Medicinal Chemist Review

Excellent working environment and most of the time you are treated like a FTE, however this was not the case 100% of the time and often left out of certain meetings just because we may not speak as much as other FTE's

Depends on the project you are on. I felt extremely valued by my supervisor on the initial projects and we were constantly thanked for the efforts we put in. However, once again I felt we should have been included more in the 'planning' aspect of medicinal chemistry

Supervisor was always on hand to offer support, especially in the lab if there were any practical issues.

Day to day I was very busy, often coming in between 8:30 am and leaving at 5-6 pm and after from lunchtime I was on my feet working for 90% of the day but that is to be expected in a practical science

Good build up of responsibility and was the lead for some of the chemistry on a side project. However, there was often a disconnect in that if stuff wasn't working I felt like the senior biologists thought it was your fault when it was actually the chemistry inherently failing

Practical skills and verbal skills will stay with me for life and have learnt a great deal

The general atmosphere was usually fun in the lab with constant discussion on a friendly and professional basis. In the office it was mainly quiet but that is to be expected and during some certain parts of the year when decisions were to be made there was a slightly less upbeat atmosphere

The placement is set up excellently and it is clear that it is taken seriously by all FTE's and the employer as a whole. There were some internal management issues during the placement but these were not specific to the IP students and as such I can't really think of a way my experience suffered as a result

I believe in a practical sense the firm really does invest in you. We are also encouraged to attend seminars in the lecture theatre to broaden our knowledge. However, in some other cases I felt like we had to avoid personal development just to get our work done on a daily basis

This is one aspect I think needs to be improved. There is all this investment in training us up. But the R&D department are not treated as well by the company as a whole compared to those at GSK house. Moreover, the company do not provide specific references after the placement and the opportunity for a grad job / PhD programme appears to be extremely competitive

In the lab groups there was a good social scene and with people you saw on a daily basis. However, IP unite this year were not able to unite the group as a whole across sites and within the site. As well as this Stevenage is not the most exciting place to spend a year

Cost of living isn't too high but isn't as cheap compared to London as I would have thought before the placement year. However, travel into London is very cheap and connections in general are good. Cost of socialising in Stevenage itself is also relatively cheap compared to central london

Not great! Apart from a few old town pubs and wetherspoons and the one leisure park, there is not much to do on weekends and as a result most people spend weekends away with uni friends and family. So it is encouraged to not rely on work colleagues for the nightlife

Neutral about this because we do have the one orange day and I was able to take part in Tough mudder during May. However, the tough mudder and training had to be done in my own time and the event was on a Saturday. Some FTE's would also question you if you weren't focusing on work all the time