Year In Industry Asset Engineer Review

The placement proved useful as an insight into what it is like working for a large corporation, however due to the size of Network Rail, my opportunity to participate in a wide variety of projects was rather limited. Network Rail as the 'client managers' for the government worked mostly in management rather than consulting or design.

During the year I worked within 2 teams, one within The Quadrant, The Network Rail Headquarters for 6 months, and on secondment in The Anglia Route for 5 months in order to gain more hands on experience. I felt more a part of the team on secondment than in The Quadrant, which was due to the team atmosphere being better.

I had 3 managers, a Line Manager who ensured I had no personal issues working within the company (bullying, achieving chartership objectives etc) whom was good at her job. A host manager in Anglia Route who taught me technically what was required of the job, and a Host manager in The Quadrant who was not a good 'teacher' and whom I did not learn much from.

I found myself either extremely busy, or very free, on multiple occasions. Projects would arrive all at the same time that required completion within deadlines set, and then after completion I could find myself idle for 2-3 weeks.

I was given sole responsibility of management of the defects tracker, a tracker used to track defects within the Network Rail infrastructure that engineers within the routes used to issue orders to contractors on what should be repaired. I was also given responsibility of reviewing NR assets with Hidden Critical Elements, judging the state of the asset and a suitable re-inspection date.

Skills developed are mostly managerial skills, and related to only one of the subjects I've studied in University; Engineering Management. I have not gained any technical skills within the placement due to Network Rail outsourcing their technical work to Consultants/Contractors. It would assist if I were interested in pursuing an engineering management role/degree, but not if I were interested in consulting/design or contracting.

General atmosphere within the Stratford office was excellent, I felt a part of the team, almost like family, and found them friendly sociable and easy to get along with, likely due to all the team socials the team participates in (once every 2 months). General atmosphere in The Quadrant was 'good' or 'okay' depending on whom I was with.

The placement was very well organised, with set guidelines in place from the start to ensure we work towards chartership objectives. I simply did not like the work given, as I found it rather dull without sufficient variety, nor the Host Manager I worked with in The Quadrant as I found him to not be a good technical teacher. Had I been placed in a different team the placement might have been far better.

I cannot fault the company on personal training and development, as the Line Manager placed a lot of emphasis on attaining objectives and signing to the ICE Training Scheme, and my host manager within the Anglia Route was a good technical teacher. However my host manager within The Quadrant was not.

I would like to work for Network Rail within a different department to gain experience in other more technical areas of Network Rail, such as Works Delivery or Infrastructure Projects.

I did not socialise much with my fellow placement students in Milton Keynes as I was not too fond of most of them. However I did socialise with the graduates in Anglia Route, and did socialise with the Summer Internship students when they started.

Milton Keynes is more expensive to socialise in than cities further up north, but cheaper than London.

I joined a dance club social in Milton Keynes that I enjoyed tremendously and got me into dancing. Otherwise there was not much social life within the city; difficult to get people to go out.

There were many opportunities to get involved with other activities in Milton Keynes, dancing, skydiving, climbing, water sports, however it was difficult to get people to go out and participate in such activities. As such I participated in most alone and met people at the activities.