Summer Placement Student Review

The work I did was interesting and accessible, and I think will be helpful for my degree. There is a reasonably sociable environment amongst interns, industrial placement students and graduates. I did not feel stressed or overworked. The work occasionally got a little bit monotonous and I would have perhaps liked if it was slightly more challenging.

My colleagues were great. My supervisors made me feel as though the work I was doing was useful to them, and my group head was chatty and made an effort to talk to everyone in our group every day.

I was lucky in that I had two people supervising me and was therefore usually well supported. Occasionally I felt as though some of my questions were left unanswered, but for the most part the guidance was good.

I had a fair amount of work to do, but I definitely could have managed more and was occasionally bored. I would have liked the opportunity to do more computing/programming-based work, but I was one of the only summer placement students who did not have this opportunity.

I was given a reasonable amount of responsibility and felt as though the work I was doing was important, and was my own. I was left to work independently regularly and often older colleagues even asked for my advice.

I think the skills I developed will be fairly applicable to my degree - I learned some new things about nuclear physics that will definitely come in handy. Beyond my degree studies, I think the opportunity to be in a corporate environment, interact with colleagues and complete work to a standard based on company or government policy will be incredibly useful.

The office is open plan which gives it a friendly, open atmosphere. Generally, there is a good balance between working and being able to chat with your colleagues. There is an emphasis on not overworking yourself while still producing high quality work, which is important.

The HR department at EDF tend to make a lot of mistakes and take a very long time to get things done. Everything seemed to happen late or last minute when HR were involved. Also, some of the opportunities (e.g. trips to power stations) that were organised in previous years were cancelled for our year which was a great shame. However, the organisation from the side of the NTB is great, and most of the issues are not their fault at all.

I did not receive much training, but was encouraged to get involved with a few activities like Lunchtime Lectures. I was told how to apply for the graduate scheme.

The EDF graduate scheme looks great and is accessible to summer placement students. I am not sure if I personally will apply to it because of my own career plans, but it would be great for people interested in the right things.

There was a reasonably good social scene - we went to the pub about once a week and always had lunch together.

Rent is around £400-500 for most places in Gloucester and Cheltenham. Socialising is cheaper than London but a fair bit more expensive than the North.

In the area where EDF is, there is no nightlife (it is outside Gloucester, in an industrial park off an A-Road). However, there is ok nightlife in Cheltenham at the weekends.

Very few - we had a team BBQ once but that was about it.