Placement Experience: Student/Engineering Technician with Havant Borough Council - Oliver Rickards

How did you find your placement role? What support did you get from the Placement team?

I found my placement through Havant Borough Council's vacancies page. I got the idea to check here from one of my lecturers who informed me that Havant council had good placement opportunities for civil engineering students. Additionally, the Placement team helped me with the writing of my CV and supported me with interview advice which was helpful.

Can you describe the process of applying for placement roles? E.g. how many you applied to, if you had a system or sought support from anyone.

My strategy was to keep updated with various placement sites as well as the university own placement site. Instead of sending off loads of applications over a short period I started applying as early as October/November and whenever a new opportunity appeared that I was interested in, I would try to get in early with my application. I also found that I tended to be more successful getting interviews with local roles with slightly smaller companies rather than the big civil engineering giants.

Did you have any concerns or uncertainties about taking a placement year, and how did you address them?

I secured my placement quite late in the year which came as quite a surprise. I was nervous as I hadn’t worked full-time before, and I knew it would be a big change. For a couple months before my placement started, I began trying to wake up early and made myself a daily routine just to practice what work life might be like. I did find the first week hard and the lack of free time was a challenge, but now I find that working has made me value my free time more and I spend less time just scrolling and more time doing things I enjoy.

What tips would you give to students about balancing placement applications with university studies?

I would recommend ensuring that you don’t get so caught up in applications that you stop prioritising university work. What I did is if I noticed a good opportunity, I would bookmark it on the website and come back to it when I had time to spare. Another good idea is dedicating a day or half a day a week where you don’t have lectures to just work on a few applications.

Please tell us a bit about the company you work and your role?

Coastal Partners design and manage coastal defences across 5 local authorities, Fareham Borough Council, Gosport Borough Council, Portsmouth City Council, Havant Borough Council and Chichester District Council.

Currently I am providing supervision on the construction works happening on the Southsea coastal scheme, my placement mainly consists of recording and monitoring activities on site, conducting surveys and helping out in other areas of the team where I can, such as with the comms team or geomatics team. 

What challenges have you faced during your placement, and how have you overcome them?

The main challenge I’ve found is ensuring that I can take on board and properly understand all the new information I’ve been taught. Especially early on there was a lot of new systems, technologies and software I had to get used to using and it was hard to remember all the little things. What I did to deal with this is make sure I kept notes of everything I’d learned and used them regularly so I wouldn’t forget.

What has been the most rewarding part of your placement so far, and why?

The most rewarding part has been seeing the progress being made on site since I’ve started, having the opportunity to be a part of the team behind it is a great feeling.

Has your placement experience influenced your perspective on your chosen career path or field of study?

I work with a large team with all sorts of different professions so it’s broadened my view on the different career paths my degree can lead to. I do enjoy supervision too; I like the balance between site work and office work, so it could be something I look into doing again in the future.

Would you recommend the placement program to other students? If so, what advice would you give them?

I would. I really feel it helped me develop my knowledge and understanding of my course, a lot of things I was a bit confused about from my first 2 years of university make a lot more sense now after seeing them in a real-world context. Additionally, its helped develop a lot of my soft skills like leadership, teamwork and communication.