Placement Engineer Review

I enjoyed my placement with Caterpillar immensely as it gave me a chance to get stuck in to real projects and have real responsibilities as well as improving my technical skills.

I felt very valued by my colleagues as we were all on a level, working towards the same goal and they made me feel as though I was a significant member of the team.

My manager was very supportive, making sure that I always had a variety of work as well as making sure I gained appropriate training and support to do my job well.

My workload was steady for most of the year with the odd day that was very busy.

I was given a lot of responsibility while on placement; My main job role was key to validating our product and delivering it on time to the customer.

I have developed lots of technical skills that will help me in the dissertation year of my university course as well as personal and professional skills that will help me when I come to apply for graduate positions and beyond.

The atmosphere in my office was very laid back but still professional, Everyone I worked with/ spoke to were very friendly and we often had a good laugh. There was also a great deal of interest into current affairs such as opinion polls on things like football and the general election! We had an amazing socials team who organised events such as BBQ's and Ping-pong tournaments.

The work placement was well organised; We had an informative induction day as well as regular meetings with our managers. The previous placements stayed an extra month to do work-handover/training with the new placements and this was really helpful in getting started

I was given the opportunity to attend training courses relevant to the firm which were very insightful although I would have liked a little more formal training in some of the programs I used in my day-to-day work.

The organisation is very geared towards employing previous placements and they offer a good graduate scheme, I would consider applying if I decide not to continue on for a masters course.

All of the placements/graduates were very friendly and we would often plan to go to social events together such as bowling or going to the pub.

Both living and socialising were inexpensive in the area I lived as I shared accommodation with the other placement students. The pubs and other attractions were not expensive either.

The town where I lived did not have a large student population but the nightlife was good on a Friday and Saturday night.

We had a socials team in our office who organised a variety of events throughout the year so there were lots of different sports tournaments and other events to get involved with.