Summer Vacation Student Review

Overall I enjoyed my placement with Arup. Worked on High profile and challenging projects. Worked as part of a multi-disciplinary team. The team and staff were all easy to work with and very friendly. It was a very comfortable and relaxed environment to work in and not too heavily pressured. The ethos of the company really stood out in all their dealings and they clearly have a concern for employee well being. Lots of support from staff and management and very engaging.

I felt all of my work and contributions were valued, even the smaller tasks I carried out. My work would be reviewed and checked and comments/recommendations for any changes made. All of he work I carried out contributed to the teams combined efforts on a project and I therefore felt valued in my work.

Management were always very engaging and supportive. If I had any queries or questions they were always happy to help and explain concepts to me. I was never made to feel a nuisance for asking for help or advice on anything O was unsure of. Management were keen to share their wealth of knowledge gained through experience.

Work load varied and depended on the project demands. My project came to a sudden pause towards the end of my placement, and so I found myself with not too much to do. But Arup have the 'Arup University' which is an online learning platform of resources, text, lectures that we can work through for CPD. So I picked some topics I wanted to learn about and worked through them if I found I didn't have loads to do and of there wasnt any other jobs with other teams that I could pick up.

All work is checked and reviewed so really no one person is responsible for a single piece of work. But with that said I would be given responsibility for calcs or designs that would then be used in subsequent multi disciplinary meetings, sometimes there wasnt always enough time to check the work before meetings and so there was a level of responsibility and trust awarded to me to ensure my work was thorough and correct for the meetings.

Much of the work I completed was similar to my end of year group design project and so this gave me an opportunity to develop and build in those skills learned at Uni. I will certainly be more practiced and experienced in these areas moving forward into my next year at uni and any further group design projects.

Generally very pleasant. People were always busy but always had time for you if you needed to discuss work or chat over a thing you weren't sure of. People were happy to chat over a coffee and show me the projects they'd been working on. Theres monthly social meetings where Arup would put on some finger food and drinks after work to provide space and opportunity to mingle and chat. I thought this was a really great idea as it allowed you an opportunity to engage with other employees whom you may not have had the chance to talk to, or just to get to others a little better over a cold beer.

There was some miscommunication on my first day as the people I was intended to report to were out of the office. So others weren't too sure what to do with me. But once I got set up and things got going this was only a little bump in the road on my first day. Other than that the overall setup of the placement was very smooth and orderly. Paperwork was easy and clear to manage and communication with HR very good.

They gave me a lot of time. Before starting I was worried people would brush me off as just a summer student and not invest anything into me, but this was not at all the case. People were always more than happy to help me with either anything - whether explaining a theory or concept, explaining a project design, or just explaining the Arup internal computer filing system and intranet.

Arup are not only leaders in their respective field of engineering but ti thinknthey are leaders in terms of their outlook - environmental outlook, employee wellbeing job satisfaction, career progression and personal development. Therefore I would love to work as a graduate engineer for Aruo and hope to return to them next summer for another placement.

Other placement students got in well. we were all introduced at the beginning and would often catch up for a chat over a coffee to discuss our projects and the work we'd been doing. Theres a really warm and welcoming atmosphere in the office and so it was always easy to get on with everyone.

I only went out for lunch with other from the office and a couple of evening events so can only comment on that sort of socialising. But the food and drink was always reasonable and never too expensive to afford on my student salary. The city isnt too expensive for this sort of socialising

I can't comment on nightlife as I would have to drive home (so no drinking else I'd be stuck) but from what i could see Cardiff city is a very pleasant city with loads to do. You certainly wouldn't be disappointed or find yourself with nothing to do - but as i dont live in the city I cant comment on the nightlife.

Loads and loads of social clubs within the company. The company really promotes them.and encourages staff to socialise and have fun outside if work and the office - which is great. So there were tons of things to get involved with - loads of sports clubs and other activities to get involved with.