Industrial Placement Student Review

I have enjoyed working here because I felt like my work was valuable and I was always encouraged to design and interpret my own experiments, therefore not only gaining practical experience, but developing an independent way to work. I also got involved in STEM and charity activities and organising events for the other students.

In my department, we are always asked to contribute in meetings and social activities with the other members of staff. It is also very easy to talk to anyone, in case you want to shadow them or want training on any piece of lab equipment.

I was given a good balance between support and independence. My supervisor expected me to do the research required for planning my experiments, but we would always talk through the experimental details, where I was not experienced enough to make a decision. By the end of my placement, I needed less guidance and felt more confident in my study designs.

On lab work days, I was often very busy. There is usually a lag between when you run an experiment, analyse the data and plan your next experiment, but that was never idle, as I needed to meet with my supervisor and manager to establish future steps and perform literature reviews to guide me in the next steps. Overall, there was a good balance between lab and office work, as well as other activities and event planning.

I was in charge of managing my own work all throughout my placement and I would only report back to my supervisor if I had any issues or needed any guidance. I ran most of my assays on my own after getting the appropriate training and analysed my own data.

I have improved my literature review techniques substantially since the beginning of my placement. I am now able to understand and critically assess experimental design decisions made by the authors and derive knowledge that will be useful in my own experiments. I am now confident working independently in the lab and performing troubleshooting when necessary.

It is always cheerful and good-natured, but really quiet. Everybody is usually concentrating on their work in the office areas, but people are socialise in the kitchen or break areas. People always ask each other for help. In the lab, everybody is very helpful and considerate, always happy to help and show you their work.

It received the original brief about my project on my familiarisation day and worked towards getting the results for this initial part. Throughout, I had to decide on the finer details of this research so that I can get the data to answer the initial research question. I enjoyed the fact that I had the freedom to make these choices and complete a meaningful piece of work.

I got the opportunity to go on development days, where other departments would present the work they do and their role within the company, which helped me experience other ways of working and research areas. Also, I participated in some women's leadership initiative activities, which were eye-opening in terms of adapting to a corporate workplace. Other STEM and student activities were aimed to improve our employability and soft skills.

I would like to work in the organisation, but, unfortunately I do not think that the graduate scheme offered by GSK suits my desired career path. However, I would consider a job if it was offered, although I am unsure how likely that would be. I really enjoyed my time here and the type of work carried out by the department I was based in.

There was quite a few students at the Ware site, where I was based. Everybody was eager to socialise and we attend a weekly pub quiz night and meet up after work on most Fridays. At first, we all went out as a large group, whereas towards the end we would still extend the invite to everyone, but only the same few people would show up.

Both living and socialising costs are quite high, due to the proximity to London. However, we had our wages adjusted in accordance to London living wages, to help with this. Most people live in two's and three's, as this is not a student area and larger houses are hard to find.

Ware is a small town, with a lot of nice cocktail bars and pubs, often frequented by the students. Hertford, which is a 5 minute train journey way has a couple of clubs. Prices are quite expensive though, because it is close to London and these are not university towns.

I had the amazing opportunity to go to the national Big Bang fair and help out on the GSK stand and ran a session in the A level student work experience week in Ware. Moreover, there is a rich agenda of employability-related workshops run at Ware for students and development activities. I both attended and organised a few of these and I felt like I got a lot out of them.