Engineering Placement Student Review

Day-to-day I run the morning meetings ensuring all maintenance and safety concerns from the previous day are addressed. Proceeding this, my day can vary between spending time with the operators assisting plant functions, working on and progressing small to medium scale process improvement projects, assisting in plant shutdown works (very physical and hands on with process equipment), and communicating with contractors to ensure daily works and permits are completed on schedule.

I was responsible for conducting trials across the whole plant in order to assess the viability of removing a process unit step and write a report on the findings. I was responsible for co-ordinating various day-to-day work permitting and Lock-Out-Tag-Out plant isolations. Beyond this I was responsible for ensuring any and all personal and given projects I was working on were completed on time and within budget.

This placement is very hands on so I have been able to gain experience with plant operations and mechanical equipment beyond that I have learnt about. Additionally you are constantly communicating between operators, project stakeholders, contractors and other engineers; thus I significantly improved my communication and confidence along with technical understanding of process engineering.

During this placement you receive as much support as you ask for either through the line managers, process operators, contractors, project engineers and other process engineers. There was never a moment whilst working in this placement where I felt that there was no one I could go to, to ask for advice or assistance.

Cargill provides a very friendly and supportive work environment where you feel more like a family than a team. The plant superintendents make sure you are comfortable and feel safe during your placement with regular check-in meetings and your line manager has informal check-in meetings with you once a week.

I have really enjoyed this placement and have found the job I want to go into post my graduation. For anyone considering process engineering, large scale processing, process management or industrial work, this placement exposes you to all aspects of these jobs. You could not get more hands on and involved than this placement and I am looking forward to coming back in a years time as a graduate employee.

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