Industrial Placement Review

This placement was a fantastic opportunity to use equipment and learn techniques that I would never have got the chance to at University, Of course, some assays were repetitive or hard work but that is the nature of this type of work at the early stages of development. A lot of things you try will fail but you learn a lot and can have fun experimenting in the process; not just in terms of the biology but also in terms of creative problem solving and other essential 'soft' skills. GSK offers so many extra opportunities such as volunteering and visiting other sites that there is always something interesting to do.

The attitude of staff towards students varies greatly between departments. Students are never expected to produce much useful data and it's just an added bonus if they do. Although I felt like I was an unwanted burden to my supervisor, other supervisors really valued their students and relied upon them heavily to run a lot of their practical work. Most staff do enjoy having students around and make an effort to get to know them.

It is essentially luck at any organisation whether you get a good supervisor; unfortunately I had a supervisor who was disorganised and unwilling to support me with work I had to complete for University as well as problems I had outside of work. However, most of the staff were friendly and there were always other people in the department I could go to for help if needed.

Placement is what you make of it - if your manager doesn't have enough work for you then you need to be brave and speak to other members of staff or simply ask a friend if you can shadow them for a day and learn a new technique. There were always plenty of lectures to go to. Some days were very busy full of meetings and lab work but other days there was not a lot to do so it can be a real mix; a good student will find something productive to fill any spare time they may have.

Students are encouraged to be independent as soon as possible. Of course you'll be given all necessary safety training and most supervisors will get you to watch them or shadow you the first time you perform a new type of assay or use a new piece of equipment but for the most part you are left to design and run your experiments and manage your time by yourself which I feel is the best way to learn. We were also responsible for presenting our own data at group meetings as well as giving tours to prospective students or other visitors to site.

The practical skills will be invaluable upon returning to University; doing even simple tasks almost every day such as pipetting increases your speed and accuracy and will really help during my final year project. Placement also helps you really improve your time management, communication and oral/written presentation skills. Placement also gives you a different perspective and you learn to read papers more critically and analyse each other's data. Finally, placement improves your confidence both socially and scientifically.

I was lucky to be in a new office which had a great mix of office space, meeting rooms and social spaces. The office was generally very relaxed. We had a hotdesking policy which meant most days you sat next to somebody different which helped forge new relationships and helped to make us students feel more included. As students we were encourage to talk and liven the place up a bit!

Again this is something which depended heavily on your supervisor. The member of staff who interviewed us all was great and had a good plan for our first day including tours of the lab and other buildings, time to set up your laptop and an introduction to the training we would need to complete. However, there could e a lot of improvement made to how the placement is organised to ensure our university work is completed and that we get the most out of our placement - personally I was not given lab work until the end of my 4th week.

When we began we had a lot of mandatory basic training to complete covering topics such as lab safety. We were also encouraged to attend as many lectures from both internal and external speakers as we could. There is a small travel budget for each student allowing them to visit other sites and take part in activities such as careers or science fairs at universities.

GSK have a number of different Future Leaders programmes which are mainly office-based jobs and allow rotations in different areas of the company within a broader category. These offer guaranteed employment upon completion and most offer the chance to complete a rotation abroad. If you are interested in lab work then it is pretty much essential to obtain a PhD first which may be off-putting for a number of people. GSK however does sponsor a number of external PhDs with the opportunity to come and work in GSK labs for several months.

The other students were honestly the best part of the placement. I've never been part of such a big group of people who all get along so well. It was always somebody's birthday and so nights out at the student's favourite bar, Cinnabar, were common. There were also other evening activities such as roller discos and laser quest organised. Each department also had several social events throughout the year including meals out and team-building activities such as bowling.

I paid £450pcm in rent inclusive of bills, which coming from a northern uni seemed rater extortionate! However as long as you pay within £500pcm you can easily live on half the money you are paid and put the rest away. Some students chose to live at home and commute, others who went to London universities got flats with their uni friends close to Finsbury Park or King's Cross station which is obviously more expensive. If you can find some people to share a house with then you can end up paying a lot less. In terms of socialising Stevenage is no cheaper nor more expensive than anywhere else. We had some nights out in London however which were of course a bit more pricey!

If you like clubbing then Stevenage probably isn't the place for you; there is only one proper club! However there are plenty of nice bars/pubs/restaurants in Old Town. And of course, London is only a 30 minute train ride away! There's also lots of activities to do in the evening including going to the cinema, bowling, indoor crazy golf, laser quest etc so I wouldn't say Stevenage is the worst place to live! There were regular house parties and so it didn't really matter that the nightlife wasn't as good as at uni,

A number of staff and students signed up and trained for events such as One True Grit and Tough Mudder as an office team building and fund raising exercise. GSK also holds a number of activity days throughout the year for staff and their families including fun runs.