Synthetic Chemistry Sandwich Student Review

I thoroughly enjoyed my time at AstraZeneca, and therefore this has easily been the best year of my degree. Firstly, it provided a well needed break from formal education, and provided a valuable insight into the working world of chemistry. Consequently, it has demonstrated the relevance of my degree to the outside world, and I have a greater understanding of several topic areas because of it. As well as becoming more competent in key techniques and pieces of equipment, my personal skills have developed significantly, and I now have plenty of examples of times when I worked in a team etc to use for my future career. AstraZeneca is a brilliant company to work for in every respect, and I won’t be hesitating to apply for a job in the near future!

After a few weeks of training I felt like one of the team. I was recognised as a colleague instead of a student, and so my work was really valued by my colleagues. The projects that I worked on had really short deadlines, so once I was trained the work that I did was essential to the project.

When you arrive at AstraZeneca you get put into a team, and have a manager, and then a colleague within your team who is your supervisor. Your supervisor is in charge of training you in your role, and is your primary person for support. All of my managers and supervisors were outstanding. They all made the time to teach me new skills, and always made the time to answer any ‘silly’ questions that I had. Not only did they help with my project work, but they also offered advice on my university work, which was very helpful. They were all very approachable which made settling into my role easy. The supervisors that I had also let me explore things on my own so that I could learn from my own mistakes and suggest routes forward, but they always made sure that I was confident with what I was doing.

I was personally involved with high profile projects with short deadlines; therefore I was busy most of the time, however after talking to other students this is very project dependent. Busier periods would come and go, but since starting my to do list has never had nothing on it, which makes the time go fast, and it helped me to settle into the role very quickly. Although I was very busy as long as I showed to my team that I was doing as much as possible then they were happy with me, which made me feel more relaxed about my work load.

After my training weeks I was given my own stage to optimise, and therefore I was given a huge amount of responsibility. The compound which I was responsible for was early on in the synthesis so I was responsible for generating a supply of it for the rest of my team to use. Due to the fantastic support available the responsibility I was given was always manageable.

The skills that I have gained are invaluable. When I go back to University, I will be entering my masters year. The practical skills that I now have, which includes how to go about project work e.g. how to think about ways forward, and how to write a professional report are invaluable, and will certainly give me the upper hand with my project work. In addition, I was given numerous opportunities to develop my personal skills, for example doing experimentation with year 10 work experience students. I definitely feel that I am a much more ‘well rounded’ person in terms of my skill set upon completion of the placement.

In general, the offices are a friendly place to work in. I didn’t come across anyone who wasn’t willing to talk to you about your work/their career path etc.The department as a whole was fantastic as numerous social activities were organised, for example a weekly walking club in the peak district, football/badminton clubs, and a cross-stitch club to name a few. These were great opportunities to network.

I personally experienced a lot of problems when finalising the paper work for my placement, because as a sandwich student you are employed through an agency rather than AstraZeneca. This information has been fed back so hopefully this will change before the new cohort comes. However, in terms of my training and project tasks etc, the placement was very well organised by AstraZeneca. The first few weeks are spent training in key techniques and equipment, which you will use when you start your project work.

Whilst on placement I was welcome to attend numerous training classes. I went on a Design of experiment training course, which isn’t widely taught at universities but is very valuable in industry. I went on numerous software training programmes. Academics regularly visit the department and we were made very welcome to these lectures. I was based at Macclesfield but with the help of a member of the department I am now going to visit the Cambridge site in the summer!

My placement at AstraZeneca was fantastic, and this was mostly due to the people in the department. Everyone is very knowledgeable, but are very willing to train and share their experiences, thus the working environment is very attractive, which is why I now aim to come back to the company.

This is very dependent on the students that you are on placement with. I had a good bunch and we regularly went out for a few drinks or a meal or the cinema etc. We even had a Christmas dinner with students from the Alderly Park site. Once we accepted our placement we received contact details for the other students and made a Facebook page to discuss living arrangements. Later this became the platform to organise social events. Most teams regularly go out for pub lunches and do team building activities.

Macclesfield is a fairly cheap area to live in. I currently pay £650/month for a two bed that I share. I think that this around about the going rate. I haven’t really noticed a large increase/decrease in prices relative to any other Northern town. Meal prices as always vary depending on how nice the place is etc.

Macclesfield is a very small town. It has lots of interesting pubs, but it only has one small nightclub. For larger nights out getting the train into Manchester is probably best. In general, there is not a great deal to do in Macclesfield. It does have a bowling alley, laser tag, and an independent cinema. If you can drive/are good with public transport it’s a great place to get to other places! For example, Wales is less than 2 hours away. The peak district is about 20 mins away. Chester zoo is an hours drive away. Manchester is approximately a 30min train away.

Yes, teams often arranged nights out/meals etc. Also there is a football club and badminton etc. I was personally involved in a walking club. Once a week a member of the department organised free walks, which were fantastic for exploring the peak district. Students in general are expected to organise social events, so just get involved!