R&D IP Review

Despite the Covid-19 disruption, this work placement has been extremely meaningful in terms of my personal development and career progression. My placement takes place at the R&D Stevenage site, which is one of the two global GSK R&D hubs. Here, I am granted access to a wide range of opportunities. This includes 1:1 training for specific machines/techniques, statistical training, seminars, introductory lectures and essential career opportunities (e.g. assisted career planning, photography session). GSK Stevenage site hosts up to few thousands of employees, many of which are research scientists and project managers. Despite its size, the site has a variety of coffee lottery events to facilitate cross-departmental talking and networking, making the environment extremely friendly. The experience has been amazing (and particularly life changing for me as I wanted to be a scientist) - my team, in particular, has provided me with a lot of support and mentorship - if only I could do my PhD at GSK!

As students, I expect to be humble and learn more during the placement. However, at GSK, we were given the opportunity to discuss many aspects of our career e.g. what do we want to achieve during this time, how we can utilise the resources at GSK to help with our career aspiration. Project-wise, we were first given 2 months to specialise in a particular technique tailored to our project. When we mastered that particular technique, our instincts were valued by supervisors and team leaders where we can steer and decide the project direction. I think my opinions are valued by my close colleagues.

During the placement, I was given a lot of support and guidance by my supervisor, team leader and members. In particular, they are keen to develop my scientific capability and provide me with opportunity to publish my work. They gave a lot of thoughts into my projects - and it's amazing to see they are as curious as I am!

I started off the placement wanting to generate some meaningful results. This resonates with my supervisor who has a background in academia - and we tend to plan to execute a lot of research activities at a quicker pace. So I can get very busy at times. What's nice is that there is a tea break culture where you can have some tea, speak to people and have a short break every day to boost your productivity!

I was given full responsibility for my own project, but was still under the guidance by supervisors.

The research project that I have undertaken here at GSK has landed me a studentship offer from Wellcome Trust - so it seems like the admission committee recognised and valued my experience at GSK. There are many opportunities to present to a room full of people - this develops my public speaking skills. Most importantly, working side by side with my supervisors allows me to learn how to liaise with people and different departments to facilitate collaborations.

The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly. There are always cakes, cookies, sweet treats around in the office!

I think it was not perfect but it was still pretty good.

As placement student, I get access to all types of training available such as statistics, flow cytometry training, scientific writing etc. However some longer training programmes are not in sync with placement programme,, rendering us ineligible for signing up. Otherwise, there are many opportunities!

Very much - the place is very lively and exciting. I'd love to work with GSK in the near future.

There were plenty of events going on. But most social activities happen during lunch time, when IPs from different buildings gather at the nodes or cafeteria.

The cost of living in Stevenage is very cheap. I'm able to save a lot of money living in Stevenage.

No nightlife - but you can take a 20-minute train to London though.

There are charity events that you can get involved in!