Analytical Industrial Placement Student Review

I really enjoyed my placement at AstraZeneca. I was given great support, and was able to learn lots of new techniques in the lab. No-one minded if I asked lots of questions and this helped me gain a lot of knowledge on the pharmaceutical industry. All of my colleagues were really friendly and all the students got to know each other really well.

I felt fairly well valued by my colleagues. At the beginning there is a long training period, so you can't go immediately into the lab unsupervised - so you do feel slightly less helpful. Once you've been thoroughly trained and are able to complete tasks without needing help then you feel a bit more useful! Everyone was always very friendly to me throughout my placement.

I was given a lot of support by my manager and supervisor. You are not just left to your own devices to figure out how to do everything. On the first day you are met by your supervisor and helped to set up you computer/email. From then on I had weekly one to one meeting with my supervisor (for the first few weeks) so I had time to ask all the questions I had!

In the first few weeks you are quite busy with training and reading relevant documents. I think in general the business depends on the team that you join. I had periods of being very busy, for example during my student project. Some times were less busy, so there was time to catch up on write-ups etc.

I was given a fair amount of responsibility, but not so much that it was overwhelming. Once I was trained I was allowed to go and do work for the team without help. I was also left to organise and execute my student project, so I had complete responsibility for this.

I think the skills developed will be very helpful in my future jobs and study. I was given the chance to improve my soft skills, for example presentations. This has been really useful in building my confidence. I also have been able to perform many of the techniques that I have only studied the theory of at university, and this really helped deepen my understanding.

My office had a really nice atmosphere. Everyone was very friendly and we'd always have a bit of a chat as an office, usually in the morning. When I first joined people were very open and kind. The office was quiet enough to work, but not so quiet that asking questions would be awkward.

The placement was very well organised - this was clear from the beginning. On the first day there was a presentation and welcome guides we were given. We had a very thorough training schedule that set us up to be able to perform our roles. Towards the end we were given leaving checklists to help us organise everything before we left.

AstraZeneca has many opportunities that you can take for personal training and development, so to an extent it depends on whether you choose to take the chances or not. We had an internal scheme where you could sign up for various training courses that you fancied doing, including technical skills and soft skills.

Future employment prospects at AstraZeneca are pretty appealing, as this year has shown me what a great employer it is. I believe there are a lot of perks for working at AstraZeneca compared to other places. I would definitely consider the Graduate Scheme they run, as this year has shown me how well organised these kind of things are.

There was a great social scene between all the students at work, and everyone pretty much made friends with each other straight away. Every day we would each lunch together as a big group and no-one would be left out. We organised lots of things to do during the week, for example having film nights and going bouldering.

The cost of living in Macclesfield is not bad, I would say the rent for Macclesfield is fairly average for the north west. It was not expensive to live as there's cheap supermarkets such as Aldi and the train into Manchester is not too expensive to be able to go out there.

The nightlife in Macclesfield is not as good as it is in a city - but not bad for a town. There is one nightclub that is good enough. There's also a Revolution and Wetherspoons. There's lots of independent pubs and bars which are nice if you don't mind spending a bit more money.

There were quite a few opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work. Most of these were organised by students amongst ourselves, however some things are organised in work. For example walks around the peak district after work. The AstraZeneca club/gym generally organised these sorts of activities. In the summer some social activities, such as department BBQs, were organised by work.