Synthetic Organic Chemistry Sandwich Student Review

The internship was fantastic learning opportunity and I have enjoyed working at AstraZeneca. The work is varied and can sometimes be challenging, but this pushed me to develop my understanding of chemistry and the drug discovery process in a positive way. I worked as a medicinal chemist and I would recommend the placement to anyone looking to improve their synthetic organic chemistry skills way beyond what can be learnt in undergraduate labs in addition to 'soft' skills you develop throughout the year.

During the placement you are treated as one of the team and so you do feel valued. After a few weeks/months at the company you effectively feel like a full-time employee, which is great. Of course, you may not necessarily have all the responsibilities of a full-time employee, but you will have a proportionate workload. You are trusted with work that is important to the project/company, not something that was made just to keep you busy and so you feel like you and your work is valued.

All my colleagues at AstraZeneca, not just my supervisor, were hugely supportive throughout the year. Going from undergraduate university environment to industry can be a huge step-up and there is an associated learning curve, but everyone would be happy to help with any questions I had at any stage in the year. I didn't feel judged for asking questions. My supervisor was great and provided support when I needed it, particularly at the start of the placement, but also at any time in the year. There was a perfect balance of providing support and allowing me to work independently.

This would vary on my workload and any meetings/events I would need to work around. As a lab-based chemist, I was quite busy because I personally wanted to get a lot of work done for the project. Sometimes the chemistry can not work or go wrong which can set you back and this made me work harder to get back on track. The pressure to get results only really came from myself, I didn't feel like there was a culture of pressurising employees at AstraZeneca. There were rarely days I was bored because there's always be something you can working on (otherwise you're not being productive!). Generally a good balance.

The amount of responsibility increases throughout the year. In the first month, there is a lot of training and things to get used to so I was directly supervised by my supervisor while I was learning. Over time, I was given more work and so more responsibility and there was less direct supervision (i.e. no 'hand-holding'). A few months in, I was effectively an independent worker completely responsible for my own work. Of course, there would still have to be a full time employee with you in the lab to provide supervision due to safety rules.

I will be doing a Master's year after my placement and aspire to work as a synthetic organic chemist in the future. During my placement, I was exposed to a wide variety of techniques, methods and reactions so I learned huge amount that will help my going forward. Weekly meetings also provided opportunities to present my work concisely so I developed some presentation skills which are transferable.

In general, as you would expect, everyone is busy working and being productive. However, it is not dull and there is time for a chat and a joke or two. The environment is friendly and people get along with each other. You don't feel awkward approaching someone to chat or ask something. The culture at AstraZeneca is collaborative and you don't sense people are out to one-up their colleagues.

The interview process was done in the AstraZeneca Macclesfield site with the opportunity to work at either the Macclesfield or Cambridge site presented. They were very quick to get back with a placement offer after interviews which is great. There are two sites occupied by the chemistry department. Unfortunately, it was not decided which site the synthetic organic chemistry placement students would be placed until about one and half months before the start of the placement. This meant that we had a stressful time when it came to house hunting. The placement itself is relatively well set up since the company have some experience from previous years of running the placement scheme. I knew who my supervisor was, what team and project I would be a part of early on. The first week is all about getting set up with IT etc. and completing the mandatory paperwork. From then on it was fine internally. From the time you accept the placement to the end of the placement, you deal with an contracted company called Hays for things like timesheets and holidays. They too have some experience, but I found that sometimes their information was not clear to follow or there was some misinformation. I had to call them a few times to clarify situations. In summary, a mixed situation.

Training was provided on how to use equipment and machines the lab at the start of the placement. Development opportunities included monthly discussion groups and literature review groups as well as semi-frequent lectures from external speakers. The company recognises personal development is important and allows you to attend appropriate events/conferences if you want to go. There was also courses run that were aimed at early career employees which were useful to attend. Once again, there are lots of learning opportunities throughout the year.

Given the opportunity, I would work for AstraZeneca in the future as I have had a great experience with the company on this placement year. I have another year at university after the placement so I'm not applying for any jobs this year. I believe the employment prospects can be good, depending on what is available across the multiple departments. I believe it is more common for a placement student to be accepted to the graduate scheme than directly get a full time job, but I have heard some current students have been offered jobs after applying through the normal means. Not all current employees have PhDs or postdocs. Though many do, some employees have been hired through the graduate program without PhDs.

Yes. The placement students are split across multiple sites in Cambridge and we would occasionally organise social gatherings to meet up with each other outside of work. I would often have lunch with other placement students who were at the same site as me. It is also common for placement students to house share with each other. There is also a good social scene amongst work colleagues in my department. There would be frequent socials to go out for food/a drink and sometimes pub lunches would be organised by department or project teams themselves.

I lived in the central Cambridge area of the cost of living was relatively high if you're used to cheaper prices, for example, in the North. Perhaps a little cheaper than living in London, but it is still what you would expect from this region of the UK. Cost of socialising would depend on the event, but don't expect anything to be super cheap.

There are tonnes of pubs and a few nightclubs in the Cambridge. Not quite London though so 4/10.

Can't comment, so put 5/10.