Analytical Scientist Review

I've thoroughly enjoyed my placement with GSK. It's given me an insight into the 'major corporation' pharmaceutical world, given me a chance to work with world-leading scientists and allowed to me to gain and hone new abilities within my field.

On the whole I have felt very valued, both for my insights and for the work I've been doing for the company. Praise was always given where it was due and any critiques were always constructive. Other students and new members of staff could give off a hint of competitiveness at times which wasn't always beneficial but I put this down to them feeling a need to prove themselves.

My manager was truly amazing, she gave me support whenever it was needed, guided me as and when I got stuck but mostly she encouraged me to achieve the absolute best that I could whilst on placement. She allowed me to use my own initiative in regards to my work but always kept a watchful eye on what I was doing if I began to struggle. Being given free-reign on your project is wonderful but it is nice to know that when you come to a hiccup there is someone to help you fix it. I couldn't have asked for a better supervisor and we are actually still in contact now.

Some days were definitely busier than others and it might've been nicer if it could have evened out a bit more but this is the reality when some experiments take 2-3days to finish. It has allowed me to greatly increase my time management skills as I had to balance out the lulls in my laboratory work with desk work and training, something which I imagine is going to come in handy during my final year/PhD.

I was given quite a lot of responsibility on placement but I was also provided with a strong support network to fall back on too. My supervisor was happy to give me a free reign and I was assigned several key jobs that would typically be done by core members of staff.

The skills I've developed whilst on placement are invaluable to me and my future in the field. Not only am I more confident in the abilities I already had but I've now gained both theoretical and practical skills in leading areas within my field, I have experience with equipment that some of my supervisors at university don't. I believe that these are going to make a key difference to both my final year grade and also my chances of getting a PhD offer.

The office could be quiet at times but people were always laughing and joking too. Also, there seemed to be a never ending supply of cake. At times it helped to have the quiet sanctuary of the office to retreat to if you'd had a particularly stressful day in the lab and needed to finish a report/get some analysis done. My office was quite small but that meant that you could always talk to anyone in there and it meant I required less 'one-to-one' meetings than some of my friends because I spoke to my supervisor at least 15 times a day, usually just in passing.

The placement was very well organised. We were given a familiarisation day in June to meet other IPs (Industrial Placement) and to go through things like time-sheets, taxes, holidays etc and we were reintroduced to our department (from our interviews) and given tours. The first few weeks of placement were mostly getting acquainted with everyone and doing all the appropriate training for your position. My supervisor worked out a weekly spread sheet of what I'd be doing those first couple of weeks so I could fully utilise my time.

I feel like the company invested a lot of time and resources into my training and development. There was access to hundreds of modules online, cross-departmental training, hundreds of lectures, seminars and webinars to attend - I was even given private seminars with one of my colleagues who's a professor at UCL.

Future employment prospects are positive and there are other programmes that IPs can apply for which allow greater/more varied experience within the company. There also appears to be a large number of ex-students who had a placement here who have gone on to finish their degree and come back to GSK in one form or another, whether through direct entry or through contracted agencies. There are also a number of PhD opportunities at GSK too.

There was a good social side to working at GSK, there we plenty of staff nights out, lunches and of course the Christmas party. There was also a lot of IP-organised social things, usually always through IP Unite, which included monthly socials, a Christmas party, a boat party and theme park trips etc. These involved all IPs from across all sites (around 350 people) and were great for meeting other students. There was also the usual student parties to attend.

Stevenage itself is fairly cheap to live in, rent being similar to student prices in most student cities. We got very lucky and managed to find a house for less than £300pppm and just a 15min cycle from work. Stevenage also has plenty of places to buy things at student prices, a good mix of supermarkets and shops etc.

Stevenage has a 'very small town' style nightlife and for quite a lot of students this is hard to get used to. However there's lots of nice pubs to go for drinks in after work in Old Town, lots of country style pubs with beer gardens in the surrounding villages and London is only a 20min train away to as many clubs as you could wish for, catering to almost any budget and any taste in music.

There we plenty of clubs to get involved in, plenty of gyms to join and a local leisure centre with a pool, squash/badminton courts and hundreds of exercise classes. There we also a lot of volunteering opportunities in the local area in a huge variety of sectors too, especially if you're a STEM ambassador.