Mechanical Engineer Review

It was fun and challenging when I was given relevant work to do, but when my coworkers were busy they had difficulty finding the time to give me work assignments. Unfortunately this meant long periods of inactivity, where no real suggestions were made for me to apply myself to. When I had work there was a good variety of projects to apply myself to.

I developed a good working relationship with everyone in my area. My colleagues were happy to get to know me during my time here from the start, and they made me feel like I was contributing to the department. The only issue was that there was potentially a lack of preparation of work for my time here, as anything I was given sometimes felt cobbled together.

Paul, my line manager, gave me good support and was very patient with me. Likewise, when he was off work due to holidays my other colleagues were supportive in addressing any problems that I had. The placement I undertook involved a lot of technical information and acronyms that were difficult to process at first, but my supervisors showed me the ropes effectively.

It varied from day to day, as some days I was happily working away on a project, only to finish the work I had and have no work available to be delegated to me. This was due to my colleagues being very busy on a project that was overrun and overbudget and were unable to involve me in it due to cost issues associated with my hours they needed to account for.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility and autonomy, as I was often given a project to progress with on my own. This involved making site visits, arranging meetings, making design proposals to others and has given me a good experience of applying myself in a pressured environment. I sometimes felt I was maybe given too much responsibility however and could have been given more supervision.

I have developed time management skills and a better knowledge of international standards and drawing specifications. Most of the skills I've learnt are relevant to Design in my Mechanical Engineering degree and therefore the majority of degree has seen little relevance to the work I've done here. There has also been an element of team working here which will help with group projects.

Pretty quiet, everyone is working!

I got the feeling that very little prior preparation was put into the work placement, as was sometimes ceded by my employers. The first few weeks were especially slow, with my colleagues desperately trying to find something for me to do, when in fact something could have prepared something in advance to ease pressure on everyone.

A few training courses and a youth project which seemed to collapse.

Future employment prospects within the organisation are fairly appealing, albeit I am unlikely to want to work in the town in which the placement was undertaken. The organisation does have operations across the country though so there could be something promising. This all depends on the suitability of a graduate programme, and whether sufficient work can be provided to keep me busy.

I was close friends with three of the placement students/graduates at work, and I maintained good relationships with them. I also made other friends through social events organised with them (although they were not necessarily always organised by the company). The youth project previously mentioned was promising for fostering relationships with other placement students, but as mentioned it stopped unexpectedly.

My housing was subsidised which was great. We organised our own flat, which was fine, and enjoyed the stay there. Socialising was okay, but a car was required to travel anywhere interesting due to the nature of the town, and this restricted how many events we could attend sometimes. The cost of places we went to was fairly low.

Occasional night out

Occasionaly there were suggestions to engage in the community but no real initiative.