Placement Year Lab Scientist Review

I enjoyed my placement very much throughout the year. The team I joined were very welcoming and were very helpful with any challenges that I faced throughout the year. I also had the chance to meet and make friends with several other IP students who I will stay in contact with after my placement.

Even though I am student, I was mostly included in departments meetings and my opinions were valued when given. Other colleagues would ask for my input on projects where I had experience, which helped me to feel valued by all members of the team instead of just my line manager.

I had weekly check in meetings with my manager where I had the opportunity to discuss my project, my development and any challenges I had faced in the previous week. However, I felt comfortable asking both my manager and the rest of my department if I ran into any problems at any time.

Throughout my placement I was mostly quite busy during the day, running experiments and attending meetings. I mostly worked a 9-5 day. Sometimes I had long days when running experiments which spanned over 12 hours, whilst other days I did not have as much to do if I had written up all previous experiments and did not yet plan to start any others

Once I was given my project, I was able to decide when to do all of the experiments which, after training, I was left to carry out by myself. I always discussed which experiments I needed to do with my supervisor, to make sure my project was going in the right direction.

I have developed my personal skills throughout my placement much more than I had previously at university, including communication, teamwork and organisational skills, which will be helpful in any career I choose. I also feel that I have improved my scientific skills massively, both inside and outside of the lab, which will be useful when I return to my final year.

Overall the placement was well organised and I felt supported throughout the year. However, there were issues around the work that IPs were allowed to do at the start of my placement, which meant my project had to change slightly to accomodate for this and delayed when I could start experiments.

There were quite a lot of opportunities for development throughout the year. I was able to attend a training day at the Francis Crick institute, as well as take part in events on site. There are also a wide variety of e-learning modules in various sites, such as LinkedIn Learning, which we were encouraged to take as part of our personal development.

Throughout the placement we were made aware of the opportunities available to IPs within GSK after you graduate, including a future leaders programme. Direct entry roles are also possible after graduation. When speaking to other GSK employees, many were previously placement students that returned to GSK for a full time career.

I worked at the Stevenage site, and lived with other IP students. Rent was the same cost as at university, as well as bills. The cost of socialising in the area was around the same as at university. The town also has good links to London via train which is quite cheap.

There is a gym on site which any GSK employee can access. Within the gym, there are many sports clubs which are cheap to participate in. There are also other development events that you can get involved in, including charity events run throughout the year. My team also sometimes did activities together outside of work.