Summer Placement Review

I thoroughly enjoyed the social aspect of work and the job satisfaction of working on real projects before I'd even graduated. The projects I worked on didn't enthuse me much as they were in the energy sector, which I personally don't enjoy much.

I made genuine friends with many of my colleagues from every level of management. Now that I have returned to university I still keep in contact regularly, sometimes to chat and other times they help me in understanding my university work. I look forward to my placements.

My colleagues made time to explain concepts to me if I was ever struggling with my work and I felt free to approach them with questions whenever I needed guidance. I was sat between the Associate Engineer and Principal Engineer on my last placement so help was always close by.

Most days I was reliant on another colleague to set my work for the day, which meant I often couldn't start my work until they had arrived and settled in to the office. If I finished my work whilst they were busy I would have to wait for them to finish, so there were lots of times when I had nothing to do.

I felt a real sense of satisfaction on the projects I was working on. I was often responsible for minor parts of the building but was given sole responsibility for them, which meant I could work to my own method but not under much pressure. Sometimes I was able to introduce my colleagues to new methods of working that I'd learned from university.

My placement definitely helped to consolidate the knowledge I'd already learned at university and it helped me to deeper understand other concepts that might have been overlooked at university. I was able to learn about and use Eurocodes before I was introduced to them at university which put me at a huge advantage.

Everyone in the office was really friendly and made an effort to make me feel welcome. We had fun office days like casual Friday and curry day where we'd all have lunch together. Everyone was chatty and I made genuine friends.

I didn't feel like much thought had been put into what I would be doing during my placement. The pieces of work I completed were done as and when somebody needed it doing, so I worked on lots of projects rather than working on one in depth.

I am sponsored by this company. I receive a financial scholarship and I am due to complete summer placements every year until I graduate, when I am expected to join the company full time. I have been enrolled on to a training scheme and I have had regular meetings with my manager about my progress. I've had a lot of guidance and help with that.

It is likely the company will offer me a job upon graduation as I am sponsored by them. I enjoyed my placements and I would like to work for them in the future.

I was the youngest in the office by 5 years so there was a bit of an age gap, but as I left more graduates were being recruited. The graduate engineers and I went on a night out which was really fun. The older staff are less keen on nightclubs but really enjoy pubs, so there are a decent amount of socials to the pub.

Manchester is a relatively cheap city to live in as far as I know.

Manchester has good nightlife as it's a student city. I have lots of friends who live there or go to university there so I am familiar with the nightlife already. The student nights run throughout summer as lots of students stay to do placements, so the nights have cheap drinks. There are also lots of classier bars in Manchester, and the Northern Quarter has lots of quirky bars to explore.