Assistant Project Engineer Review

I found my work placement to be a very enjoyable experience that proved beneficial to the development of both my engineering skills and my professionalism. I had a varied workload and never found myself feeling bored or unappreciated.

From my first day I felt respected, although I was very much aware that I was still learning. However, as both my knowledge and confidence grew, I soon found myself becoming a more important part of the team, with my ideas and inputs always being listened to and valued.

I feel that I received a good level of support and guidance, whilst also being given the opportunity to work problems out myself and produce my own solutions. There were periods where my manager was away on site, however, he always checked up on me and picked up the phone if I had any queries.

Throughout my placement year I was never short of work and when I felt my workload was dropping I could always find someone in need of my assistance. Like any jobs there were stressful periods where I would have a lot of work to do, however I never felt completely overwhelmed.

My manager put a lot of faith in my abilities and I was given plenty of responsibilities. Any designs I produced were always checked by a chartered engineer, however, I produced the majority of these completely independently using my own knowledge. With that being said, help was always available.

Although civil engineering and high voltage cable design are in many respects two very different disciplines, I feel that the structural design skills that I have developed will be a valuable asset in my future degree studies, whilst the communication and presentation skills I have gained will help me greatly when I leave university and enter the working world.

The office atmosphere was very friendly and lighthearted. I was able to do my work whilst also taking couple minutes to socialise with my colleagues in order to break up the day and stop the atmosphere from being dull.

The placement was well set up and I got the right balance between learning and being an employee for the company. My boss always made sure I never bit of more than I could chew and would back me up whenever I made any mistakes.

The company invested some resources into my training and development. For example they provided me with my National Grid Persons and BESC training and assessment, which is valid for 3 years. I was also encouraged to attend internal educational presentations and tours.

The civil engineering division consisted of myself (placement student) and two civil engineers who had both graduated in the past 2 years, so clearly there are opportunities for future employment prospects. I witnessed first hand how much responsibility these post graduate engineers are given and I feel that with Prysmian are one of the few large companies who provide this chance to young engineers.

As the company takes on many placement students in different departments there was a large group of placement students, which meant the social scene was very good.

Cost of living and socialising was very reasonable and my salary never restricted me or made me miss any social events.

Southampton has a good nightlife with many bars and clubs.

Due to the large amount of students there was always a chance to get involved with activities outside of work and we made a conscious effort to do this.