Process Engineer Placement Student Review

I got great opportunities, including travelling a lot (Europe, Western Asia/Eastern Europe area, all over the UK. opportunity for Asia), but I found that travelling wasn't really for me. Sometimes work was slow, but that was just the nature of the job as it was a consultancy.

Everyone was really friendly and helpful. You got treated like a usual member of staff, with the exceptions of sometimes having to do the more menial tasks (e.g. printing) but that is only to be expected as the other staff are obviously more experienced and when these more menial tasks have to be done, it only seems right to use your resources efficiently and get the placement student to do it.

If you asked for support, you got it. And when I went travelling I was briefed and got the chance to ask any questions. It was more the staff as a whole than the manager that were available for guidance and support, but if you needed help you definitely got it if you asked.

Some days were slow (no work), some days were busy. Again, only to be expected from a consultancy. When work was slow, there were chances to prepare for courses or do some uni revision.

There wasn't really much responsibility to be given. You were treated like a member of staff, doing the same job as everyone else except the team managers. I was left to do work by myself, which gave me some responsibility, but that was the extent of responsibility that anyone got.

I didn't do much technical work, so the work won't be that useful for uni. But what I did learn is definitely useful for the real world and getting a job like this in the future.

It was a quiet office as a whole. but my department was the loudest. You could have a chat with everyone but it was quiet enough to get work done. At lunch all the grads and placement students ate together, so that was fun. And every so often work events were organised such as meals out or the Christmas event. There were raffles and charity days throughout also. The fun never stopped with the grads and placement students, but staff wise everyone would chat but there weren't that many events

It was badly organised to start off with. The previous placement student had to take over and sorted it out amazingly, but it shouldn't have been her job. Certain jobs the communication was bad, so at one point I was told I wasn't travelling, arrived at the office and was told I was meant to be away.

I attended several courses, but the work came first. There was a really good course I wanted to attend but I was told I had to go and travel to do some work. A good opportunity, but this course would have been useful for my career and for university.

I've been asked to extend my contract with them over summer, which I'm happy about. I'm not sure the travelling is for me, but the company definitely has it's perks and the work can be good

The grads and placement students always had lunch together and went out often for meals, and night outs. Several of them went on holiday together, and weekends always had the opportunity to meet up. Some of the staff went to gym at lunch time with the placement students, so really if you wanted to do something social at whatever time there was someone there to do it with you.

If you weren't fussed about quality, you could get anything cheap! but it wasn't much more for better quality. Food and drink were amazingly cheap, especially on nights out, and houses weren't too bad either.

Not a great area around the workplace, but Newcastle was nearby.

Some of the staff played sport together, and there was an annual golf event. Other than that there weren't really any other opportunities.