Mechanical Engineering Placement Student Review

Overall speaking, I have thoroughly enjoyed my 12-month placement year at ASM Assembly Systems. My role was a Mechanical Engineering placement student. I have had many opportunities to put my academic knowledge to use in a professional environment. Sometimes I even had to go back to my old lecture notes to revise a bit before I could continue. I have also learnt quite a few new skills which will definitely be useful in my future career, especially the CAD and other software skills.

I feel like I was quite valued by my colleagues and manager during my placement. I was given plenty of different projects to do, and although often revolved around hardware engineering/design, these projects would require me to work with different departments. So I was able to get a better picture of how different departments work together. Additionally, I would sometimes be asked to offer my input on some technical problems that my colleagues had. These problems may or may not be suitable for me to handle, but the fact that they would ask for my opinion just makes me feel a lot more involved in the business.

Luckily, I was very well supported by my mentor and other colleagues. During the first few weeks, my mentor was very patient with me and explained a whole bunch of different things that I should remember and look out for, such as company culture, regulations and a CAD system that I'd never used before. After I became familiar with a lot of things in the company, he still offered me abundant help on learning how our product work, and this was crucial for boosting my confidence in taking on harder projects.

Overall, my workload has been relatively consistent compared to some of the other placement students. Sometimes I would get really busy when there was a lot of work and a deadline to be met. Other times I would have a bit more down time, waiting for other people/department to complete their work before I could continue with mine. Not long after my placement started, I was involved in a problem-solving project and that kept me busy for a long time. However there was a period in the middle of my placement when I didn't have much to do at all, and I was starting to get a bit bored. The company has a system which allows the employees to have easier and more flexible time management, which is really helpful.

I feel like my responsibility varied from task to task, but overall speaking, I was given a good amount of responsibility. Although my projects varied in terms of importance and impact to the business, I was almost always the one driving the project forward. Most of the projects that I did had long-term influence on our product, and the components/tools that I designed and built would be directly handled by customers and field engineers. So I was responsible for making sure that the my drawings and tests were accurate and reliable.

I have learnt many valuable skills during my placement. As a Mechanical/Product Design Engineering student, the most useful skills to me would be public speaking, problem solving, GD&T and PLM (Product Line Management). One of the most important things in any of my projects was to compile my results/data/solution into a PowerPoint and present it to my team or relevant departments. I would occasionally attend other people's presentations as well. Sometimes it would simply be a project update, sometimes it would be a design review. People would discuss all sorts of things about the project and raise questions. These meetings have been fantastic opportunities for me to practice public speaking, and I'm sure this is an invaluable skill for my future career.

This quite a subjective matter, but I think the atmosphere in my office was generally very good. People were very relaxed and free to talk to one another if need to. This was particularly helpful when I was trying to get some work-related help or information. Of course, you are also free to have a chat with someone over coffee break or at the desk.

I think the overall placement programme has been quite well organised. Because the standard length of the placement is 13 months, we had a 1-month overlap with the previous placement students. They have been friendly and helpful, my mentor and colleagues have also been very helpful, so the initial stages of my placement have been quite smooth. However, there wasn't any formal training or proper introduction on how the machine, i.e. our product, worked. There wasn't any introduction on what other teams did and how different departments worked together, so there was a lot of confusion going around and the only way to learn about those things was through day-to-day work, which wasn't very efficient.

I would say the main training I received was still about public speech, problem solving and CAD/PLM. I was able to learnt two different CAD/PLM packages, so that was very helpful, both for my degree studies and my future career. The company also organised a few mandatory presentation sessions for us to practise public speaking.

About 1 month before I finished my placement, I was given a conditional offer to come back as a permanent employee after I graduate. So I gladly accepted the offer and came back as a Mechanical Engineer after I graduated. There had also been a few cases where previous placement students came back after graduation.

There was a very cheerful energy between the fellow placement students from my year. We would constantly go out for a meal or a drink or a movie at the weekend. House party was also quite frequent. The Sports and Social Club had also organised quite a few events, such as laser tag and Christmas dinner etc. My colleagues (the senior engineers) would also organise meals or other events from time to time, and invite the placement students to come along.

I moved to Weymouth from Kingston Upon Thames, because that's where I went for my Master's degree, also, I did my Bachelor's in Bristol. So, compared to Kingston and Bristol, the living cost in Weymouth is quite a bit cheaper. However, the rent does vary a lot between different areas and different types of accommodations. I lived in a shared house with 4 other people, and I was able to bank up about 1/3 of my salary every month.

Pubs, bars, clubs....oh and there's a movie theatre as well. What more could one ask for?

The company organised two engineering exhibitions which I went to. It was a very eye-opening experience and I saw many interesting technologies outside of my field. You could also use this opportunity to build come connections with other companies.