Industrial Placement Student in Biopharm Molecular Discovery, High-Throughput Expression & Characterisation Review

I really enjoyed my placement - I learnt so much in terms of basic lab-skills that will be so helpful in university research projects and also in finding research jobs in future. I left GSK feeling 100 X more confident in the lab as well as in terms of data-analysis and writing up scientific research. Additionally, permanent staff in the department were so welcoming and helpful, and all the students became so close. If I had to make the choice again I would do the same - the experience was worth it, even for all the work involved in the application process!

My colleagues mostly treated me like a permanent staff-member, in that they were never patronising, and often entrusted me with important program work. I was also entered into a rewards scheme as recognition of the work I put into a specific project.

I was supported as much as I wanted/needed. For some tasks, I was almost completely supervised, whereas for work I was more confident with, I was left to work completely independently. My supervisors/managers were very helpful in giving me time to do uni work and helped me a lot with coursework, often going through essays with me, at significant time-costs to them.

I was pretty busy, especially if the machine I was based on had some kind of technical meltdown - I occassionally ended up having to do 9/10 hour days.

My main project was technological development - something that needed doing asap but was not crucial to any specific program. Later on I was also given responsibility for a series of assays that contributed valuable data for a target-specific antibody-generation campaign.

The lab techniques I learnt at GSK almost certainly helped me secure my chosen research project for my final year of university, and will hopefull help me get onto my preferred career path.

Fairly relaxed - there was lots of cake, and people were able to have some social chat.

It was pretty well-organised - my supervisor had a clear plan for my project, and he made sure that I had enough time to write up my work and submit my report to uni.

We had journal club once a month, where we practised our presentation skills, and there were optional workishops for other types of skills, however I was generally too busy to take part in these.

Quite appealing, though work at GSK was very specialised - I would be worried about getting a bit pigenoholed and not being able to develop a wide variety of research skills.

Very good - lots of messy nights out and house parties. Also plenty of non-drinking outings and meals :)

I lived at home in London, so I only had to pay for nights/meals out, and not rent.

Not bad, considering it was Stevenage! The students definitely bring the town to life!

There were a couple of work socials, but not much else.