other members of the company.

The guidance and support was excellent, members throughout the company and my team have had placement years previously too and completely understand your views/standpoint and are more than happy to help. I never felt as though i was a burden or and inconvenience and colleagues were more than happy to explain things multiple times if required in complex scenarios. Additionally the guidance and support reduced overtime as confidence/expertise grew in the role.

I was very busy but to a manageable level and to one that suited me, tasks were generally assigned after discussion of my current work load. In the cases i felt unable to undertake more work my manager was accepting of this and happily reassigned this elsewhere, additionally when tasks were more time-consuming than expected it was understood and time-plans/expectations were revised

Due to the guidance and support of my team i was quickly up to date with the processes and was running projects with high- significance and high-profile customers, i was largely left to my own devices once demonstrating my skills/capabilities and the responsibility was only offered to the level i felt comfortable with.

The skills and training i have developed/received are invaluable. It has helped me to understand why the topics covered at university are important and helped me develop confidence in my engineering ability which in the technical aspects i sometimes doubt. It has focused my mind to tasks set at university and develop clear goals for what is assigned during projects/exams.

Though the onus is on efficiency and excellence, it is a chilled environment with no episodes of drama and everyone on the face of things getting along, its easy to have a laugh with a large amount of students at the company (25) as well as the other graduates and the always open door policy ensure theres no animosity/resentment present.

Clear goals and targets are set up once you get to grasp with the processes, it's set up to how much you want to do/ what you'd like to get out of the placement this versatile layout worked very well for myself.

The company had a clearly defined training plan for all the students and additionally recommended / set-up other training sessions you are interested in as well as job-specific training.

I've been offered a zero-hours contract despite being based over 2 hours away from the office, they've allowed me to work remotely from my university but also stressed the interest was to keep me involved for the years to come, additionally they are supporting me with my final year project in something that will interest myself and benefit the company with the view of developing the project if/when i return after my final year.

I lived locally and hence had friends from when i grew up in the surrounding areas but still got involved with the other students, there were often nights out each week and other events (go-karting, bowling etc) were also held through the year. Additionally we did events as a team, escape rooms, meals etc.

Cheap, i lived at home throughout the placement but the local area is very cheap to live in, with local activities and accommodation within walking/small commute distances.

The local town isn't the best but Newcastle and York are less than an hour away by car and less by train. That said even pretty poor towns can have good nights out with the right people around.

As mentioned i lived locally to friends i grew up with so wasn't heavily involved with the other activities but know they did things most weekends and those who lived in the town did things through week nights too.