Industrial Placement Process Chemist Review

I extremely enjoyed my placement and gained a huge amount of experience and knowledge from it. Working in a laboratory in industry was extremely different to what it is like at university and was a lot more enjoyable due to not having the pressure of your marks depending on how well your experiment goes. I found that in industry an experiment not working can actually be a good result which was very different to university and it was much more enjoyable being to think more in depth about the experiments I was carrying out and to truly understand what I was doing, why things might have not worked and what I could do to improve it next time.

I felt extremely valued by the majority of my colleagues and in particular my manager was excellent in encouraging me to speak up and give my opinion as he always valued my opinion in discussions. Seeing the work I was carrying out make a real difference and being implemented into a project also showed how much the team valued the work I was doing. As part of my placement I had to work as part of a project team and collaborate with a variety of people who were all extremely friendly and despite me being a lot less experienced than the majority of them, they were all very supportive and still keen to here my opinion.

I had an excellent manager who supported me greatly and his primary goal for my placement year was to ensure I gained the maximum amount of experience possible. I had weekly meetings with my manager where we covered a range of topics including interview skills and practising the type of things that would likely come up and widening my knowledge of chemistry. Upon first starting I was worried that I might be expected to know everything and be completely independent however it was nothing like this and I given a lot of support to help me acclimatise and settle in and slowly as the year has gone on and I have become more confident I have been given more responsibility with the knowledge that my manager and colleagues are always still there to support me if I need them and ask.

The balance of work was about right though there would be some days were I could be extremely busy and in the lab all day compared to others where I may be at my desk all day catching up on admin type stuff. Overall it balanced out well though and I would say I was never over worked or extremely bored and my manager would always ask me and was very open for me to speak up if I did feel the work load wasn't right. My manager was also extremely understanding of the university work that I had to do and allowed me some time to do it while at work if I needed the extra time.

As the year progressed I was given more and more responsibility and encouraged to take more of a lead. This included things such as chairing meetings and taking on additional roles (such as being responsible for carrying out green metric assessments and liaising with the sustainability team about my project). When new colleagues joined the project I was also entrusted with helping them settle in and supporting them with anything they needed help.

The practical skills I have gained in the lab will be a huge advantage for my return to university to do my 4th year project. While on placement I have become much more competent in the laboratory and I have gained a much more in depth understanding of laboratory skills and processes. I also had the opportunity to attend literature sessions where a group of us get together and discuss interesting literature papers which has developed my skills in being able to critically review literature as well as broadened my knowledge of chemistry. The work I have done while on placement will be similar to that as in my fourth year project, including writing a final report and this will make my fourth year of university significantly easier compared to if I had not done a placement.

The atmosphere in the office was great, it was quiet enough to let you get on with work when needed but everyone was also extremely friendly and willing to have a chat or help with anything. We regularly went for tea breaks together and everyone took turns to bring in cakes and snacks.

The placement was well run and we had an induction day in summer a couple of months before we started to allow us to meet our managers and to meet other placement students. This was extremely helpful particularly when it came to finding people to live with. Our agency, SRG, also set up a facebook group which helped with finding accommodation and people to live as well as just making friends with other students before the placement had even started. In the first week of work we were taken on a training week to Bristol university where we learnt important practical skills for our placement year as well as GSKs rules and procedures, this was extremely helpful and made settling in and getting to grips with the ways of working a lot easier.

When first starting I was given a lot of training on all the equipment I would be using and the site's safety procedures. I have been given the opportunity to attend external conferences fully paid for by GSK which has been a significant investment in my development. GSK also regularly has lectures and seminars from internal employees and external academics to continually further peoples knowledge.

I would more than happily return to work for the company after I have completed my degree as I have thoroughly enjoyed my time. I have been given the opportunity to experience a range of different areas and departments which has allowed me to really assess what areas I would like to specialise in. GSK also has a number of programmes such as future leaders which industrial placement students are given the opportunity to apply to earlier than external persons which is extremely appealing.

There is a group called IP unite set up and run by the industrial placement students that regularly hold events and socials such as boat parties, Christmas balls and themed night outs. All the placement students are well interconnected and regularly go out on nights out or hold house parties. The group also set up more formal events such as visits to different GSK sites to learn about all the different areas of the business.

I was on placement in Stevenage which was quite a cheap place to live. Though its not the prettiest town it has everything you need in terms of shops, restaurants and bars and has great train connections to London.

The nightlife in Stevenage itself is not the best but the town has great train connections to London where the nightlife is a lot better, industrial placement students also regularly hold house parties and IP unite also organises various nights out to London and themed nights in Stevenage such as at Halloween.

The student run group IP unite organised a lot of activities outside of work such as social events. GSK in Stevenage has an on site gym which has a variety of classes such as running, badminton, squash, netball, etc. which many of the placement students take part in together. Some placement students also took up classes run outside of GSK such as dancing.