Industrial Placement student Review

It was a great experience, I enjoyed putting in practice what I had learned at uni. I liked the team work and the atmosphere and the independent work. I grew a lot as a person and got exposure to a lot of science and many different branches of the company.

Colleagues appreciated my work and were very supportive, many different people spent time to help me make my project work. I got the opportunity to present my work during different meetings and at a poster session. The department felt very inclusive. It is interesting that many people come back to work here after their IP year.

I had two supervisors and two different experience. The first one had a different working style from me and I struggled to communicate, he tried to provide support but lacked experience and interest supervising students. The second one tried to know me and was very motivating. Overall in the department there were many supportive supervisors.

It varied greatly between days. Generally things were a bit slow to take off and so it was down to me to keep busy: attend seminars, shadow other people, read papers. Experimental days were very busy so it was all about accepting that there were periods of low activity and periods of high activity.

On the practical side of running experiments I was given a lot of independence. In terms of project decisions it was quite constrained.

It will help me both in my degree and in any team interactions and applications. I learned how to take decisions and adapt to people. I also think that I am now able to be more focused on what I need to get done in one day. I met a lot of people which helped me develop my networking skills.

The atmosphere in the office was very friendly and relaxed. There were quite a few social opportunities involving cake. It felt very inclusive. I feel like I have met and talked to everyone in the office. I enjoyed the smart way of working which means no attributed desks. I had a good time.

The holiday system was very obscure. We had to do the calculations ourselves to know how many days of holiday we could take based on how many days we had worked previously. Other than that there were some training and a lot of information was provided about how the placement was gonna go.

I was able to attend many workshops that I felt helped me develop, about personal resilience, feedback, leadership. I was also able to listen to many seminars outside of my field and shadow different people. I received very good scientific training. I got the opportunity to present my work at meetings and a poster session.

The company is a major player, it has offices in a wide range of countries and a diversity of branches and roles. I really like its ethos and feel that there are many opportunities for career progression. It also has many development schemes. It has excellent science and so the prospects are very appealing.

Stevenage is not a place with a good social scene and so that greatly reduced the opportunities. The student community was not tight but I made a close group of friends in my department. It is better in the summer where you can spend time outside. The alternative is going to events in London.

It was very cheap however transports were very expensive (buses) and trains to London ( about 9£ for a day return with a railcard) . There was very little to do in Stevenage, apart from a few nice pubs there were no nice bars and very few nice restaurants, very little culture.

There was not much going on in Stevenage. You also really need a car to go around. There are many opportunities in London where there are many universities however it requires a lot of commute (effort) and is very expensive (train tickets). There is a gym on site however and a few around town.