Work placement engineer Review

I enjoyed the placement a fair amount. It has given me a valuable insight into what a career in civil engineering would be like and what sort of work I could expect to be doing. There did however seem to be points where work available for me seemed to dry up which began to get tedious.

I feel I was valued by a select few with whom I worked closely on certain schemes. While most of my colleagues were friendly and some engaged in small talk, I did not feel many were too bothered about me being there and some potentially saw providing work for me as a chore.

On arrival, I was pleased to find that everything I needed to have access to was set up and ready to use so i did not have to sort everything myself which I have found myself having to do in other jobs. Generally if I was confused about something on a job, my supervisor was good at pointing me in the right direction.

This seemed to vary from week to week. Some days I could suddenly have 2 or 3 tasks given to me which would keep me busy for a few days but other days work available seemed to dry up and I was having to stretch some work out so that I wasn't sitting there doing nothing.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility. I had to make my own judgements on what defects on certain structures required attention and put this into a review. I also had to contact around 40 people when assisting with invoicing and fill in hours ready to be sent of in a CRB by my deputy manager. This level of responsibility was good as it was enough but not too much.

This placement allowed me to gain a valuable insight into what a career in civil engineering would be like and allowed me to improve my knowledge of things that would be useful in this kind of career. I have become more proficient using software such as Microsoft excel which will be useful during my degree as well as my working life. I have also learnt the basics of the software autoCAD which will be useful in any sort of engineering career.

Some parts of the office seemed to have a better atmosphere than others. I could hear some teams engaged in chat a lot of the time, whereas the team I was in and other people I sat around seemed more quiet and less willing to have a conversation. While they were friendly, it did make the atmosphere seem dull.

In terms of having access to the systems I needed access to and having IT set up for me, it was set up well. However, there was confusion during the placement as to what was going on with payment for Summer placement students. This lead to emergency payments having to be used in the first few weeks which then lead to me being paid incorrectly overall which despite my efforts I never managed to get sorted with the payroll team.

They provided me with some teaching to get me upto speed with the concepts around what I was working on so I had a clearer picture of how what I was working on would be used. I was also given the relevant material needed to learn the basics of AutoCAD which would be useful in any form of engineering career.

While my time there was valuable as it gave me an insight into what this career would be like, the lack of work and often lack of willingness to find work for me may put me off. I would definitely consider taking a job at KIER if I was offered one, but if I had other job offers at the same time, KIER would probably be low down the list.

There were no other placement students working there for most of the time I was there. There was a group of apprentices who had worked there for some time but socialising with them was minimal, again due to a sense of quietness I got from them.

I was fortunate to be able to live at home with my parents during this placement so this question does not really apply. From living here though, I know socialising can be cheap as long as the expensive pubs/bars/clubs/activites are avoided.

Again, knowing this from living here, the nightlife in Birmingham is good with a wide range of pubs/bars/clubs available each with differing aspects appealing to different tastes. While I did not go to any nightlife with any of my colleagues from the placement, I know from going with other friends, that the nightlife in Birmingham is good.

There are oppotunities to get involved in a variety of activites around Birmingham whether it be shopping trips or theme parks such as Drayton Manor. There were no activities organised by my colleagues as such but there are definitely things to get up to if you have friends to go with.