Summer Student Review

I really enjoyed my summer internship, my colleagues ate lunch together most days and often hung out together after work on nice summer days. There were many graduates in the team which made the team feel very youthful. There was a network of other summer interns in the London Victoria office who met up several times.

I had just completed my first year on civil engineering at university so I was lacking knowledge in design concrete and steel beams, but I worked and developed my skills in Revit for a project and I felt very valued in the run up to a project deadline and stayed late working with the team.

Due to my lack of design knowledge because I was a first year university student, my colleagues would help my find the relevant design codes and examples to help my complete my work. They would also provide examples of documents of similar work they would like to produce. Management meet with me every other week to ensure that I had work lined up.

Most days I would know what my days entails before going into the office. However in my first and last week my work load slowed down and I spent my time reading documents on the intranet and feasibility reports from past projects, or familiarising myself with euro code design examples

Most weeks I was mentoring one or several work experience students aged 16-18, giving them support in the tasks, Revit tutorials and watching their presentations. I calculated some beams and columns and was implementing them into the Revit model which I was working on most days to make it up to date and align with the architects model.

Hugely valuable to my degree! I gained confidence in beam design and using euro codes, and I am knowing formally learning them in my degree and I am picking up the concepts far quicker than I would without my summer internship. Going back to university after 16 weeks off was far easier back I was using my knowledge over the summer.

The atmosphere was very light, and lunchtimes were chatty with the graduates who ate together.

Well set up. My laptop and login were ready for me when I arrived on Monday morning

I had to complete 10 hours of online health and safety training, hand safety and site practice, even though I didn’t go to site during my 10 week placement

Very appealing, Atkins has a great graduate scheme,

They had a great social scene, colleagues went to the pub together frequently during the summer, play sports together and a charity triathlon. Daily people would leave to get lunch together. A network of summer interns was made and up met up after work and at lunch, and could share experiences.

I lived at home with my parents and travelled by train a 50 minute journey into London Victoria which cost me £58 per week with my 16-25 railcard. Socialising with colleagues at a pub after work would cost on average £10 each time, although graduates and managers would offer to buy me a drink frequently.

The younger graduates and other interns would often stay at the pub to 10pm although I had to get a train home which stopped running at 10:30, so I would leave early. There was a great scene and my colleagues would look out for me and each other being out in London at night.

The building structures team played touch rugby together, squash, and bouldering. Some were organised within Atkins and some colleagues arranging amongst themselves. The whole team took part in a Triathlon on a Saturday, some in relay teams and some solo, and other colleagues showed there support on the side lines.