Intellectual Property Assistant Review

I really enjoyed my time working with ASM. As a student here, you're treated as an employee and not just a placement student. I was given plenty of responsibility, my own projects to work on and a lot of challenges. It makes ASM such a good place to do your placement because you get so much out of it and you aren't left to do menial tasks day in day out.

My team in particular was really supportive in teaching me the role but also in giving credit where it's due. I won two awards whilst on placement as recognition of my hard work as did so many other students in other departments, and the company as a whole is really positive and keen to recognise achievement.

When you do a 13 month placement with ASM, you have a month overlap with the student that you are replacing so that they can train you before they leave. I think that was a really good idea so that we weren't all thrown in at the deep end. My managers and mentor throughout the year were always happy to help me if I ever struggled or was taking on something new and I was never scared to ask for help.

In our department, the work rate could fluctuate from time to time so sometimes we'd be flat out or have a really steady month and sometimes we'd be relatively quiet and would find other little jobs to do. In some ways though it was helpful so that in the quiet times I could look into dissertation research or complete logbooks for uni that I had to maintain whilst on placement.

I was able to instruct our external attorneys with new patent filings, which required separate instruction letters and supporting documents for each country and was trusted by my team when something needed doing. I also sent out instruction for events during the patenting process after filing, processed invoices and chaired our monthly idea review meetings.

Whilst on placement I have learnt so much and have grown in confidence. I have had to become so much more organised, present to people more regularly and am always working to deadlines. I think my confidence and ability to present to people is something that I improved upon the most during placement and am most proud of. If I hadn't done my placement here or at all, I don't think I'd be going back to uni for my final year with the skill set that I have now.

ASM is the friendliest place I have ever worked.There is an open plan policy with office set up so that the senior managers and directors etc all have desks among everyone else and there aren't segregated little offices. There was always social events being run by the company to get involved in, as well as annual summer and Christmas parties. You are also not the only placement student with ASM; there were 9 in total for the year that I started and the following year has 16. This means that there are other people the same age and in the same situation to you and we all ended up being really great friends. There is also a smart-casual dress code so no awkward suits every day or smart dress every day.

I had my interviews and was offered the position pretty quickly, received my contract and was also invited to an open day before my start date to get a feel for what it would be like to work at ASM. On my first day, I had a desk ready for me, all of the bits I would need (laptop, phone etc) so I could get on with working with minimal faffing around. While on placement, I had a good structure of what work to do throughout the day and knew what was expected of me.

I had an induction and machine training when I started to help me learn the ropes. Not having an engineering background, this was really useful and if I ever needed more advice throughout the year, there was always someone willing to help me. I was also encouraged to do webinars for areas that I wanted to learn more about. We had to do 3 presentations during our placement (one at 3 months, on half way through and one in the final few weeks) and for all of these, we had one on one meetings with feedback which was really helpful to improve for the future.

I have been given a new contract for the following year so that I can work full time until I go back to university, and then work 2 days a week either by commuting or doing bits from home. This is by moving into a new department and working under a completely different role. There is always room to progress across teams, though some other students have done so within their current team.

Definitely. Where there are so many other placement students, we try to meet up as much as we can outside of work for drinks or food or to go and see a film or something. This is also with some colleagues that aren't students so it was nice to be able to settle in so easily.

The cost of living in Weymouth is pretty reasonable so that you can keep most of your wages each month. Bars and restaurants are much cheaper than bigger cities which makes a night out etc more affordable. I was local to the area before starting my placement so managed to move home for the year to save some money.

Weymouth is a relatively small town but still has plenty of pubs and clubs. There is an event at the harbour every bank holiday weekend with live music and drinking outside which is always pretty packed. This is the same for the seafood festival and other events that go on in weymouth throughout the year. Club entry is also so much cheaper than at uni.

There was always something going on outside of work. There is badminton, football and walking clubs during the week, days out organised by the company and the annual summer and Christmas parties. There is a sports and social club who arrange all of this and advertise it for us and days out will be subsidised by the company.