Solutions Engineer Review

There were definiteily elements of the placement that I found difficult, but as soon as I got into the swing of things, I took them in my stride and really enjoyed the work I was doing and working alongside some really nice people.

I was treated like a proper member of the team, on par with other members who had been working at the company for years, and they gave help readily whenever I asked for it.

My line manager was extremely supportive and helpful. He helped enormously me whenever I asked for it, or needed it, but didn't want to spoon feed me the answers, allowing me to think problems through for myself and come up with my own solutions.

I was kept busy throughout the placement with lots of different jobs that I needed to balance. These included technical projects with my team, a group project with the other placement students and an individual project. There were very few occasions where I felt "over whelmed" with my work load as everyone was always very willing to help.

I was surprised at the high level of responsibility I was given, and it helps you to see what you have achieved over the time at your placement. I designed and organised installment of a test rig and wrote and presented a commercial report which contributes to the overall business case of a new product Spirax are developing, just to name a couple. Both of these tasks were my responsibility, and I am proud of the achievements.

The technical skills that I have learnt at Spirax will definitely contribute to my University degree, but I feel that the general skills I have learnt from being in a work place such as time management, working relationships and work ethic will be a huge benefit to me over the rest of my university degree and life.

The atmosphere in the office is quiet and hard working, allowing people to really concentrate on what they are doing. But the people in the office are all very friendly, so jokes and stories are not in short supply!

I think that the placement itself was extremely well set up, because not only did it allow us to develop our technical skills through our responsibilities in our teams, but also gave us a wider scope of projects to do, such as a group project with other placement students, and an individual project. These additional projects allowed us to develop time managment skills, presentation skills, team working along with a sense on independence in the job.

The company have put us on a list of training courses to get a better idea of the business, the techincal aspects of the products we're working on and even our emotional intelligence development.

Spirax Sarco is a global company at the fore front of their market. They are continuing to grow and always looking for fresh new talent.

There were six placement students, and we all got along really well, reguarly going out together. There are also lots of activities that you can get involved in with collegues such as rock climbing, running and football.

Some parts of Cheltenham are more expensive than others, but overall I would say that it is a reasonable price.

The nightlife in Cheltenham is really good, with lots of different restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs to go to with a great mix of people.

I've found that the Spirax community are actually very active. There are lots of different things to get involved in with collegues like rock climbing and football, but also completely detached from work, there are lots of different sports clubs and things going on in the area.