From University to the Working World: Sam's Project Engineering Placement

As a Year in Industry project engineer my job role means a few things, starting with being involved with multiple projects and getting to understand them and exactly what a client’s needs are for the product.  After this I have largely been creating and collating technical documentation relative to specific projects and preparing either for internal use or to be distributed to clients, and as a result I have attended multiple project update meetings to enable me to do so.  The project engineer role means working closely with a lot of different teams within Systems Hemel Hempstead to stay in control of a project and ensure that it operates smoothly, and any arising issues can be dealt with swiftly.  Since starting I have also had the opportunity to get involved in some continuous improvement projects relative to my department in contracts and project management, this has meant I have been directly involved in creating new processes that will affect not only me or my team but the whole of Systems Hemel Hempstead.

Application day seems like an awfully long time ago now but thinking back to it I remember being made to feel welcome by all the people I met, only making me want to work here more.  I really appreciated the amount of time I had to talk to the then current year in industry students to find out what its like to work for Atlas Copco.  The wider recruitment process was both similar to and completely different from what I’d experienced before.  It was similar in that it consisted of a team-based task, interview and plenty of time to meet the staff in-between followed by a telephone interview later on.  But what made the process totally different was how friendly everyone here was to me.  Atlas Copco is by far the most professional environment I have experienced and yet alongside that it is also the friendliest working environment, this mixture is both what made me want to get a job here and also the reason why I have enjoyed transitioning from university to working full-time so much.  Where before I started my placement, I was nervous of how I’d cope with working with other professionals and getting to know people here, once I started on day one these weren’t issues to me in the slightest.

After just 4 weeks here with Atlas Copco I have already noticed a change in the way that I work, especially the way I assess a task before jumping into it, really getting to understand it and why I am doing it as to complete it to the best of my ability.  Also, I have noticed that I am becoming quicker at understanding new processes because of the amount of trust and work that I have been given since my first week here.  And of course, I have not just been learning soft skills, my understanding of how the industry works and the requirements that our clients and regulatory bodies have for our products has grown from very little when I started to a considerable amount now, and I’m only going to be learning more.  I am certainly looking forward to seeing how I change over the course of the rest of the year.   

One of my highlights from my time here so far has definitely been getting to meet my team and seeing how welcoming they have been to me in helping me get started.  The people here at Atlas Copco really make it an enjoyable place to come and work every day.