Analytical Chemist Review

I really enjoyed my placement year the team that I was situated in were the most wonderful people and made me feel extremely welcome. Along with this the work I am doing is giving me a real insight into what a job in analytical chemistry will be like in the future so I would highly recommend it to anyone who asks.

The team that I am situated in really make me feel like one of the team, I am asked weekly to give an update on my work and to present any learnings or findings I have if I want to in our monthly meetings. I am constantly congratulated on the work I am achieving making me feel extremely valued.

Although my team were a great source of support my line manager was not so much. On my first day I was left completely by myself with no computer or anything in a room with no one else in not knowing what to do whilst he went to a team meeting. Throughout the year, I have been the one to organise our meetings and was never given a development plan which I think would have been a great addition to my placement. Along with this I was not given much support with the lab work and left to my own devices pretty much from the get go.

For the first 3 months I was sat at my desk with nothing to do apart from myLearning exercises. However, after a certain amount of time I had finished them and still was left with nothing to do. I continually asked if I could shadow in the lab just to get away from my desk however I was always denied by my line manager. I had to wait until October to finally get in the lab when I started at the beginning of July. Then when the work started I went to the other extreme of being completely rushed off my feet and barely taking a break. I think it would be better if the IPs were given more activities or shadowing within their first few months to stop the initial on boarding process from being so boring.

During my time at GSK I and a small team of other IPs were asked to validate a method, however, the responsibility of it was mainly left to me even though my line manger was meant to be the leader. I was also asked to write the validation protocol and process and write up all the results from the validation work. Along with this I was also asked to complete a gap analysis of the method and other methods being used and then do a scoping experiment using a new method to see if it could be replicated and improved in house.

I believe this placement has helped me develop skills which I will use for life. From the work I have been doing I have particularly developed my team work, leadership, organisation, time management skills. Along with this I have developed a skill set in using HPLC which will particular help me with my next year (masters year) at university. Similarly, my communicating skills and presenting skills have greatly improved, both of which are valuable for the rest of my studies and beyond.

The office had a good general atmosphere, it was quiet enough that it was possible to get work done however people liked to have chats in between doing work. Along with this, we had to hot seat which allowed meeting new people and actually getting to speak to people working in other teams who we would not have meet or spoken to necessarily.

My placement involved the validation of the method I wanted to use for my project work. This meant a large proportion of my placement year was spent on this validation, which I could not use for my University report. Therefore, when it became time to carry out my project work I was only able to collect two months worth of data which is not really sufficient. Therefore, I believe it could have been better organised because if the validation had been discussed before we started it could have been done before so then someone would be able to train people on the method.

My line manager decided to not go through and create a development plan with me. Therefore, I did not have the opportunity to develop my skills and ask to do things that were on my development report. However, my fellow IP within my team had a development report and was allowed to visit different sites to experience different areas of the business and it was all funded for her. Therefore, I think it depends on who your manager is.

I would like to come back and work for GSK. However, I would not like to come back and work under the same manager. I have enjoyed my year however I think it has taught me that I probably don't want to come back and work for the same team for this reason. However, I really love the company and how it works as a whole.

A lot of us students either lived together or lived very close by to each other so we were constantly hanging out. We all got a long very well and would always eat lunch together each day. One of the best parts of this year is that I have made some friends for life who I would never have met otherwise.

The cost of living was higher than I was used to. However it is to be expected when you are working near London. Along with this the rest was reasonably expensive but not ridiculous. However, socialising in the town where the site was, was expensive but socialising where we lived was alright pricing wise. Therefore, we would mostly socialise away from our work town.

There was a non-existent nightlife in the town where the site was situated. However, where we were living there is a University and so there was a place to go out. As well as this there were also clubs in a near by city that we could go to a not too great of a price.

My team were not the best at organising social events outside of work. A lot of the time the plans would fall through so socialising with my team outside of work was very rare. However, the head of my team was always organising lunches within work time which was great. Part of the reason we didn't socialise was because a lot of my team had kids, so it was understandable.