Industrial Placement Review

The placement was enjoyable most of the time, challenging me to develop my lab and transferable skills. I had the opportunity to work with people from a range of backgrounds, and improved my understanding of industry and structure of a large pharmaceutical company, which will be very useful when deciding the next steps in my career.

While at work, I was made to feel like a member of the team. I was trusted with responsibility for running several assays, along with developing another that would be integrated into the department portfolio. It was nice to have hard work recognised by other members of the group. Aside from this, IP students were invited to department meetings, and social events. This helped make us feel like part of the team, rather than separate students.

I would always receive help when I asked for it, but I was also encouraged to work independently and make my own decisions. This was good and bad - it is nice to be treated like a competent scientist, but when working with expensive reagents and equipment, it is nice to have some hands-on assistance.

At the start of the year, I basically had to throw myself at other members of the department to have something to do. Several months into the placement, my project got underway and I was given routine assays to do, which occupied a large amount of my time. There is still downtime, but there were plenty of lectures on site to attend, and reading journals is encouraged in spare time.

I was given responsibility for several assays, including the wet work, dry work and liaising with scientists from across the company. In addition, I was given control over development of an assay that would join the portfolio and produce data that would advise real company decisions. I was not overburdened, but it's nice to feel "needed"!

I developed a wide range of lab skills, which will be useful for my dissertation and when applying for jobs in the future. Aside from this, I was given the opportunity to present my work at group meetings, and in front of the department, which has been a big confidence boost.

The office was very relaxed. Everyone got on with their work, but was always available for a chat if you needed them. When I needed to get on with work, there was no issue with using earphones. Being in an open plan office, it could get quite noisy at times, but never to a severely disruptive level.

As mentioned before, the start of the placement was very slow. It involved a lot of training regarding company policies. It would have been nicer to weave this in with some practical work. While my project did have an end goal, I was given free reign to get there, which felt a little bit overwhelming at times. It would have been nice to have more of a guiding hand.

I have been trained to use many of the systems used at GSK - some which I imagine are only used at the company. Considering this, I feel like GSK has significantly invested their time in training me to use their systems, which would not be particularly useful if I went elsewhere. Apart from this, I have been trained how to use several machines and techniques that will be transferable in industry.

Most of the graduate schemes discussed by the IP team are focussed around the business side of the company. It would appear that the best way to get back into the organisation is to start from the very bottom and work your way up as a full time job, rather than through a grad scheme.

I was seated with other placement students, and our department had a small group of students to socialise with while at work. It was nice to have people to vent your frustrations to. Personally, I lived at home during the placement, but I understand that many students socialised outside of work hours.

Typical for home counties/London. The placement is paid in line with London living wage, so there would be no issue with living in comfort for the duration of the placement. Stevenage has a range of options for things to do outside of work time, and a train ticket to London is not too expensive.

Stevenage has a Wetherspoons and some bars and that is about it. There are also some clubs in neighbouring towns, but I would not choose to spend a night out at either of these. The station is well connected to London so there is always the opportunity to try something new if the local area is not to your taste.

We were invited to: The department Christmas dinner The department volunteering day The department team build All of these activities were paid time off work, and made me feel like part of the department. I was also allowed to attend a conference during work hours. Ultimately, I was unable to attend, but having the option was very appreciated.