YII Student Engineer at Network Rail

I have enjoyed my time during my placement with Network Rail. The most integral parts of my placement include exposure to real projects, challenging yet interesting varied tasks and support from work-colleagues providing me opportunities to personal and career development increasing core skills and business acumen.

I must appreciate support from my working colleagues who have been helpful throughout and groomed me with every step. If you are willing to do your part, every one I came across in the company was helpful and showed concern.

I felt very fortunate to have every support I was expecting from my line manager as well as senior colleagues. They cared for every necessity and showed concern to every request; more than that they always guided me if I was stuck somewhere.

I was quite involved in different projects which asked for collaborations amongst different departments. I would say I was given opportunities and I enthusiastically took them as well as ensured to deliver value. However, I enjoyed the busy routine as it was never boring.

At first, I was given theoretical knowledge of the technicalities of the system, business, and projects. With time when I was more aware and confident, I was given few projects to lead as well as work alongside which gave me hand on experience of things and enhanced skills.

All the technical skills I have gained during my placement will be quite helpful in my Electrical Engineering degree. However, the most important skills which I have learnt and will stay for a long time would be professional skills, business ethics, etiquettes and essential exposure/knowledge of the industry.

The atmosphere at my work-place was very relaxed. However, there were some pre-set rules/code of conduct to which everyone obliged - one of the main one was to respect every one and their opinions. All of this allowed a very professional relaxed environment.

The setup was very structured and gave opportunities to learn and grow skills. Since it was organised, it allowed me to undertake several projects as well as deliver value with essential learning.

The company gave me every opportunity to enhance my skills and exposure as well as backed my participation in different events. They allowed me to do all basic courses to better understand company and its values.

Really good. There are many opportunities one can avail if you spend your time well and deliver value to all your projects.

Yes, quite a few.

I have done my placement in Preston and it was very reasonable/decent with the cost of living and socialising there.

The nightlife was quite good with regards to socialising and going out with friends.

There were many volunteering opportunities to get involved in outside of work like reaching out to schools to do STEM coaching and charity fundraiser programmes. I participated in quite a few.