Summer student - Quantity surveyor Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my placement at Faithful and gould in Cardiff. The team were very helpful and taught me a lot. I felt as though I learnt more from my placement at faithful and gould than I did in my first year in university and so I am very glad I took the opportunity.

I felt valued highly by my collegues. They made me feel like I fit in straight away and I never felt worried about going to work. Many of my collegues at faithful and gould offered me work and assistance whenever I needed it- and they offered one to one advice on many occasions.

The management and supervisors at faithful and gould were always there if I needed any help with any task I was set. I was never put under a lot of pressure to complete work faster than I was capable of at the time I started my placement and I felt comfortable asking for help.

I was busy on some days and very quiet on others. However this is no one's fault as there was not always consistent work to be done for anyone in faithful and gould Cardiff at that time. One week would be very busy and the next would be fairly quiet, but I could always complete training modules when quiet.

I believe that I was given a fair amount of responsibility during my placement given my current knowledge of quantity surveying. At times, I was positively pushed in order to aid my learning and put me in the deep end which I believe benefitted me greatly and will continue to benefit me when going back to university.

As mentioned previously, I feel like I have learnt more in the 10 weeks here at Faithful and gould than I have in the entire first year of university. It has given me first hand experience of how to apply the university training to real life work and real life construction projects.

The general atmosphere in the office surprised me. I did not believe it was going to be so friendly and inviting. I felt like I fit in straight away and everyone was helpful- from one end of the hierarchy to the other. There were no tensions between anyone in the office and it was generally a great place to work.

The placement I believe was set up as well as it could have been given the current situation regarding construction projects within the firm. There was a lot of training for me to go through which benefitted me greatly for example, the use of CostX and other training modules produced by Atkins.

After my placement, the company I was working for offered me a permanent job whilst attending university part time. This means no university fees, a competitive salary and constant experience surrounded by knowledgeable quantity surveyors. This will benefit me greatly going forward into university and the in a job once I complete university.

I was lucky enough to live at my parents home during my summer placement at faithful and gould in Cardiff. This meant I could save money in order to fund my university debts. The only money I needed to spend was petrol and lunch on occasions where the team would go together for lunch in Cardiff centre.

The nightlife is very good in the area I worked in (Cardiff). I have many friends who live in the surrounding areas which I have not seen for a while and it was good to go out in Cardiff to enjoy the nightlife which it has to offer. I would highly recommend it.