Scientist Review

Initially it was a struggle to get settled in and be confident in doing what I was expected to do. I did a lot of online training in the first few weeks, which I struggled to remember as I hadn’t been in the lab. As I started to run experiments on my own, I began to understand more of the work that I was doing, I started to enjoy the work more.

Although I am not a very talkative person and therefore struggle to interact with people, I always felt like I was important and part of the team. Whenever I needed help, there was someone I could ask and they would go out of their way to help me. My opinions were asked in several situations and taken on-board.

I was guided a lot by my supervisor during the first couple of months. As I began to get the hang of things, I was let go and allowed to design, plan and run experiments as how I saw fit. The support was always there. My manager and I spoke almost everyday to see where I was with my work and if there was anything I needed.

There was some variation to the extent of how busy I was. Most days were split between lab and office work. However, after a significant amount of work I occasionally had a few days straight of just office work, to catch up with writing my experiments. Overall, on most days I had enough to do and rarely got bored.

After I fully trained and confident in what I was doing, I was made the point of contact for the assays I was running. This involved ordering compounds to be tested, sorting out any problems that may arise from that. As well as running the assays and analysing the data, I had to communicate the results to the rest of the team. I also single-handedly trained two new graduate employees in running the assays I was responsible for.

I have been trained in culturing cells, assay development and optimisation, and transducing cells. I have had experience running MSD (sandwich) assays as well as FLIPR assays. I have also presented my work to different groups of people, in different formats (mainly PowerPoint presentations and posters). In addition to this I had to write a scientific paper reporting my project. The skills I obtained from doing these things will be greatly beneficial in my final year of undergraduate study and also beyond that. My experience will help me decide what I want to go into, whether it is further education, academia or industry.

The atmosphere was always pleasant with friendly colleagues. I was in an office with 4 other people and we all got on very well. Most of the department was in an open plan office and the atmosphere was always great. People often bring cakes and different kinds of treats to share. We occasionally went out for activities and food after work as a department.

There was a general structure for all placement students in the department at the start and at the end. This included scheduled training sessions (start of placement) and project presentations and poster session (end of placement). In between, my work structure was led by the progress of my work, but I knew what my end goal was. Overall, the placement was well structured.

There are several ways one can return to the organisation. They have several appealing graduate schemes; there are opportunities for PhD; they also offer contract work. As a placement student you have the opportunity of applying for the graduate schemes before they are made public. In addition, placement students can register their interest in future employment before the end of their time. These details will be kept on record for about 3yrs and you will be notified when something suitable becomes available.

IPUNITE is a committee dedicated to placement students within the company. They organised various social events including an elegant Christmas ball and fun boat party. In addition to this, they also organise regular social night outs. Outside of this, placement students also got together on their own accord, whether to have house parties, go on a weekend trip or have dinner at a pub.

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I never went out, so don't know much.

There is an onsite gym which houses an indoor sports arena, where they hold sports sessions such as basketball, badminton and netball. The gym also has several classes that run over lunch and after work. There are opportunities to get involved in activities with people from other GSK sites as well