Intern Review

The placement with Arup was overall really enjoyable and a good learning experience. Everyone in the office was really nice and welcoming and any jobs you were given were well explained and loads of help was offered. It was also really enjoybale getting to work on major projects that you could relate to, in terms of actually using the final products, such as working on transportation routes around Gatwick airport.

Everyone in the office made you feel really welcome and it was a nice atmosphere to work in. It did seem at any opportunity my colleagues would give me work to get on with but at some points the amount of work wasn't enough to keep very busy. This was completely understandble though as everyone had deadlines to meet and had to prioritise accordingly. Overall I feel everyone was really helpful and looked at me as an equal.

I didnt personally have a supervisor, which I think might have been useful looking back at my time there, however weekly team catch ups meant that everyone was aware of the work that needed to be undertaken. Any person I began to work with was really supportive and would help as soon as I asked for it, as well as checked up on me throughout the day just incase.

I'd say the work load varied across the placement. At the beginning some of the days were slower and jobs were a bit random, but as the weeks went on I became more and more involved and eventually was fully participating in the final production of drawings for the client.

In all honesty I didnt think I'd be given much responsibility, due to the size of the jobs Arup are invovled in and the importance of the final product, however I was actually entrusted with a fair bit of important work. I think this really made the placement worthwhile as it gave a sense of what it was really like to be involved in the team and company.

I think that the placement definitely developed my skills that I can take back into my course. I learnt a fair bit about AutoCAD, such as referencing drawings into one another and creating final drawings with high professionalism. I also learnt how to use other programmes such as ArcGIS. I think overall learning to produce work for other people (clients) rather than just doing it for yourself was a good experience also as it made you realise the importance of professionalism and accuracy.