Industrial Placement Systems Engineer Review

I really enjoyed this placement year and I know I am not the only Placement Student with this opinion. The work I was given was interesting and I could see that it was making a real difference to the company; I found everyone I worked with to be helpful and friendly and the company treated me with respect. It was nice to wake up on Monday morning and look forward to heading back to work.

I could not of felt more valued and needed by my colleagues then I did; at times I forgot I was a Placement Student because I felt like a permanent member of the team. I feel this is because I did 'real' work, my opinions and views were taken into account whilst making decisions, I was given responsibility and I was required to deliver. In addition to this, I felt the managers were great in the respect that when you did something well or went above and beyond to help a project, they genuinely were grateful for the work you did.

I really can not fault the support I was given by my managers, we had regular 'catch-up' sessions to discuss my performance and for them to recommend some next steps; they were also willing to offer support whenever it was needed (and if they couldn't help, they put me in contact with someone that could) . However, they allowed you to learn for yourself and go and find the information to complete tasks. For me, I found this to be the right amount of support, in the respect that my managers didn't tell me every step to complete a task, but they were willing to help when I needed it.

I found myself to be busy on a daily basis, but not so busy that I couldn't deliver everything I needed to. If an any point I ran out of work, I was able to contact my manager who would give me some more work to do. With regards to the tasks I did, they covered a variety of different subjects and I did everything from coding to managing projects to helping to organise events; this variety meant that the work was not boring.

I was given much more responsibility than I expected when I started the placement. At times I was asked to lead different activities, I was responsible for organising events and I delivered projects. At times I forgot that I was a placement student and I felt like I was a member of the team and I could see myself making real contributions to the company.

I developed a variety of technical skills such as learning how to use Unix and learning about a wide variety of different air traffic control equipment (to name a few examples). Admittedly, some of these I shall not use during my remaining years of university study, however once I finish the skills I have learnt during this year could open a lot of doors for me. We received a variety of different training courses that gave us a working knowledge of the equipment necessary to provide air traffic control. NATS also took the time to train and develop some of our personal skills as well, for which I am really grateful.

There was a good atmosphere in the office, the people I worked with were both helpful and friendly, often we would be having a laugh or discussing the weekends football. The office itself was clean, had good quality equipment, comfortable and was not cramped. The canteen was reasonably priced and had good food and there was a Costa Coffee on site (I spent too much money there).

The placement year itself is set up so that we complete two, six-month placements allowing us to get a wider range of experience. The placement ran seamlessly and seemed to be very well organised and the training was delivered at the right time.

The company invested plenty in us with regards to training and development. This was through training courses (both professional and personal) and a variety of different activities that improved some of our personal skills (e.g. organising events).

We were made aware from the first day that there is a possibility of returning to the company after the year based on our performance over the two placements and an assessment centre. The amount of placement students retained is fairly high, however we shall not find out until after we finish, whether we are returning after the placement year.

The company organised a variety of different social events outside of work, so there was a fairly good social scene amongst the Placement Students. As an estimate, I would say that there was one social event per month that was organised by either the company or our ourselves.

The cost of living was what you wanted it to be. NATS is based between two large student cities (Southampton and Portsmouth), because of this there are plenty of reasonably priced bars, shops and restaurants. However, with it being located on the South Coast, some there are some places that can be far more expensive.

NATS is based between two large student cities (Southampton and Portsmouth), so there was plenty of Nightlife.

There were plenty of opportunities to get involved with activities outside of work and there were a variety of social clubs from Golf to Go-Karting. In a more professional sense, there were always a variety of different activities to get involved with, for example during this year I volunteered to represent NATS at the Royal International Air Tattoo.