Mechanical Design Engineer Review

Thoroughly enjoyed working at ASM over the 13 months that I have been here, my role was as a Mechanical Design Engineer. The people are very friendly, the place in itself is beautiful and there are plenty of different things to keep you occupied. ASM run lots of different sporting activities throughout the week which were free and give you a gym membership for half price. I learnt plenty in regards to my placement being a Mechanical Designer, the work is practical as well as designing parts on CAD, which I think is very important. The placement in my position put a lot of pressure on you to get the job done, which I think in this case was good for it allowed you to make your own decisions and be properly involved in the projects that I undertook.

As I worked in two different areas, I would say for the first half I did not feel particularly valued, but at that time I was still getting to grips with the Company and still working on perfecting the basics. After moving into my next role which was the Automation Team, I then felt as though I was far more valuable being the only Mechanical Design Engineer for the team and with the team being a lot more close knit as there was only four of us. This I much preferred as you were then constantly busy.

I felt as though a lot of the time I either got help from people but they wouldn't teach me they would just tell me exactly what to do without any reasoning behind it and the other was being left to figure out a fair few things myself in which I felt I should have had a lot more guidance. In my case I cracked on with this and had to go and speak to lots of different people and introduce myself, but a lot of the time I was left in the dark on who I should speak to. I felt as though I should have had a different Mentor who was more involved in what I was doing, so then they could teach me instead of having to go find people from different teams that could teach me instead.

For the first half of my Placement I felt as though some weeks I would be busy and some parts I would have not much to do at all. During the second half I was nearly always busy, having three projects on the go and being in the R&D department of Automation, there were always things that needed to be changed and altered or parts that needed to be designed for 3D Printing or sending it off to be manufactured. So I would say for the most part I was busy, with not much time to sit twiddling my thumbs.

I felt like I was given a lot of responsibility during my Placement being left to design things in which I had to come up with the design completely myself. This I thought was great as long as you had a little bit of guidance when you started off. All in all I was doing nearly all of the Designing of the parts for the Automation Team which was informative and very enjoyable.

I definitely believe that the skills I have learnt at my Placement will be applied into any roles that I have in future Companies, from the Design work to the assembling of products, knowing what tool is used for what and how to use them properly. The design work I have done and working with the different materials I think will be useful for my studies and any job beyond that.

Atmosphere was good for the most part, ASM has a very relaxed office vibe in nearly any office that you work in. With people chatting when its necessary and to have a catch up but for the most part people are working consistently. You would normally never feel a negative vibe.

The organization of the work placement was not overall fantastic, there was not particularly any structure to what we were doing/ any bits at the start that was you being shown round and talked through how the machines work or anything like that. It did take a while for me and others to realize what all the machines do and what all the processes are.

I would say that when it came to investments to do with training etc etc. Initially there was no training at all and it was something that you just had to figure it out. Then the CAD software and database that we use was set up to change, so then they paid for training on the CAD software and on the database. This was good to get some training in some different software and allowed me to use multiple different CAD software.

From what I have got from the Placement I think that if a role does come up in the future that is applicable to me and I reply having worked at the Company before, if they liked you would most probably be hired. From speaking to previous placement students a lot of them did the year and ended up coming back once they finished their degree.

I feel like I had a good social relationship with a lot of the people that I worked with at ASM. From playing loads of Sports with friends to going for drinks with friends on the weekend. With the placement students it is luck of the draw on who is in your year but there are lots of social people at the Company which is good.

I would say that the cost of living and socializing was relatively cheap to what I was used to. The accommodation down here seemed to be far cheaper and the general price of eating and drinking out was no way near as pricey as Brighton which is where I go to University.

The nightlife was an interesting one, they claimed to have clubs but they were all rather small and their were lots of them in a small area. They were more like bars than anything, but there are still lots of places to go and drink and they have lots of live music down in Weymouth.

I would say that there were plenty of opportunities to get involved with activities outside of work, I played beach volleyball and badminton outside of work and I know there is a good tennis club too! I think it depends on how much you want to put yourself out there and what you are into.