Summer placement engineer Review

I enjoyed my 2 month placement very much!! It helped me improve my understanding of civil engineering, and gave me skills I will be able to use in my academic and professional career. The only reason I did not give 10 stars is due to the fact that at the beginning the placement was quite slow, in my opinion.

I felt extremely valued by my colleagues!! Everyone was very lovely and helped me settle in very well. They would give me new, exciting tasks and always exaplained what I had to do in detail. Even though I was only part of the team for 2 months, I honestly felt like I belonged there and everyone treated me like one of them.

Everyone at work was extremely helpful every time I had a question/issue. There was always someone I could ask if I did not understand something (either technical terms or tasks) and even though everyone was very busy, they were always willing to help and make sure I got the best experience and learned a lot while working there!

Apart from the beginning, which was a bit slow, I was busy everyday. I had a number of different tasks to do- such as mark ups, doing checks on site, working on permits or other paper work and doing safety walks around site. There was always something to do and if I was free, I would always ask my colleagues if they needed any help.

As I was only there for a short period of time, I just helped everyone with their work so I was never given “full” responsibility. However, I did write up sample documents, looked after concrete pours and had to do measurements on site that were vital to the progress of the project.

My skills developed a lot during my placement! It was an amazing experience and not only did I learn how things work on site but I also learned a lot about different materials, understood how to do certain calculations better, learned how important PPE is and the fact that workers need to be reminded to wear it at all times. I also improved my communication skills and felt that I had really overcome my shyness.

The atmosphere was great in the office at all times! Despite the huge amount of stress, everyone was always in a good mood and happy to chat and help me whenever I needed anything. Everyone would bring doughnuts in on their birthday and everyone was extremely friendly and welcoming while I was there.

The placement was very well organised. There were 2 placement students (another girl and I) and 2 teams (BOH and FOH) and the placement was set up so that each one of us would help out a different team. It was very well organised and we were always given something to do.

The company invested in me in terms of always giving me time and attention whenever I required any help or was confused about anything and how it should of been done. Even though everyone had great responsibility and a lot of work, they would always make time for me if I needed anything- not only to give me feedback on tasks completed but also to guide me on how to complete future tasks.

As a company, Kier Group has so many interesting projects all over the UK. I would love to work with Kier again as the experience was amazing and it offered me great skills! Crossrail is one of the biggest projects not only UK-wide but worldwide and all of Kier’s projects are just exciting.

The team would always go out for drinks after work at least one day a week and on very special occasions, we would even go out for breakfast at different cafes in the area. There was also company football happening on weekends but as I am not very sporty, I did not attend those.

As it was London, everything was quite pricey I believe. I could afford going out and socialising every once in a while, however I could not do it too much not just because of the price but also because of time as the working hours were quite long and I would be quite tired when the day was over.

I believe the nightlife in my area was quite good, however I did not experience it myself as I not very much of a “nightlife” person.

There were quite a few opportunities to get involoved in activities outside of work- such as the football on the weekends and and the drinks and breakfast during the week days. Everyone was very busy and there was a “weekend rota” so there were not as many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work but overall it was enough in my opinion.