Process Engineer Industrial Placement Review

As any job it has it's ups and downs, wouldn't say I had the best time ever. Got quiet a balanced experience as I was finding opportunities and work throughout site of my own back through talking to other teams in department. Some projects were very exciting but day to day can be very tedious (as any job). They are not often prepared for students if you need a project for your university or with actual work to give you, expect to not do much in the first few months apart from reading training material. Due to the contractor you are employed through don't expect bonuses or even sick pay. For hard work you might get a £5 breakfast voucher if you are lucky.

I felt very much part of the immediate team and valued by them. By the wider value stream and management not at all but it seems to be an overall experience for most staff. For hard work you might get a thank you or a £5 breakfast voucher if you are very lucky. Unless you actively inform people how much work you have contributed towards a project doesn't really get recognised.

Supervisors gave me great guidance and subject matter knowledge supported me tremendously throughout the whole experience. Couldn't ask for better supervisors and mentors on site supporting through many stressful projects and activities. They gave me confidence in my technical knowledge and left me to my own resources to get on with it to the extent that I feel like an actual employee. Found it tough to get approval from management for extra curricular and outside of department activities because they don't like freeing up resource for a day or two. Expect to push for personal development opportunities outside of your department.

Literally either bored or too busy, rarely there was an in-between. Often fire fighting issues so you had to drop everything planned ahead to complete something else to a tight deadline. One piece of work that will look simple will take months to carry over due to lack information and being in a big business often right hand doesn't know what the left is doing causing a lot of chaos. However, from time to time you will actually have a steady plan to do your work at a good pace.

I was given a lot of responsibility which was very satisfying and made me enjoy work a lot more even if it was partially stressful. I have came out of here with many lessons learned and a good company on my CV. I had many opportunities to lead activities on site which helped me developed many negotiation and soft skills overall as well as time management and organisation.

Degree wise - I will be able to write my dissertation a lot quicker due to all the reports I wrote in short amount of time. Other than that I did a mass balance calculation once. I probably forgot almost everything I learned at university whilst doing my year in industry. Did not partake in much training because often when it was arranged I was too busy with work to go. Soft skills however, have been very much developed including scheduling and diplomacy. Definitely developed loads as a professional person in a corporate environment.

The immediate team and operators are amazing and made it worth it coming into work. Extremely supportive environment and a pleasure to work with.

They are not often prepared for students if you need a project for your university or with actual work to give you, expect to not do much in the first few months apart from reading training material. You will just have to find work for yourself by talking to other departments throughout and seeing what they are doing or you will get stuck with work that no one wants to do.

They don't like spending money on students. Site visits are organised but you will need approval from management and don't expect expenses to be covered because they probably won't be. You are often too busy to attend organised training and it is not often relevant to engineering/your job role anyway.

Being treated second class because Industrial Placement Students are employed by a contractor didn't make the company an appealing place to work for. I am much more informed about the direct entry/gradscheme routes and am looking into them as an option as you do get better treatment as an actual employee however, I don't see anything that this company can offer that another one cant if not better.

Social scene was quiet good.

Live at home so it was okay but it was the London and South East area so expensive as can be imagined

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There were opportunities here and there: Christmas Party Boat Party They were quiet good but these were organised by IPs not the company.