Civil Engineering Technician Review

I loved my placement with Atkins. I was placed within the Rail business within Akins, and my first task was to identify all structures along a stretch of track to identify which structures needed to be surveyed. This gave me a real insight into the railway industry and set me up for all the jobs that would follow. I enjoyed the constant communication with both colleagues and clients to solve problems.

I was given project critical management tasks which involved arranging meetings, organising site visits and managing workload and felt really appreciated by receiving praise from colleagues by resolving issues and newly found management skills.

I had regular meetings with my line manager and civil engineering manager regarding my progress. They listened to what I wanted from the company in gaining more skills in CAD and calculations and gave me training and tasks based on the experience I wanted to gin.

Some days I was really busy doing organisation of meetings and a lot of pressure was put on me, but I was able to cope Some days I had nothing to do and had to wait until someone came back from a meeting to have something to do. But on the whole I had a manageable workload.

I was give a lot of responsibility in managing critical workload within our India business and organising project critical meetings and overall, jobs went to plan.

I received PTS (Personal Track Safety) training which taught me about safety critical railway operations and bout various disciplines within the railway. The qualification allowed me to be able to go on site visits. My confidence and interpersonal skills have greatly increased due to constant communication with colleagues and clients.

It was a great atmosphere within the office. Everyone with in the office got on really well with each other. Within the office there were various railway disciplines, with me being in the civil engineering discipline. There was also signalling, Permanent way, overhead line electrification and telecommunications disciplines within the office. All disciplines integrated and communicated with each other.

It was set up well with a lot of different variety of jobs available to me, but the only issue was that there was a lack of calculations available to complete. I would have liked more calculations to assist in me going back to university. My boss was also based in another office over the road, so I would have liked to have more contact with him. Everything else went really well though.

The company invested money into the PTS course along with a PTS medical course which would enable me to be go on site visits. The company also spent £400 to allow me to use a computer aided design program, Microstation. I also attended an Essempy course in which I learned a lot more about the railway industry, its past and railway safety which I really enjoyed.

I have been talking with my boss about my future with the company, and because I have worked solidly with the company for more than 12 months I will be guaranteed a graduate role within the company, or be able to by pass the recruitment process. As my boss is so happy wit my progress he said he would want to employ me in the future.

there were plenty of opportunities within the company to socialise, including a Christmas dinner to a Chinese restaurant, mid year meals to restaurants to treat the civil engineers, an opportunity to attend a canal boat cruise, a trip to a waterpark along with sports such as football and basketball.

I am not sure, as I did not socialise with people within the town and did not live in the town, however I have been told it is quite cheap to live in some parts of the town. I lived firstly in Portsmouth whilst trying to find a house, then in Salisbury to live half way between mine and my partners jobs, then in Westbury.

Although I did not live in the town in which I worked, I did not ever go out anywhere at night, as I was living with my wife and we would rather spend time together. I have been told, however that nightlife is alright, but no one at work coud tell me if was any good or not as they hadn't ben out at night themselves.

There were opportunities, as I have previously talked about. These included multiple meals out with the company and employees, a canal boat trip along the canal in Bath, a water sports event in a nearby lake, along with various sports such as football and basketball. I was often too busy with my home life to go out but did have opportunities to go out.