General Assembly Process Engineer Review

On most levels, this placement has not worked out for me. I have struggled almost throughout to relate to the work given to me and my motivation and enthusiasm has dropped on numerous occasions. There is nearly no engineering content in the role that someone such as myself coming into the role from university would find relatable to the engineering principles learnt on the course. I feel I have purely been a conduit to fulfil a routine business function throughout the year rather than being the opportunity develop skills to move straight into the industry.

On a personal and character level, I mixed very well into not only my direct working team but with a lot of people I got to know on the production lines and other teams, within the unit and the plant on a wider scale. I cannot fault the welcoming and friendliness of the vast majority of people I interacted with. I do feel however on a professional level that I was "just an undergrad" at some points.

Because of the struggle I have had with the placement this year, I am very thankful for the great support I have had from my direct manager, the unit manager and the HR manager responsible for the undergrads. I feel they were genuine in their concern for me and attempt to try and find the best situation for me to complete the placement. As well as my manager, I was given a mentor who was always willing to give me support and direction if I required it. People generally that I interacted with on a daily basis were always willing to give me support where I required it.

I would find myself frequently bored and with little to do. Although my daily tasks could find myself very busy depending on the nature of production quality that day, it was massively variable and would tend towards being quiet on a daily basis.

I was very much given independence and responsibility for driving myself through the working day. I had one project which I was responsible for designing and sourcing an item for use on the production line. However other than this, I feel the job tasks given to me were far from having any critical bearing on the unit or plant.

This placement has had almost no relevance or transferable knowledge to take back to my degree. Although I participated in one training course for statistical problem solving, to become accredited for it I was required to do at least one project based on the technique taught in the course which was never given to me and has therefore gone to waste. Similarly, having raised the issue of the lack of any engineering content within my placement, I was given a training schedule and opportunities to shadow other people within the team. However this similarly was never followed up with anything I could apply the knowledge to and I feel has gone wasted.

I got on well with everyone in my office. Everyone was friendly, happy to chat and have a laugh with. It is a very busy office with a lot of people coming in and out throughout the day so there was always the opportunity to interact with people.

I missed out on all of the initial handover with the previous undergrads and the one week line working experience which the other undergrads received. However the other undergrads which were there at the time highly praise the experience. One particular thing which was poorly set up for the undergrads was the company pension. Due to meeting the requirements for the pension, myself and a couple of the undergrads were auto-enrolled onto the company pension and were paying into it for numerous months. However we have since discovered that due to our short employment with the company, we will not qualify to keep or move the pension and therefore stand to lose the money paid into. No guidance was given to us at the start of the placement regarding the pension scheme.

As previously discussed, I have had the opportunity for one training course which will go unused and non-accredited. Also I have had some opportunity to shadow other people to learn what they do but again this has gone unused. Other than these opportunities, I have not really had much chance to attend any training or development.

Every year a number of undergrads are kept on depending on their perceived performance by the management over the year. Knowing of a couple of undergrads from previous years who have done this, they have had the opportunity to progress within the company. However due to the circumstances of my placement I do not feel this was ever an opportunity for me.

There were 20 undergrads in total. As a group at work we came together well interacting with each other, occasionally played 5-a-side football and even organised birthday gifts for everyone within the group. However despite this, outside of work the group was very fragmented. A large number of the group lived locally and chose to socialise with their current friendship groups rather than the undergrads. Personally I lived with three of the other undergrads and got on very well with them. Those as well as a couple of the other undergrads that didn't live with us socialised regularly outside of work, doing nights out, meals, cinema trips, going to events, etc.

We lived in Chester and traveled into Ellesmere Port where the plant was based. I feel the cost of living was very reasonable in Chester. The house we rented was fairly expensive, however between the four of us the rent worked out to be quite reasonable and was actually less than what I was paying for my student accommodation at uni. There is plenty of places to shop in the area to suit all budgets and travelling in was reasonable as it is only 12 miles away. The cost of a night out can vary massively in Chester. There is a good mix of cheap pubs and clubs to the higher end expensive bars, something for all tastes.

As previously mentioned, there is a good mix of places to go out in Chester. Plenty of pubs, bars and clubs to go to on a night out. There is also a wide range of places to get something to eat. However Liverpool and Manchester are both short distances from the area so there is plenty of scope to go there for bigger nights out.

I completed a community activity with the people I work with outside of work. However this was done in working hours and was a mandatory activity to be involved in. I never had any opportunity to get involved with any team building or social activities with my team outside of the working environment. Any activities outside of work came from the previously mentioned undergrad activities.