Student Quanitity Surveyor Review

I enjoyed My placement a lot. The job offered me a deep insight to what the role of a quantity surveyor throughout the lifecycle of a project/scheme. The project I worked on during my placement was interesting and offered a number of challenges and task that helped me develop my skills I had learnt at university.

I felt valued by my colleagues as everyone was really friendly from the start and offered me support and guidance and even future advice throughout my placement. there are people I have worked with this year that I would like to think I will keep in contact with for the rest of my life.

Sadly due to sickness my manager changed multiple time throughout my placement. Despite this I whoever was my supervisor offered me a lot of support or help if I needed it. I was given daily support by my colleagues within the commercial department as the were more directly involve with the work I was completing.

On a daily basis I was given a decent amount of work to do that ensured I had a realistic amount of work during the day. it was inevitable that in the beginning the work flow would be slow as I was just getting involved in the business but as time progressed I began to run my own schemes and work flow was no longer an issue.

During my placement I was given a significant amount of responsibility. by the end of my placement I was commercially looking after around 60 Pre design Survey Schemes. I was also given a lot of responsibility in preparing Final accounts for large schemes. I did always have support with the work I was doing if needed.

The placement allowed me to develop a lot of the skills I had learnt at university over the past two year. It allowed me to put a lot of the theory into practice. I believe this year has gave me skills that I will be able to use to help me once I have graduated and begin to work full time as a quantity surveyor.

The atmosphere it the office was nice. It was relaxed but also professional. The open plan design of the office allowed easy communication between different teams. there wasn't many social gathering for the whole office, however I did play football every Thursday with people from work. There were also a few graduates around my age so we often met up on weekends outside of work.

When I first joined we had a period of a few moths where we shadowed the placement students who had been there the year before, we slowly began to take over the work they had been doing. however we didn't have a set person who was designated to give us work. However after we had reorganisation within the office things were much clearer and more organised.

We were not involved in much external training and development during my placement, this was partly my own fault as I was unaware of the opportunities that were there with Costain. We did have some courses within the office such as mental health training and NEC contract training. There was also many online training courses available.

As long as I can get the grades that suffice the requirements for the graduate programme, I should have a future with Costain. They have many projects available that I would be interested in working on. they are a really good company and I would be very happy to be offered a job from them at the end of my placement.

There was a good social Scene. we played football every week and there was always something to do on the weekend with fellow placement student and colleagues. Maybe a few more social eent with different colleagues would have been good as it would have offered the chance to get to meet people who you may have not already spoken with.

The price of housing where I lived was reasonable, I lived with a fellow placement student in a 7 bedroom shared house. looking back we would have preferred to share an apartment as this would have cost a similar amount to the house share. The price of socialising in the area was also very reasonable, there were lots of things to do as a group that weren't too expensive.

There was a really good nightlife in Maidstone, there were plenty of pubs to go and drink in and there were also a few clubs. There were quiet places and also busy places depending on what you wanted. London was also not to far away so if you fancied a change of scenery it wasn't too difficult.

There were lots of activities available to get involved in outside of work. I didn't get involved in too much as I was travelling home and to there places seeing friends most weekends. Other students and graduates at the project did attend things such as Salsa and Yoga classes together.