Undergraduate Industrial Pathology Placement Student Review

I loved my year with AstraZeneca. The people were lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed my project. I had a really nice supervisor as well. I really enjoyed the routine of a job and working with different teams as well. I was able to do many different techniques and given a lot of responsibility.

At the beginning of my placement, my supervisor forgot to introduce me on two occasions which made me feel quite invisible. However, throughout the year my project became high priority and I was allowed to continue doing it which gave me a lot of responsibility and made me feel valued by my supervisor. He treated me like another member of the team which I really appreciated.

There was a resource issue when I first started and therefore there was a delay in my training. Generally I don't think I received enough training as my supervisor was very busy. However, I did set up weekly catch up chats with him which allowed me to bring my problems to him and he could give me guidance.

Over the whole year I had a good balance between busy and bored. The actual work definitely didn't last the whole year but at times I was very busy. The gap in the work allowed me to do work required for university as well. The workload was about right in general.

My project became high priority and therefore I had a lot of responsibility, more so than some of my team members. This made me feel valued and trusted however at times I couldn't deal with the pressure. My supervisor left me to go into meetings without him and communicate with other teams without his presence which clearly showed a level of responsibility given to me.

I have developed my lab skills tremendously over the course of the year and now have in depth skills. This is a massive difference in comparison to the lab skills taught at uni. I have progressed my professional skills for the first time and feel better able to deal with certain situations now and feel more mature as a result. I hope my skills will make me more suitable for a PhD and other job opportunities.

I worked in a very small office of 20 and we all got to know each other very well. This made work more enjoyable every day as you knew your teammates professionally as well as personally. There was always someone around to help and the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed.

The company used a recruitment agency to hire us and this external company wasn't very good. They sent confusing emails and weren't very helpful. The interviews and familiarization days were good and very informative. Although I loved my placement I think it would have been good to have a shadowing rotation set up incorporated to allow development of more skills and to give us the chance to see other departments as it is quite daunting to make the conditions independently.

Although there was a development week at the start of our placement I don't feel that I received much value from it. I think the personal development I achieved was down to my own effort rather than any company effort. My own supervisor did give me advice on how to improve my personal skills but that was very much because I asked him rather than it being a requirement.

I am thinking about applying to the company in the future as they are a great company to work for and I have really enjoyed me year. I don't think there are enough opportunities for young candidates though especially after the graduate scheme which they are committed to investing in.

I had a really nice house of fellow placement students so we had a great time and did a lot of activities together. The other placement students weren't very enthusiastic about becoming friends so didn't socialise with them. Due to the small nature of the office, I got to know my team mates really well and socialised with them too.

I needed a car to travel to work which cost a fair bit of money despite being cheaper than public transport. Cambridge is an expensive place to live so it's just as well you're earning!

There were quite a few different clubs to go to within Cambridge although student nights are Wednesdays and Sundays so the weekend nights weren't as cheap. There was quite a good variety of music, class and size of clubs. There are also plenty of bars but again the price of going out is quite expensive especially as you have to get a taxi in and out of town.

Only if you found them yourselves. Cambridge has a lot to offer - I went to the public lecture series as well as the Science Festival. There is a cinema and plenty of shops and cafes so lots to keep you entertained at the weekend.