Industrial Placement Student Review

by GSK

Best Student Employer

This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.

Rating

2.7/5
  • The Role
    4.3
  • The Company
    1.6
  • The Culture
    1.6

    The Role

  • 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?

    • I did enjoy my placement quite well, mostly due to my supervisor [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions] who was so nice and patient. I was lucky to have another 12 students in my department, so we would interact with each other a lot. It was a great to learn so many new things and become an independent scientist.

    4/5
  • 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?

    • I felt valued by my collegues and team members even though I would be the youngest in the group and definitely with the least experience. They would always have trust in me that I would perform well and they would allow me to carry out complex experiments. That definitely boosted my self-confidence.

    5/5
  • 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?

    • I was given plenty of support by my supervisor, [This section of the comment has been removed by a member of the RateMyPlacement Team because it did not meet our site terms and conditions]. She had so much patience with me, she guided me a lot and she was there for me not only as a work colleague but as a friend too. She has been dear to me like my mum and my interaction with her changed the whole experience for better. I was so lucky to have her as my supervisor.

    5/5
  • 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?

    • I would say busy. Most of the times it would depend on how much I choose to load my day with and I would plan office-days between exhausting full on lab days; but some weeks would be no escape from very busy days of experiments from 8 to 6. But I think it depends very much on the type of project you are assigned and the flexibility. I enjoyed it though. Some friends of mine were always bored.

    5/5
  • 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?

    • I would say that I was given plenty of responsibility. My project was about to be carried into clinical studies hence my results would be used if they would be positive. I had to carry out complex lab experiments which I did independently after I have learnt them. And cell sorting is not something to fool around with.

    5/5
  • 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?

    • I have not finished and left for the big wide world yet but I think the techniques that I learnt will be very useful in my future career of biomedical sciences. I learnt flow cytometry, cell sorting, RNA extractions, qPCR and cell culture - all vital in a lab based scientist.

    4/5

    The Company

  • 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?

    • It was not that great. People knew each other for a long time as they were part of the company for years. That meant it was hard to talk about anything else beyond work. I wish we were able to bond more. It was fairly quiet in the office too and we would not go out to lunches together.

    2/5
  • 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?

    • It was a bit of a chaos at the beginning. I had a project initially and my supervisor bless her planned everything for me to work, the experiments etc. Then 2 weeks in my placement my project got cancelled so I got transferred to a different one. We had to pretty much improvise from there. It was not a disaster though.

    2/5
  • 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?

    • The company did not invest in us targeted, at all. We were not allowed to participate in external conferences. However, we had opportunities to attend other places like internal science fairs, or the immunology summit where speakers would come from universities around the world. One time I attended a BD Bioscience conference too (internal).

    1/5
  • 10. What were the perks on your work placement?

    • Subsidised/Company Gym
    3/5
  • 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?

    • I did enjoy my time as a student here but I do not think that I would consider myself suitable to be working in industry as an adult researcher. I think we have different views on what is more important to invest in and I would not bear the thought of my work being discontinued because a new CEO said so.

    1/5

    The Culture

  • 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?

    • Yes, my fellow students in the department were lovely, I was lucky to have them.

    4/5
  • 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?

    • Less expensive than London and Bristol, but still fairly expensive.I would ear just as much I would spend. But I also commuted within UK a lot. Stevenage is a horrible place though.

    1/5
  • 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?

    • It was basically inexistent. There are no clubs in Stevenage. A bar only is open. ish.

    1/5
  • 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?

    • I don't think I had many. A lot of sports events for charity and that is it.

    1/5
    Report this review

Details

Placement (10 Months+)

Science

London

August 2018

View More Reviews