Industrial Chemist Review

I had a rather mixed experience while on placement. Overall the placement was good and I was surrounded by good, kind people. I really began to enjoy the placement towards the end at a point where I was given more responsibility and felt like a truly valued member of the team.

This was very much colleague dependent, I was lucky to have colleagues I could turn to when I was stress. Most treat placement students as a valued member of the team since we do a lot for them, some cannot seem to look past the fact that you are a student and therefore treat you as one.

My supervisor did help me a lot with my university commitments and with the day to day work. My supervisor was always available if I wanted extra guidance but did allow me to work more independently if I wanted to. I did however feel that I could have been given more independence especially later in the year.

I was usually pretty busy but often felt I could have taken on more. I felt the best supervisors sat back and allowed you to just pick up work as and when you felt able. This was not always the case and sometimes felt I was sitting around with very little to do.

I di some very impactful work while on placement. There is no denying the value of placement students at GSK. However, I did feel my personal experience that I was given less responsibility than I would have hoped for. The last months of the placement I was give more scope to make a larger impact which I appreciated.

I have learnt a lot of valuable skills. As part of the placement you are effectively a young professional meaning booking meetings, managing your time and communicated with people all across the company. These skills can be transferred into academia, a chemistry career or any other of a number of different job type.

relatively laid back and non-stress (usually) with regular breaks etc., but certain supervisors may be a little more full-on and therefore create stress. However, there is always people you can speak to who should always appreciate if you feel overworked, so you should never be left in a difficult situation.

The was a clear plan of how to integrate placement students into the company and how they fitted into the entire system. Placement students always seemed to know exactly what they were doing and when they were supposed to do it. I felt like the overall process was very organised.

I felt like I was well trained for my role and my personal development was never put aside. The company felt like they always had my best interests at heart regardless of what I planned to do once the placement was over. I felt like the company saw me as an investment and the more they put in the more they would get out.

The company went through a messy reorganisation and appeared to freeze hiring during my placement. They offered PhD positions to apply for, but did really offer much in the way of graduate jobs. It did seem like they liked placement students over outside applicants so that was a bonus if jobs opened up.

There was about 40 chemists and more biologists as well as other placement students and apprentices. This meant that there were plenty of people to make friends with throughout the year. The PhD students were also sociable especially with company socials, team-building and Christmas events. This was definitely a strength of this placement.

The cost of living was not too bad, and there was the basics for going out in the area (Wetherspoons, bowling etc.) but the local area was not the greatest. The biggest benefits was the links to London allowing easy access to and from London at most hours of the day.

The nightlife is poor, there we several nightclubs/bars that facilitated a night out, all-be-it not a great one. However, I have had several good nights out in London which is within 20 to 40 mins on the train and also Hitchin is pretty nice just 10 mins on the train. So if you want a good night out, be prepared to travel a little.

There were a couple of outside activities there were advertised at work, I was pretty busy with university work I made little effort to get involved in much. I am sure however, if you really want to find something it would not be that difficult to find or even set up.