Industrial Placement Student Review

I have really enjoyed working on my project during this placement. From day one, the projects' importance and outcomes are put into context within the department's aims and goals. This made me feel motivated and eager to contribute as much as possible to it during my time here. I have particularly enjoyed the lab work, applying literature research into experiments and having the chances to learn a variety of different things.

Everyone is welcoming and friendly. Whenever I had any questions or doubts about any of the work I was doing, I knew who to ask and they would always make sure to help or guide me. Even though everyone is really nice, I felt like everyone was already in groups of friends so it was a bit difficult to socialise.

I always felt comfortable and at ease asking my supervisor for guidance or any questions no matter how basic. He was very eager on my personal development and ensured to always be honest with me regarding my performance. Surely sometimes he would be very busy so that it was difficult to set meeting with him for follow ups, but whenever time allowed he was always happy to support me in any matter.

At some points during the year, I was not busy at all. Other times I was extremely busy and had so many things to do in a day. Approaching the end of the year, it was getting increasingly busy. I preferred the times when I was busier, as it could get boring and demotivating to not have lots to do or feel underworked compared to your colleagues. I understand that doing experimental work and working on projects naturally mean that sometimes are busier than others, so it's always good to ask your supervisor on less busy times to get exposure to different experimental techniques and so from different departmental members.

I was fully responsible of planning and carrying out my experiments. I then was responsible of doing the data analysis of the experiments' results and reporting them to my supervisor. This definitely added to my independence and confidence that I felt doing lab work, and gave me a feeling of ownership towards the project I was working on.

The laboratory skills will definitely assist me if I decide to pursue further research opportunities. I also feel overall more confident in myself and my abilities. There has been numerous development opportunities within my department and beyond. For example, opportunities to attend lectures on a variety of scientific subjects, opportunities to present my work to my team and department, online modules on numerous things such as patents, and much more.

There was very good dynamics between the people in the office. Due to team builds, and frequent socials within the department, everyone was very comfortable with each other. However, sometimes, it could get really loud in the office which made it hard to focus when I was doing something that I needed to finish fast. Overall, the atmosphere is quite good but it would be nice if people were more considerate on where they had their chats and laughs in the office.

The placement was fairly well organised. We were assigned two supervisors at the start of the placement, one for our work / project throughout the placement and one for general support outside of the actual project work. At the beginning, after completing all the training, it was a bit slow to start getting into the actual work which made it a bit dull. There were also times in the year when there was little to nothing to do. However, there were opportunities to do things within the department to learn more techniques and so on.

We were treated the same way as permanent employees in GSK and were given the same opportunities. The training modules available to the employees were also available to us. People at GSK are extremely keen on giving you the support and development you need or want, and the best thing to do is to ask. There are so many workshops such as on statistics, lectures on numerous scientific subjects from internal and external speaker and opportunities to present your work in many events.

There are a lot of opportunities for employment. There is a FLP graduate scheme that IPs are very strongly encouraged to apply for. We got talks from current FLPs in every role to talk to us about what they do and to answer any questions we have about applying or about the roles themselves. Staff (even from other departments) are willing and happy to speak to you about roles within the department and the nature of the work that they do.

There were very frequent socials within the department e.g. drinks, BBQs and leaving parties. There were also many IPs in Stevenage and the IP social group (IPUnite) was very keen on organising many socials throughout the year and getting people together. The events ranged from drinks, bowling and a boat party.

The cost of living was reasonable. However, as there wasn't much to do in Stevenage, I found myself going to London every weekend which was not cheap at all.

Stevenage is quite a dull town without many young people and things to do. However, it is really easy to get a train to London whenever you wanted. Ofcourse, It would be nicer if I didn't have to travel down to London every weekend, and if there was more to do in Stevenage.

Yes, there was a sports club that had a variety of different fitness classes. There is also Over The Wall opportunities organised by SRG that allow you to carry on volunteering opportunities as part of the placement year. This includes for example, volunteering in children's camps for children with terminal illnesses. There were also other opportunities to get involved with as part of being a STEM ambassador.