Industrial Placement Student Review

I've really enjoyed my placement year at GSK. My work is mainly lab based and has given me a much larger exposure to lab work that offered to me at university and allowed me to develop skills that we be invaluable post graduation. There was a relatively steep learning curve to begin with but once I was comfortable the job was really enjoyable.

Working on a small department allowed me to heavily contribute to the workload and general day-to-day running of the lab. I felt that my opinions were heard and taken on board and this really helped develop my confidence in both the lab and the meeting room. I feel lucky as I don't think this is always the case with placement students.

My supervisor and manager were always there to help when it was needed and understanding when I made mistakes at the beginning whilst getting used to the style of work and increase of pace. They also ensured that I made the most of the year by offering new opportunities and challenging me where they could.

The days are relatively varied. It was easy to manage my own workload and make it so I was as busy or bored as I wanted to be that day. If you stay on top of the workload it was possible to keep a steady pace of work throughout the week but the workload definitely begin to slow towards the end but I just used this as an opportunity to fine-tune my personal project.

I was a trusted and valued member of the team and felt I was given a decent amount of responsibility. I was able to work independently on projects but also able to go to my supervisor if there was ever an issue so the responsibility never felt like too much.

I feel the skills I have learned will be more relevant beyond my degree than in my final year at university. I have developed time management and lab skills that will prove valuable to me next year but I feel the soft skills I have developed are more importable and will be extremely valuable when I pursue a career post-graduation.

The office was open plan and sound carried quite easily across the large office space that was shared between several departments. As a result the atmosphere was generally pretty quiet, people tended to converse more in the lab or at lunch. There are many areas available for more focussed work should you find the office distracting.

GSK have a very fine tuned process for dealing with placement students. I was the third placement student that my supervisor had been in charge of and the experience made for a very stress free year. There are lots of development sessions provided for IPs which were really useful. They really seem to care about IP development.

I was really impressed by GSKs investment in personal training and development. I was free to spend days shadowing other departments and ask about any equipment or work that I was interested in. I was able to visit multiple sites and work alongside the STEM team to work with school children and explore other careers I was interested in.

I've been given lots of information about future prospects within GSK which has allowed me to seriously explore and think about possible careers after graduation. You can apply to the GSK grad scheme and skip the first step if you do a placement with GSK. This has made me consider a career in industry after graduation more than I initially thought I would before starting the placement.

On the GSK site I'm based in, there are around 150 IPs which gives the opportunity for a lively social scene. In the first few months there are more social outings organised (sometimes by GSK but mainly by other IPs) which allows you to meet new people and make friends. There are other social events dotted throughout the year. My department were less social than others but I've met people who spend lots of time outside of work with people in their department.

The cost of living was extremely reasonable given the proximity to London. It is, however, a small town with not a lot going on so there is a temptation to head into London where the cost of socialising dramatically increases. As with most things, you can live as cheaply or as expensively as you wish.

The nightlife was very average. As all the students live in a similar area you have the opportunity to have nights out of a weekend. The train to London is cheap and only 20 minutes away and there are plenty of pubs in the town but generally speaking its pretty quiet.

There are many opportunities outside of work which you can get involved in. There is a sports centre on site which has netball/football/volleyball as well as gym classes which you can easily get involved in. The other GSK site nearby has kayaking and rock climbing which is cheap to take part in and really fun. You can also get involved in STEM activities at local schools which is a really good opportunity to develop your CV.