Tribology Placement Student at Lubrizol

I I had a great year, the work I was doing was real work. It wasn't easy at times but there was always somebody willing to help and the fact I was doing useful work for the company really appealed to me.

Everybody is extrememly friendly and supportive and treated me like a 'real' employee. My work was valued and contirbuted to real, important projects.

I had a supervisor who was always willing to help on any project, even if they weren't directly involved. The support of the engineers both in my department and other departments was also brilliant.

The odd slow day is unavoidable but generally I was very busy. I was in charge of my own workload largely so could always find a way to progress a project. There were times where there didn't seem to be enough hours in the day which is great, I'd always rather be too busy than not have enough to do!

I was soley responsible for the running of two projects with budgets of around £100K. The direction the projects went in was largely in my hands but support was always available!

I was able to build on vital skills like project managment and presentation skills throughout the year with continuous practice and feedback. I improved my presenting skills a lot in my year at Lubrizol which will stick with me through my career and help with the next two years at university.

It would be hard not to get on with anybody at Lubrizol, everybody is really friendly and there's a real community atmosphere around site.

Other placements might rotate you around a few departments and try and give you a lot of different experience. Lubrizol doesn't have a set placement plan for students, every student will be working on different projects for their year doing real work within their department. It doesn't particularly feel like a placement, more like a job - which I really enjoyed.

There are times I would have liked to have gone on training courses or business trips to gain a bit more experience. It's not unheard of for students to go on extra courses or trips but it will depend on if your projects require it. There's no real set training scheme, but all H&S training and other internal courses (such as presentation skills) are available throughout the year.

There's no guarantee of a job after your placement but you are essentially on a year long interview. If you impress then it's not unusual for you to find your way back in when you graduate. A few of the engineers here were students on placement before being offered a job when they graduated.

Most students live together in student houses in Derby, and regularly went to pub quizes, bowling, dinner, nights out etc.

Pretty similar to student accomodation prices, can be cheaper if you rent your own house privately.

Derby is closeby for nights out.

There's a sports and social club running everything from badminton to climbing and trips to London. Small membership fee of £5 gets you massively susidised activies all year.