Bioanalytical Scientist Review

On a day-to-day basis you are required to ensure the performance of the instruments are in good condition and to report any issues highlighted to the team. You help analyse in vivo samples, usually blood or tissue samples, to generate data for that project and creating a pharmacokinetic profile mostly in terms of how the compound is cleared in vivo. It is a lot of routine lab work, which does not change too much. There is also a bit of desk work involved which does take up a significant amount of your time since the lab work is relatively simple.

I have gained the skills to be able to troubleshoot basic problems in regards to mass spectrometers and the autosamplers that they are coupled with. I was able to improve my lab practices during this placement, general use of a pipette and using other types of pipettes such as multi-channel and positive displacement pipettes that you may not have used in academic labs. My excel skills have also improved as a lot of the data analysis is done through excel and a small amount of coding too.

I decided to take up more responsibility because I felt I could handle more work, although you are given a lot to do from the beginning. You are seen as a trusted colleague rather than just an industrial placement student and your views or concerns were taken seriously. I would say you would need to be proactive in this placement and doing what you can to help improve the current workflow and highlighting things that could do with improving.

I received plentiful support when I needed it. The team were very understanding if I had asked for extra help or more time to be able to manage my university work. As a whole the help is there when you ask for it and you have to ask for help otherwise it is assumed that you are okay. They generally leave you be but are happy to help and provide feedback whenever you ask for it.

The company culture is quite good, the flexible working hours is definitely a huge positive of working for GSK. If you work an hour late you can leave an hour earlier the next day, or come in an hour later if you wish. Though this is as long as the required work is done. The atmosphere as a whole is also good, people are welcoming and seem to always be willing to help you when needed.

I generally really enjoyed my placement. If I did not have as much university work I think I would have enjoyed it more, because there were times where juggling work and university work was really challenging. The team were a lovely bunch of people who were very supportive and always included us students to any events that were planned, really felt as part of the team. Meeting new people was also really fun, very interesting to see people from various places and their journeys up to now.

Yes

Be proactive but do not try to take off more than you can chew, because when you promise something it is expected that you meet it. Manage your time well, especially if you have a lot of university work to do during your placement. Do not hesitate to ask for help because it is there if you need it, everyone is generally nice and willing to help in any way they can. Finally, relax and just try to enjoy the placement as much as you can, learn as much as you can, and communicate well with your team and it will all be good