Assistant Technician Review

On a day to day my job entails drafting and modelling to produce technical drawings as well as assisting engineers and managing design tasks. I have a heavy involvement in mentoring younger members of staff, as well as providing support to engineers and senior members of staff. The work itself varies, but I belong in the Highway Engineering team.

I have learned countless new skills on this programme from a variety of categories. My people skills have developed dramatically and I have more confidence in dealing with people. I have better leadership qualities and I take ownership of work packages and supervise others to ensure deliverables are met. I have increased my technical knowledge, learning from new standards and software techniques and I can effectively manage work packages across different projects.

I thoroughly enjoy the programme I am on. The mixture of work based project experience in combination with a high level university degree presents a big challenge, but I feel that the further I progress the better my work becomes. It is very demanding and time consuming but the sense of achievement is satisfying.

My programme is well organised. The university contact days are full, so we get the most out of being on the University campus, and lecturers make themselves available over emails to ensure we get help when it's needed. Also the support structure for young professionals at work means that I have my own Delegate Engineer who I meet on a regular basis.

I receive all the support I need for the work-based and professional development elements. My employer provides a small amount of additional time to allow university coursework and exam revision, though you will have to commit a lot of your own time if you want to pass the university work. If you want to achieve higher grades then you must sacrifice a huge amount of your personal time to succeed on this programme.

The training provider schedules contact days where the course leader will come into work. On these days we have a quarterly check-up and discuss progress on the university side of work and the IEng professional development. I have no reason to believe the training provider wouldn't offer support, if it was required.

The qualification covers a wide range of Civil Engineering disciplines, so it can't be expected that all of these will be relate-able in your day to day job, however the principles of critical thinking, problem solving, report writing, and wider technical knowledge definitely aid my performance at work. Overall the qualification helps me to be a better rounded engineer.

Yes, there is a very wide variety of sports and social activities at work. These opportunities are open to anybody - sometimes happening over a lunch time, or after work. Arup are also very committed to their young professionals and will promote professional networking events hosted from a variety of organisations.

Yes

Arup staff are very knowledgeable and very professional, yet the atmosphere at Arup is so friendly and inclusive that it makes me want to perform my best all of the time. I think the projects we have are more interesting than those of our competitors, and that the technical knowledge within the company is unmatched. I believe the Arup brand stands for quality and excellence.

The best advice I could provide to someone applying for a role at Arup would be to apply only if you have a genuine interest in the role you are going for. People who work at Arup are here because they want to be, so your enthusiasm and passion for engineering will be welcome in the company.