Product Resolution Engineer - Customer Support Review

I enjoyed the varied work given to me by my team. I was able to experience a wide variety of tasks, situations, events and training. This has allowed me to become a much more well rounded individual who is able to apply new skills, confidence and experience to a variety of situations that will help me in future life and my career.

My team made me feel welcome straight away! The ethos within the whole of Cummins is outstanding and by far the friendliest and most courteous place I have ever worked. Everyone is willing to help you as much as they can, or point you in the direction of someone who will be better suited to assist. My team always valued my input, and showed gratitude for the hard work I put in to tasks they set me.

I was given sufficient support and guidance throughout my placement year. I was never micro-managed, often left to my own devices to get on with the tasks I had been set, on top of my usual routine jobs. However this did not mean that support was not there if I needed it. I learnt that if I ever got stuck with anything, I only had to ask for help and my team were more than happy to assist me, or point me in the right direction of where to get help with a particular task.

As with any large company, there is a constant stream of issues that need resolving. This meant that often, work was delegated to myself so that my manager or the rest of the team could focus on more urgent tasks to hand. However, I also often got delegated highly important tasks. If no work was being delegated, I had daily, weekly and monthly tasks to keep me busy.

Again, as with such a large company, there are always going to be a lot of people higher up than you that will be dealing with the much more important tasks than you would ever be expected to complete on a placement. Despite this, occasionally I did receive an important task to complete, one example being to create a presentation containing sums and figures which I had calculated myself, to be shown to someone incredibly high up in the company.

As part of the placement year at Cummins, all students undertake a 5 module Student Development Program. This is designed to provide you with skills that you can utilise both during and after your placement has elapsed. Although sometimes these modules may seem a little dull, they provide you with soft skills that you will reap the benefits from in the future.

The general atmosphere in the office was extremely good and friendly. Each department is split up into self-contained pods meaning it is easy to work closely with one another. However I often had to work closely with other departments and individuals through day-to-day tasks or one-off events, meaning I was able to make a lot of good working relationships throughout the office. This helped me to feel much more "at home" while at work.

The placement is well structured from the outset. A week long induction is provided at the beginning to allow all students to get to know each other. Following this the students are fully introduced into their respective department. The transition is well structured, with a hand-over training period from the previous placement student allowing the work-load to be transferred whilst still retaining the experience of the previous student in the short-term.

The company has invested in me in terms of providing me with the student development program. Each module take sup a full working day, taking me away from my day-job to be trained up with soft skills which are not necessarily going to help massively during my placement year, but will assist me in my final year at uni, graduate interviews and my future career.

Future employment prospects are promising. There are a significantly large number of graduates and employees who are returning placement students. My predecessor has also recently secured a graduate job back with the company and will start before I have even finished my placement!

Although it was a little slow to start with, as students come from very different backgrounds and social groups, there eventually has become a bond between the majority. There are obviously some small groups of closer friends, as happens with any situation in life, but overall everyone tends to get on well with each other. Social nights out, evening/weekend activities are a regular occurrence and a small group of us have even been on holiday together!

Cost of living in Darlington is very reasonable. Rent is cheap and the town is within easy access (1hr-ish) of Newcastle, Durham, York, Leeds and Middlesbrough for any social activities. There are plenty of large supermarkets to choose from, including a Lidl, Aldi and Iceland a few hundred metres from work.

Darlington nightlife is surprisingly good as long as you're not expecting a high-end posh night out. There is a multitude of bars and a few of clubs to choose from, all proving to be good value for money. If you wish, you can easily catch the train up to Durham/Newcastle for less than £10 with a railcard, across to Middlesbrough/Yarm for around £3-4 or down to York for around £10, Leeds being around £15. Obviously the return journey is a little more expensive in a taxi, approximately 5 times the cost of the train, but not so bad split between a full taxi or minibus.

There were a number of opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work, but it is up to the students to get them organised. It helps to utilise the knowledge of a student from a local background, as they have a better idea of what there is to do in the area, where the best places to go are etc.