Industrial Placement Review

I enjoyed my placement a lot. I enjoyed being able to contribute to real projects where my work would be valued and used within real design work for huge multi million pound projects. I learnt lots of new skills which I will use in the future, such as new software and personal skills.

I feel very valued by my colleagues. I am trusted with the work I am doing and helped when I am struggling with different things. My colleagues see that I can do difficult tasks even if it means I get some help to initially push me in the right direction.

I feel like I was given some support and guidance by my manager, however as he is often out of the office it can be difficult to have a face to face conversation. I do feel like senior people are happy to help however and give lots of guidance when needed.

Whilst working on tasks frequently, sometimes as the most junior in the team, there wouldn't be work available to do as it was being completed by other members of the team, so I have had times where I've not had much to do other than Learning and Development, however when there are tasks, time flies by.

I think I was given a high level of responsibility which I enjoyed. I liked that I was accountable for the work I was doing, rather than people thinking what I am doing is incorrect. I did lots of work where my calculations were used for other calculations important to the project.

I do think the skills I have learnt will help me a lot in my studies and beyond. I think the main skills I will use are my inter personal skills and communicating skills I learnt as I did not necessarily have these before. Now I feel like I am much more comfortable in interactions with others.

There was a great general atmosphere. Everyone is very nice and everyone gets on well and has lots of conversations with one another. No one is too serious about everything which means you can feel comfortable having a joke with colleagues at lunch times. There are also lots of social events which I enjoy.

I believe it was pretty well set up. There were lots of other placement students and I starter lunch and quiz so that everyone could meet each other and meet the current people there too. There wasn't any formal induction as such however different people are in different disciplines so that makes sense.

There was different training which I undertook such as Autodesk Revit training, through which there was a test to pass at the end. There were also many CPD's to learn lots of new information from and presentations which I have been invited to where we learn about many different, helpful things.

There seems to be good opportunities to return after placement

There was a very good social scene between colleagues and placement students. There are many different lunch time and after work activities to participate in such as football. Also, my team would have lunches on occasions which were fun to go to to speak to everyone in the team out of the office.

Bath is a very expensive area to live in, and also quite pricey for social activities such as the pub or cinema. Many people do live in Bristol and commute by train, meaning their costs of living are typically less than in Bath however. Bath isn't massive however and I lived within walking distance of the office.

The nightlife is not bad, however there aren't any massive clubs like Bristol.

As mentioned there are many opportunities to get involves in activities outside of work. I personally enjoyed playing football after wok on Friday's as it was a good way to unwind from the week and get ready for the weekend. There are also different socials and everyone enjoys going to the pub every now and then.