Synthetic Organic Chemist Review

I really enjoyed my placement. People at work were really friendly and welcoming and happy to answer any questions I had. I found the work really interesting and my lab skills improved significantly over the year. There were a lot of students which meant there was a really great social scene and we often did activities after work and at the weekends so I was never bored.

I felt valued by my colleagues as I was always treated as an equal and my opinions listened to even though I'm a lot less experienced. People genuinely want to see me develop and do well, so were always more than happy to spend extra time explaining concepts to me and checking I understood.

My supervisor was incredibly supportive, he went out of his way to help me and was really understanding when I was struggling with juggling uni work and placement work. I had regular 1:1 catch up sessions where we discussed how I had been getting on in the lab, and in general, and he was happy to help me practice for my uni presentation and to give me feedback on my final report. I felt less supported by my manager, who although was friendly, seemed less interested in my development.

I had a good work-load meaning I never felt overworked, but equally never felt bored. How busy I was varied from day-to-day based on whether I was running an experiment or not. However, I was never short of things to do as there was always writing up and analysis to be done.

I was given responsibility over my own work packages and worked on these autonomously unless I was struggling on a particular aspect. I was given freedom to suggest my own experiments which I would then check with my supervisor before performing them unaided in the lab. I would then analyse my own results and propose conclusions on what I believed had happened.

During my placement I really developed my lab skills. When I was at university I often followed procedures without really understanding why I was doing things. Being on placement and developing my own routes and methods made me really think about what I was doing and why, and to stop and actually understand the chemistry behind my reaction. This will be really useful going into my final year project.

I worked in a large open plan office. There were a lot of people on my floor and noise travelled which meant everyone was very quiet most the time and it was difficult to have a casual conversation with someone without everyone hearing. We did however have a weekly cake rota, where most of the floor gathered in the coffee area for a chat, which enabled me to get to know more people.

The placement was really well organised. In the first few weeks we had full timetables of training to attend and my supervisor then clearly explained my project and what was expected of me.

Everyone was really keen to see me develop and succeed. There was an internal site where anyone was able to sign up to courses from soft to technical skills and I was encouraged by my supervisor to sign up for these. As well as compulsory training on MS, I also signed up for extra training on 2D NMR and using excel. There were also regular science lectures held both by external speakers and internal project teams, enabling me to develop my chemistry knowledge further than just the project I was working on.

I would really love to work at AZ in the future. Having spent time there I can see that it's a really great working environment and there are good benefits for employees. Towards the end of my placement I was given the opportunity to shadow colleagues from different departments which highlighted to me the scope of jobs available, not just in pure science, but supply chain, packaging, manufacturing etc, which I wasn't even aware of.

There were around 20 placement students most of whom lived in Macclesfield and were really friendly and up for socialising. We all became really close friends, many of which I'm sure I'll keep for life. We did activities in the evenings most nights and would go for a drink at the weekends. Being really close to the Peak District meant we often went on walks at weekends and the fast train to Manchester only takes 20 mins or so which was ideal for shopping or nights out.

The rent in Macclesfield was relatively cheap, especially compared to where I go to university. There is a Wetherspoons which we went to a lot and is pretty cheap, but I would also recommend some of the other local bars e.g Red Willow and Snowgoose, which although slightly more expensive, have a much nicer atmosphere.

There is only one club in Macclesfield called fever, which is great if you love cheesy tunes. Other than that there are a fair number of bars, one of which is open until 3 am even on weeknights. Manchester is a short train ride away if you want a larger selection of clubs and bars, but we found getting a taxi back a bit of a hassle, so didn't go out there that much.

There was an amazing Christmas party which I really enjoyed. My team also had a Christmas meal which was a lot of fun. However, other than that my team weren't very sociable and I rarely saw them outside of work, which was a shame because I know some of the other students did a lot of activities with their teams.