High throughput expression student Review

I had a great placement year, and most days I really looked forward to starting work and getting stuck into whatever I had planned for the day. I learnt so much during the year, and the experience was so different to being at uni which I really enjoyed. I think it’s a really useful chance to see a different side of the science you learn about, and it definitely gives you insight about careers and where you’d like to go next (also how to get there!).

I felt really valued by my colleagues, both in my team and in the wider department. Within my team, my colleagues always offered me positive feedback and thanks whenever I did something to help them out, and the role I had also helped take the pressure off the rest of the team a lot so everyone could focus on their part of the process. I also received positive feedback about training up the apprentice in our team and sharing my knowledge with them. Towards the end of my placement I also received a “recognition of excellence” certificate from the placement organisers which I had been nominated for by my team, it really helped me feel like my contribution to the team was valued. Within the wider department, people were always really grateful whenever I completed work to a tight deadline or ahead of schedule. They would often provide positive feedback to me through my manager and supervisors. Our department also had a “thank you board” for people to anonymously acknowledge people who had done a little extra, it was always a real boost whenever I found my name on it.

My supervisors provided amazing support throughout my placement year. When I started we discussed and set some goals, and throughout the year my supervisors would give me feedback and review my goals so I could gauge my progress and get the most out of the placement. They were also really encouraging and helped me take opportunities to develop my weaker areas and achieve my goals. They really helped me settle in and get comfortable with my work, they were always there to ask questions if I needed but also respected my independence and didn’t crowd me in the lab once I was confident with the work. I found it really helpful that my supervisors would catch up with me regularly to discuss how I was doing and made me feel comfortable enough to answer honestly. This meant they really helped me to realise my limitations in terms of time and made sure I didn’t overstretch myself.

Overall, I’d say my workload was optimal for the majority of my placement. I found the first couple of months of my placement quite slow as there wasn’t much work to spread around within our team. However, I found there were plenty of other opportunities I could take to fill my time and make the most of the placement. There were lectures and talks almost every week which I could attend and a wealth of recorded lectures available. My team and wider department were also really supportive during this time, and I was given the chance to shadow my colleagues and diversify my experience. This was really useful as later on in my placement I was able to take on extra responsibilities using the skills I had learnt. I found I got busier in the new year, and I had a greater variety of work to get stuck into. As I became more confident with my work, it was possible to add new projects into my workload so I was able to keep busy. My workload still fluctuated with busy and quiet times from week to week although I found I became much better at managing my time to distribute my work more evenly.

Once I had been trained and felt confident in the work environment I was given the same level of responsibility as any other member of the team. I was given an independent set of experiments and I organised my own schedule to meet deadlines. I was also responsible for carrying out some of the quality checks on material generated by our team. Around four months after I started at GSK, my team hired an apprentice, and I was tasked with training them in my area of work. Being quite new myself, this felt like quite a big challenge although after another four months the apprentice was able to work independently alongside me and take on a subset of their own experiments. During the second half of my placement, an employee from a different team in my department gave me a project to evaluate an assay which would mutually benefit both of our teams. I worked on this independently, communicating directly to an external supplier and sharing my work with various teams across the department. Using the outputs from these communications, I directed my work and decided on experiments to run and protocol changes that needed to be made before the assay was rolled out.

The practical lab skills and techniques I have developed this year will definitely help me once I return to university and in future jobs. I was able to build experience carrying out experiments I had done once or twice at uni. Other skills I have learnt are entirely new to me (e.g. programming) although I think they will be useful and add value to me as an employee in the future. I feel that my soft skills have also been developed extensively over the course of this year, and I will be able to call on these both at uni and in future employment. Not only have I developed skills I thought I already had (e.g. team work, time management), but also things I knew I was weaker at (e.g. presenting, leadership).

The office atmosphere was generally really good. My department had "hot desking" so you didn’t always sit around the same people, everyone was really friendly though so it was never an issue. Everyone was also really respectful of the space and kept to the office rules so it was a nice space to work in. People often brought in cakes/sweets/other snacks from holidays and trips, or just things they'd made, so it was pretty fun from that perspective (there were also a few advent calendars at Christmas). We also had a department photo competition each month and winners would get their photos displayed around the office which all added to the fun environment.

The placements are organised by a recruitment company called SRG, who paid us and organised our holidays. There was usually pretty good communication from SRG with useful information, and we received a lot to help us before we arrived. We also got induction and leaving talks to help us with sorting things like taxes out.

Aside from the training I received within my team for using equipment/running experiments, there were a few other opportunities for training and development. The department I worked in ran a strength finding course which students were allowed to attend. It was a really useful reflective experience to analyse how you work. There were free training sessions as well which were run by members of staff, for instance scientific writing (run for students to learn about writing dissertations and papers) and personal branding (looking at things like linkedin). The student society at GSK also organised some careers sessions (with things like interviews, role plays and group exercises), and SRG also offered a similar set of sessions.

Future employment with GSK seems like a very appealing option based on the job security, permanent employee benefits and career progression. Placement students are able to apply for the future leaders programme (a GSK graduate scheme) on a sort of fast-tracked application, with recommendations from supervisors. Whilst this was not an option I chose to pursue, I would be very interested in returning to GSK as a permanent employee in the future, for both the reasons above and based on the general working environment/atmosphere and culture. It seems like a fun and inspiring place to work.

There is a society for placement students at GSK which organised fairly regular socials (e.g. film nights on site, and off-site socials with a mix of drinking (pubs/bars) and non-drinking events like bowling and meals). There was also a Christmas ball and a Summer boat party which were really good fun to attend. Permanent members of staff in my department also organised meals and after-work socials to the pub and for meals for various occasions and sometimes just for fun!

I lived with family for the year so an unable to comment fully on the costs. The cost of living in terms of rent seemed to be a similar level to uni accommodation, depending on the area you choose to live in. Stevenage itself seems like quite a cheap place to live and socialise, although it is relatively close to London where people chose to socialise more frequently.

Stevenage is not a typical studenty town so the atmosphere seems pretty different and quite a lot quieter with fewer places to go to. People tended to go into London for nights out as it was relatively close on the train (about 20-30 minutes) and offered a greater choice of places to go.

I didn't find that there were many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work which weren't work related. There were site visits and volunteering days, and a couple of exercise/fitness based activities organised by colleagues which were organised. The placement student society did also organise socials but generally I didn't really get involved/find out about anything happening outside of work since I commuted in to work.