The transition from engineering student to early career engineer is often difficult as not all skills that constitute effective engineering practice are formally taught. Work placements are suggested as a solution by providing opportunities to learn skills that academia is unable to teach. However, academic requirements for skills such as research proficiency can be overlooked in a work placement environment, since they are often seen as of little value to engineers. Nevertheless, through interviews with master’s students that have conducted their thesis projects at a firm, their experience of boundary spanning to align academic and industrial requirements has been shown to prepare them for an (early) career in engineering by providing opportunities to learn informal professional skills. As the effect is moderated by the motivation of the individual firm for offering work placements, teachers need to consider this motivation when planning and preparing a student for such a work placement.