Junior designer Review

I am a junior designer and I work with electrical engineers and help to update all the drawings and various schedules that they and the site teams need to do their jobs. I have done work for a nuclear job and a gas terminal job.

I have learnt how to use AutoCAD and 3d modelling software. I have also learnt how to use the more advanced functions in The Office packages. I have also completed a HNC in electrical and Electronic engineering.

The people I work with make going to work enjoyable. Now that I have finished my apprenticeship, I am going to be doing work on different jobs, rather than just one that I spent the whole of my apprenticeship on.

I feel valued by the people I work with as they trust me to do some fairly complicated work and expect me to get in done correctly and quickly. I enjoy the work, but it can become stresfull when there are strict deadlines that need to be met.

My apprenticeship wasn't very well organised. I was put onto a job and just left on there without a lot of training. When my first mentor left, I asked for another multiple times but I never got one. I was just left doing small bits of work and not having my abilities pushed, or my training provided. Only now that I am on another job, do I realise how much i needed a mentor during the early time in the company to help me become a better designer and always push me to become better. Now that my apprenticeship has finished, i have sopken to a few other apprentices and they are getting a lot more opportunities than i did/ i do at the moment to work on various jobs and get a lot more training. They also get the opportunity to go to site quite regularyl now.

I received some support from my training provider, SETA, when the occasionly came in to do reviews. Seta were the ones who got me an interview for Costain and they provided me with hands on training for 6 months before I actually started working in the office. I aired my concerns about a mentor to them, but no action was taken.

During my apprenticeship, I received little support once my mentor left as he was the one who helped organise the small amounts of training that i received. Now that I have finished my apprenticeship, my line manager is trying to get me more experience of a variety of jobs and trying to get me some more site based experience.

My salary is good now. I can afford to travel to/from work and do a few activities after work, such as playing football, going out to eat, going out with friends etc. When I have had to go and work up at site for a couple weeks, I wasn't given any money to help cover the costs, i was expected to pay for it all and then claim it all back, This left me in my overdraft as the costs of living away from home was a lot higher than i expedcted. It took 2 months to get my expenses back through the accounts department as they didn't want to pay everything that I claimed for and for both of the months I was short of money.

Now that my apprenticeship has finished, there are only a few opportunities at work.

Yes

The people are great to work with.

Be honest in the interview and relax.