Industrial placement student Review

I was moved from one office to another part way through placement as part of a refurbishment plan on the building, but the atmosphere in both offices was good, and interactive.

In the first week, our computers hadn't arrived, but aside from that, the rest of my placement was well-organised and structured.

There was a lot of training involving technical lab skills, software use, and presenting. It has prepared me more for my final year, and I learned skills I would not have had the chance to learn at uni, especially some of the more technical lab based work.

While I would appreciate the opportunity to return to work with GSK, a job offer is unlikely without further scientific qualifications, such as a phd, certainly if you want the opportunity of promotion in your future career.

Placement students, especially within GSK, gel together and create a small student community. There was lots of interaction between students both within and outside your specific department.

The area I lived in was close to the company site, while the area itself wasn't the nicest, the rent and cost of living was fairly cheap, compared to surrounding villages, and I did not have a long commute into work. There were plenty of restaurants, a bowling alley and a cinema in the local town, although the shopping centre itself was quite average, we were only a 20min train ride from London if you wanted a wider range of shops.

Perhaps an opinion based on personal experience, but I tend to find University towns have some of the best nightlife, as stevenage has no such facilities the nightlife was definitely lacking. A lot of the bars close to where we lived also seemed to be over 21s, and as some people did not turn 21 unitl half way through the placement this was disappointing.

There was a gym a 2 min walk away, lots of sports clubs, like cricket and hockey, and lots of pubs around which offered quizzes on different nights of the week.