Process Engineering Summer Student Review

The work was very rewarding and felt very scientific. The people were all really lovely to work with and made you feel like one of the team. The campus was great with good spaces for having a break and there was a good choice of food available. Overall thoroughly enjoyable.

Everyone in the engineering team really valued your input and knowledge and made sure information and experience was exchanged both ways. They always welcomed you to sit down for a coffee with them and asked about your university experience. They made the internship very enjoyable and I learnt so much from them.

My line manager and supervisor were always there for questions and guidance on the project, but at the same time let me follow what I thought was the best path for the project to take. They gave me opportunities to learn more about the company and operations than just my specific project by arranging tour and giving me exposure to other areas.

For most of the internship it was a really good balance of work. There was a period of time at the start where I felt like I wasn't getting much done, and this was because I had lots of safety training to sign off and then towards the end I was a bit rushed trying to finish everything, but for most of the time the balance was really good.

I was given an individual work package that was important to the overall aim of the drug project. It was studying an essential step of manufacturing the drug that was not well understood by the company. In addition to this I was given responsibility for the direction of the work package and exactly what steps to undertake to reach my goal.

The internship gave me a good understanding of relevant chemical engineering unit operations in the pharmaceutical industry and gave me a good understanding of how a process is taken from concept to manufacture and everything which happens for manufacture to be achieved. It also gave me an opportunity to practice my presentation skills and I learnt how to use new engineering and statistical software.

Everyone was really friendly, and there was a good level of noise and chatter, which helps promote a relaxed yet hard working environment. The group brought in biscuits for each other after their holidays for everyone to share. I didn't feel like there was any politics or bad feelings between staff members at all.

The placement was very well organised. The lab equipment was already there for me to use when I arrived and all my training had been organised already, with tasks to keep me busy whilst the training was going on. Because I was working on an individual project the direction maybe could have been clearer but this would have been extremely difficult to do to be honest.

In terms of personal training and development there was a lot of opportunities available. There was an opportunity to become a certified user of certain software and countless training available via the intranet that could be attended. However, it was clear while I was there that the overarching goal was my task and not my personal development. This doesn't mean that personal development was ignored though.

As someone with a science career in mind there seems to be a good opportunity to get promoted and become a more senior scientist and project leader. Everyone I worked with encouraged me to apply after, so even though they don't offer a job after the placement I think I will be in good stead when I apply.

A social scene did exist within the placement students although I tended not to be involved since I didn't get to know them that well at work. The engineers I worked with invited my to a local beer festival and after a volunteering day we had a drink at a pub so people there do want to be sociable and invite you along to things.

The area was really cheap to live in. However, since the placement was 10 weeks long it was really hard to find somewhere to rent as it was such a short amount of time in the rental world. So this meant you had to look further a field to websites like AirBnB which made the experience a little more expensive.

Pretty non existent. There was a small local nightclub in town which did not seem very inviting. There's a few pubs around, and a pool/snooker hall. And then you could get a train in to Manchester if you really wanted which did not cost much and only took 25 minutes.

As I was only there for 10 weeks I did not get chance to get involved in anything, however the opportunities may have been there. I would have like to play cricket locally however it was too inconvenient to bring my kit up with me and it was not really enough time to get to know people.