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Original post by nukeproof
Hello,

I was wondering how easy it is to gain an industrial placement for a civil engineering undergrad?


The civil and construction industry seems to be doing quite well at the moment so I would imagine easier than some other disciplines. Most of the big consultancies I have looked at recently seem to be doing quite a bit of recruitment at the moment.
Probably ok as a bachelor's student and somewhat easy as a master's.

The bigger issue is the value of a year in industry to be honest, it's not that much of an advantage for engineering.
Reply 3
Original post by Helloworld_95
The bigger issue is the value of a year in industry to be honest, it's not that much of an advantage for engineering.


Interesting. Are there any stats on that?
Original post by jneill
Interesting. Are there any stats on that?


If you have a roam around unistats you should get an idea, when I did that the stats for normal courses and their equivalent YINI were similar but not the same, in some cases they were actually slightly worse.

My advice is mostly based around the views of professors and people from industry that I've worked with however. Their point of view was essentially it's engineering, the need for engineers isn't low enough that just having a degree doesn't significantly disadvantage you from getting a job in engineering. In terms of it helping you to get a better job they said it's much more about networking and you could get that just as well from a summer internship or even other less intensive opportunities. From students I've talked to who are returning from yinis a lot of companies also don't really get their interns to do particularly useful stuff so it just ends up being a job paying less than a graduate wage rather than something to help your career.
Reply 5
Original post by jneill
Interesting. Are there any stats on that?


Original post by Helloworld_95
If you have a roam around unistats you should get an idea, when I did that the stats for normal courses and their equivalent YINI were similar but not the same, in some cases they were actually slightly worse.

My advice is mostly based around the views of professors and people from industry that I've worked with however. Their point of view was essentially it's engineering, the need for engineers isn't low enough that just having a degree doesn't significantly disadvantage you from getting a job in engineering. In terms of it helping you to get a better job they said it's much more about networking and you could get that just as well from a summer internship or even other less intensive opportunities. From students I've talked to who are returning from yinis a lot of companies also don't really get their interns to do particularly useful stuff so it just ends up being a job paying less than a graduate wage rather than something to help your career.


There is some truth to this but most of it is nonsense.

In engineering relevant experience is everything (regardless of masters or bachelors). A year placement trumps summer internships every single time and employers will look more favourably upon the more experienced individual (especially if they have spent a year doing a role that will be very similar to what they will be doing when they graduate). This has been the general view at all the companies I have interviewed for.

Now a year placement is not necessary by any means like Helloworld mentioned as one can opt to do summer internships and accumulate experience that way however having no experience will make it a little bit more challenging to find jobs post graduation but it's not the end of the world either :smile:

Another common misconception is that the BEng has poor career prospects and that it is not as good as having an MEng (this is false as I keep getting surprised by how many engineers in industry who don't even have masters degrees). An MEng makes chartership a lot more straight forward of course but again you will be surprised how many engineers in industry aren't chartered even though they may have something like 15+ years of solid engineering experience under their belt)
Original post by nukeproof
Hello,

I was wondering how easy it is to gain an industrial placement for a civil engineering undergrad?


Depends on your university. Some unis have a programme where you go through interviewing etc with companies. Some unis have scholarships and there are external ones as well which partner you with a company, I've firmed Surrey and the company you get partnered with in the scholarship you do a placement with. If a uni doesn't do this stuff you may need to ask about a year leave and then you will need to apply to companies for a placement.
Original post by a10
There is some truth to this but most of it is nonsense.

In engineering relevant experience is everything (regardless of masters or bachelors). A year placement trumps summer internships every single time and employers will look more favourably upon the more experienced individual (especially if they have spent a year doing a role that will be very similar to what they will be doing when they graduate). This has been the general view at all the companies I have interviewed for.

Now a year placement is not necessary by any means like Helloworld mentioned as one can opt to do summer internships and accumulate experience that way however having no experience will make it a little bit more challenging to find jobs post graduation but it's not the end of the world either :smile:

Another common misconception is that the BEng has poor career prospects and that it is not as good as having an MEng (this is false as I keep getting surprised by how many engineers in industry who don't even have masters degrees). An MEng makes chartership a lot more straight forward of course but again you will be surprised how many engineers in industry aren't chartered even though they may have something like 15+ years of solid engineering experience under their belt)


I'm going to say this is something that will vary a lot between companies, if it's somewhere that treats their year in industry like the first year of a graduate scheme then experiences will be similar to what you're saying. Otherwise they're either used for projects which the company doesn't want to focus on, in which case it's not the best selection process as it can be irrelevant to the main goals and not involve that much interaction with the company, or they're used for cheap grunt work. Again this is the point of view of professors and people in industry, they have a vested interest in getting students into industry, the former as it will help their stats and the latter as it will help their company, but despite that they're offering this advice.

Smaller companies are also much more open to summer work than year long placements, and these are the places where you will learn more and be more likely to get a graduate job offer out of it.

As for MEng vs BEng, things have changed a lot over the last few years and so you won't see that many MEngs around who graduated more than a couple of years ago. Airbus came to our university to give a lecture on careers with them and it amounted to 'yes we take in BEng students but they are treated as second class citizens using a separate graduate program, their mobility is significantly limited'. Granted, Airbus isn't representative of all companies, but from smaller companies I've talked with and will be working for they have said the mere fact that I am on an MEng course gives me a big advantage as they feel that taking in a BEng graduate is to an extent settling for what's left given the massive increase in MEng grads nowadays and over the next few years. It doesn't seem to be a quality thing though, more to do with prestige and keeping up with the industry norm, there will still be a bunch of companies that don't really care.
Reply 8
Original post by Helloworld_95
I'm going to say this is something that will vary a lot between companies, if it's somewhere that treats their year in industry like the first year of a graduate scheme then experiences will be similar to what you're saying. Otherwise they're either used for projects which the company doesn't want to focus on, in which case it's not the best selection process as it can be irrelevant to the main goals and not involve that much interaction with the company, or they're used for cheap grunt work. Again this is the point of view of professors and people in industry, they have a vested interest in getting students into industry, the former as it will help their stats and the latter as it will help their company, but despite that they're offering this advice.

Smaller companies are also much more open to summer work than year long placements, and these are the places where you will learn more and be more likely to get a graduate job offer out of it.

As for MEng vs BEng, things have changed a lot over the last few years and so you won't see that many MEngs around who graduated more than a couple of years ago. Airbus came to our university to give a lecture on careers with them and it amounted to 'yes we take in BEng students but they are treated as second class citizens using a separate graduate program, their mobility is significantly limited'. Granted, Airbus isn't representative of all companies, but from smaller companies I've talked with and will be working for they have said the mere fact that I am on an MEng course gives me a big advantage as they feel that taking in a BEng graduate is to an extent settling for what's left given the massive increase in MEng grads nowadays and over the next few years. It doesn't seem to be a quality thing though, more to do with prestige and keeping up with the industry norm, there will still be a bunch of companies that don't really care.


I've never heard of or seen companies that offer year placements where you dont do any meaningful projects. All the ones ive been to all give you real life work (for example one company (that make the majority of all the worlds flight control systems for airbus/f35/boeing btw) said to me at the assessment centre "this is not work experience this is real life experience of an engineering job so we will throw you in the deep end but you must be open to learn":wink:.

And I've also never heard of companies having seperate schemes for BEng graduates (although im sure they may exist but its not that common?) . All the companies i've been to (at least 7+ companies in different industries) all have the MEng and BEng graduates do the same grad scheme just the MEng grads will progress quicker to chartership that is really the only real difference ohhh and that MEng grads are paid like £1k-£3k more).
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 9
Original post by username1910081
Hello,

I was wondering how easy it is to gain an industrial placement for a civil engineering undergrad?

bruh I jsut applyed and gut money why it so hard
Reply 10
Original post by 18jordaa
bruh I jsut applyed and gut money why it so hard

This is a 4 year old thread and the poster is no longer around.

I'm closing the thread.

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