Industrial Placement Student Review

I really enjoyed my work placement. I was settled quickly into lab work, with full support from my colleagues and really enjoyed producing data that benefited the team. I learnt a lot from others around me, and I loved working for such a big company as I was able to understand the whole drug discovery process, even beyond the lab and understand what a career in pharmaceuticals might look like.

I felt valued by my team, especially as many others beyond my supervisor would be interested in my work and always would offer to help me. It also helped to understand the impact my project/data was having, helping me know what I was doing was informative for others. I was always learning from others with more experience, which was so helpful.

I had weekly meetings with my supervisor, which were so helpful to explain to him my data from the previous week and how that was going to inform the next week of work and for him to share his ideas. I also had occasional meetings with my line manager, and he kindly put me in touch with others across AZ so I could have an insight into other departments.

I was quite busy - often in the lab completing experiments or culturing cells. Writing up this work and planning new experiments also kept me busy. I was also on committee for AZinspire (network for early career employees), which resulted in me spending a lot of time contacting speakers, organising events and attending committee meetings. Once or twice a week we would have team meetings.

I was given a good amount of responsibility - running a key assay that informed the chemical design for a project whilst also doing a different project. I felt ownership over my project, and with good scientific reason, I could take it where I wanted and that I was trusted to do that.

I have not returned to university, but I know a lot of the lab skills will be very useful. I have learnt how to properly plan experiments and be organised with checking reagent stocks etc. I have also developed more of a scientific mind - looking more critically at data and learning how to analyse it well.

The general atmosphere was very good - it was open plan enabling quick and easy discussions with colleagues. There was a very relaxed environment with plenty of meeting spaces and social areas. Hot desking and an open plan office also made it quite social and easy to meet others. Overall I would say it was relaxed, but a good place to work.

AZinspire (network of early career employees) invested in personal training and development, with careers symposiums/events, professional symposiums highlighting key aspects of the drug development pathway. However this is driven by the people on committee, there is limited personal training provided through the industrial placement scheme and I would like to see more (similar to the grad scheme).

Although there is not an official scheme to employ industrial placement students after they complete the year, I feel that this year has given me such an insight into AstraZeneca, their achievements and values. Therefore I would hope that this would make me a strong candidate if I were to apply to another position within the company. It has also been incredible to see the breadth of jobs available and understand the different roles in the business.

Yes - there was a good social scene, especially as AstraZeneca has a large cohort of early career employees (apprentices, students, graduates, PhD students, post-docs, FTEs etc). AZinspire organised at least monthly socials, which were always fun and accessible. All the students often ate lunch together, and would meet up outside of work regularly.

The cost of living in Cambridge is fairly high, however we managed to find a fairly priced student property off Mill Road in an ideal location - close to town and only a 20min cycle from work! Drinks at the pub etc were comparable to other big cities, however lots of green spaces were great places to socialise and obviously free!

AstraZeneca provided a lot of opportunities to get involved outside of work - especially encouraging us to represent the company at external science communication events. I really enjoyed participating in the big biology day for example, running experiments with children and also myself taking a look at all the various scientific companies with different stalls. Events like this are so important to share with the public the importance of our work.