Meet Dylan, our Engineering Placement Student. Dylan is coming to the end of his exciting yet challenging year and is keen to encourage peers to apply for firmus energy’s 2018 Engineering Placement Programme.
firmus energy is a natural gas distribution and supply company, based in Antrim. Since 2006, firmus energy has connected over 35,000 customers in its network area (outside greater Belfast) and supplies over 85,000 with natural gas across Northern Ireland.
Dylan’s story so far…
I am 21 year old student currently studying BEng Mechanical Engineering at Queens University Belfast. It was around this time last year that I was seeking to secure an Engineering Placement position. I was delighted to find that firmus energy was offering a diverse, hands-on role and I did not hesitate to apply.
From the outset, my initial goal was to develop new skills and gain some in-depth practical experience of the Engineering industry and thanks to the support from firmus energy, my industrial placement year exceeded my own expectations.
firmus energy has quite a large Engineering Department and work very closely with their contractors Mc Nicholas, so I am always meeting new people and developing new relationships. This has enabled me to develop my confidence and interpersonal skills immensely. Although I am usually quite a shy person, it didn’t take me long to come out of my shell and feel like part of the team!
I have become a lot more self-sufficient, putting my organisational skills to the test and developing a really productive working routine. It really helps that the engineers I work with are extremely helpful, and always willing to teach me. I am so eager to learn and I welcome new opportunities, no two days are ever the same – I love it!
The most rewarding thing about my placement year so far is being given the freedom to work on individual projects. It’s extremely satisfying to see the work I have done put into practice. Over the past few months I have been drawing up schematics and marking locations of every valve in the network, which allowed Operations & Management to perform maintenance on their valves. It may not seem very exciting, but I feel very proud to have made an impact.
I have learnt a lot of important lessons throughout my time at firmus energy, but the most important is attention to detail. The engineering team have reiterated the importance of precision and taught me to always be mindful of the level of risk involved in every task I carry out. It’s a great lesson to learn at such an early stage of my career.
I have loved working for firmus energy, I can’t recommend it enough - the role is so diverse with rotations between Construction, Operations & Management and Health & Safety. I have gained really valuable experience whilst enhancing my existing skills and developing new ones. It’s an added bonus that the staff at firmus energy are extremely welcoming, I have made great friends here and will be sad to leave!
If like Dylan you enjoy a challenge and have a thirst for learning, we want to hear from you! Apply now