Placement Student Review

From day one, my new fellow employees were welcoming and encouraging which helped me settle in straight away and enjoy the environment both in the office and lab. I enjoyed producing results in the lab and being able to analyse the work that I had done so I could present it to my team.

Within the office I feel my presence was really valued and people encouraged me within meetings as well as with the work I was doing. I was given work to do of which the results were important in the project and decisions made for future work, therefore I felt my work was valued.

Especially within the first months of my work I was shown the way in terms of working in the lab as well as how to go about gathering and presenting data. My manager also was very good at giving me advice on general day-to-day soft skills crucial in whatever working environment.

It would vary how busy I was day to day. I was never pushed so hard that I would have to work late or get overly stressed over my work. It was down to myself a lot of the time how hard I pushed myself. Very occasionally there were days I felt I could have been been busier.

I was often given the responsibility of testing products gathering results in the lab then tasked with analysing these results and presenting them to my team members in order to progress with the project. Sometimes I felt I could be left alone a bit more, however frequent guidance meant I could be more sure I was doing the correct things.

In terms of my degree, the chemical content covered was only a minor part of my course so will probably not help too much directly with my degree, however the life skills I picked up whilst working there will be invaluable once I move on to different jobs in the future, I'm sure.

Very good atmosphere in the office, people are very friendly and always up for a chat. There are times when the office is quiet and hard working but ,there is often chat about work or it might be banter from the weekend or chat about footy. Overall it's very friendly.

The placement is very organised as they are used to having students there. The placement is based on a project which a report can be written which was necessary for my uni degree. Days out to other parts of the company was organised and a familiarisation day was set up to help us settle in.

There were lots of training courses offered to full time employees but as a student I would have hoped more to be available to us and would hoped to have been encouraged to get involved with such things. Personally I had a lot of training from my manager in general skills which I will definitely take forward.

The company is a very friendly on and one which good morals i believe and therefore would definitely be inclined to go back there in the future. The site I worked at were keen on going back to placement students if places became available, however this was limited to people leaving/retiring in the first place.

There were several other placement students on site which made it very easy to socialise with them either during the day or after work. There was also a christmas party which game me an opportunity to socialise with a wide variety of people at the company as well as students.

In the immediate are around my work the accommodation was very cheap (£350 pcm) as well as the socialising costs. However for a better social scene nearer the centre it comes at an increase in price of both (£450 pcm) but in my eyes, worth it for the social scene.

The immediate nightlife was very poor but if you go to the centre (20 minute bus) there is LOTS going on both in the day and at night. Whether it is bars, clubs, restaurants or gigs there is something for everyone. Overall a very good night life, just need to be in town for it.

There was a football side one can get involved with, made up from people on the site, howevere apart from this the placement itself didn't offer any activities outside work really. I town there are many groups/teams that someone can get involved with (eg football, rugby, dance etc.) So just reqires a small bit of research.