Industrial Placement Review

by Met Office

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

4.4/5
  • The Role
    4.5
  • The Company
    4.3
  • The Culture
    4.4

    The Role

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
  • I thoroughly enjoyed my placement year with the Met Office. My work was varied and grew my skills in Web Development immensely which helped me with my final year of study. I felt like my contributions/work was valued by my team and others across the office who I got a chance to work with, the work that I did was rewarding and interesting.

    5/5

  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
  • The team I worked with had a vast skill set due to the nature of work that we undertook (which was full stack). Because of this, team members would often ask me for advice/help if there was something they were stuck on they knew I had skills in. This was a great feeling as a placement student and gave me a lot more confidence to put forward my ideas during team meetings, which were always welcomed.

    5/5

  • 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
  • The support I was given during my placement could not have been better. I had regular 1-1 meetings with my line manager where we would discuss my progress and making sure my workload was manageable and basically where we could talk informally about how things are going both inside and outside of work. In addition to this, I had a mentor/buddy who was sat next to me, they were my go to person for any help/advice with code/design that I may have. We also had monthly meetings with a senior HR member where we would sometimes give a presentation (quarterly) to them and the other placements on what we had been doing. This was essentially to check that we had stuff to do and we were enjoying placement. These meetings were good as they also valued our feedback on our placements and what could be improved for future students. Lastly, I had a HR representative who I could go to about anything else HR related or otherwise who was really helpful.

    5/5

  • 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
  • Due to the nature of the work that my team undertook, sometimes were busier than others. Having said this, the slower times were not wasted as I was allowed to use it as 'personal development' where I could practice with the various tools/tech that I used in my job, trying out a new JavaScript framework for example. In addition to this, it also gave me time to work on the reports that I had to do for the uni throughout the year. On the flip side of this, at the start and end of my placements I worked on new services/projects, so those times were all go, although not stressful.

    4/5

  • 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
  • As soon as my mentor and line manager/tech lead were happy that my skills were in the right place (they gave me as much time as I needed to work on them) I was given real work to do that contributed towards the team. This was a good feeling as I felt like I was genuinely contributing fairly early into my placement. Towards the end of placement I expressed an interest in a new service/project to be developed that was coming to the team. Following this, I was essentially the lead developer on the front end side of the application, where I worked closely with another team working on the back end and my mentor provided help where I needed it (particularly toward the end of the project where it needed to be built and deployed and I didn't have much experience). This was a great feeling as many people across the office have seen or worked with the project I helped to develop since and gave me skills I could take forward to my final year. This was not a role which I expected to be given as a placement student and I was extremely grateful for it.

    5/5

  • 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
  • The web based technologies that I worked with on placement were the same ones that were used in one of my final year modules and my final year project (dissertation). This took some of the pressure of final year off as I did not need to learn the technologies from scratch and gave me more time to develop the projects to a higher standard. I therefore came out of final year with a much higher grade than I would have expected.

    5/5

    The Company

  • 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
  • Generally, the floorplate that I worked on was fairly relaxed and everyone was really friendly. A lot of people also made use of headphones when they just wanted to get on with their work which was good as I am one of those people and didn't feel awkward doing it. Everyone I had to speak to for a piece of work I hadn't met before was really approachable too.

    4/5

  • 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
  • There was a clear structure to my placement year. 4 of us joined the office who would all go into a team which we had expressed interest in during our interviews. We would work in those teams for the whole year and as previously mentioned had regular meetings where we would talk about what we had been doing.

    5/5

  • 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
  • I was given plenty of time to work on and further my skills. In addition to this, at the start of my placement I did training on Diversity and Equality, Health and Safety and internal training on the basic principles of weather and climate, which was really interesting. Placements since I was there were given the opportunity to go to conferences as well.

    4/5

  • 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
  • Flexi Time

    Subsidised Canteen

    Sports and Social Club

    Subsidised/Company Gym

    Company Parties/Events

    Staff Sales/Staff Shop

    Above 25 days holiday

    Working from home

    5/5

  • 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
  • I have since returned to the organisation as a Graduate Trainee, where I am rotating around different teams to gain different experiences. The offer of employment was conditional based on me passing the course (although a specific classification was not required). Once we have completed the graduate year successfully we progress into a IT practitioner role where we can choose what team to return to.

    5/5

    The Culture

  • 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
  • There were multiple Christmas parties in the office throughout different teams and groups (trainees, clubs etc). In addition to this, once a week the placements and trainees would go for a coffee for an informal chat about what they had been doing and general chat, which was good as it encouraged us to make friends outside of our specific team.

    5/5

  • 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
  • The cost of living in Exeter is quite high compared with other cities. I ended up commuting from Plymouth everyday for the duration of my placement. This was not too bad as I had a liftshare group which not only saved money but also was a good social aspect of the job as I met and talked to people in completely different areas (such as science and media). I am doing the same now I have returned.

    4/5

  • 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
  • Although I did not experience much of this where my office was (because I did not live there) I was always invited on social activities that people from the office were doing outside of work and Exeter has enough to offer. There was always an excuse for a trip to the pub as well for lunches, birthdays etc...

    5/5

  • 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
  • There is a social and sports club at the office where there were multiple organisations I could have got involved with. These were varied and included loads of different sports and even a board games club if you are into that. I did not personally get involved with these because of the commute but it was interesting to see, in the summer months some people from the office also practice volleyball with a full setup on the grass outside (there is a good amount of green space surround the office).

    5/5

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Details

Placement (10 Months+)

South West

October 2018


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