Product Safety and Compliance Review

At Lubrizol I was mainly tasked with authoring SDSs and helping to ensure that the company is in compliance with global chemical regulations.

Lubrizol was everything that university should have been. Throughout the year, I received 1-to-1 training on various aspects of global chemical regulations. Everyone was incredibly helpful and let me learn at my own pace. I was given the opportunity to volunteer with many different groups and I have learnt an incredible amount of skills surrounding regulations which has helped my job prospects out of university massively.

I was given a lot of responsibility at the placement, however, at no point was I overworked or stressed out about meeting deadlines. I gained so much experience throughout the year while also having a great time and networking with lots of really interesting people.

I received almost constant support throughout my placement and there was always someone that I could ask if I was unsure about anything. If I ever made a mistake, people were very friendly about giving feedback and showing how to not make the mistake again.

The company culture is great, although not very diverse. There are many social activities to get involved in, although it certainly feels like an American company in many aspects. There's a free coffee shop on site and the restaurant is heavily subsidised (medium rare steak on a Friday is £3!) In PSCD you can work from home for 2 days a week, which is brilliant if you have traveled home to your parents for the weekend, so you can stay over for longer and simply work from your laptop.

I absolutely loved my placement at Lubrizol. My department were incredibly helpful, including providing me with interview training and presentation skills training which has helped me immensely. A manager in my department even spent an hour going through a job interview presentation with me to help me get a job working within the industry. Regulations is an excellent industry to go into as many people work from home a lot and the work life balance is far greater than other sectors. The Hazelwood site is possibly the nicest chemical facility you will ever see. The site is set on the grounds of a manor house and there is an excellent subsidised restaurant on site that all ~20 students go to everyday. The networking opportunities are brilliant and this 1 year placement I feel has almost completely set me up for the working world. I am so glad I did this placement.

Yes

I'd recommend deciding if you'd like to work from home or not and if you'd like to be messing around with carcinogens all day or if you'd rather be sitting at home on the computer learning how to implement chemical regulations and getting a great job after your placement. Make sure you know what PSCD stands for and knowing about REACH and GHS will also help immensely if you'd like to apply. If you have anymore questions about the placement then please send me a message! The department has been so incredibly helpful and I truly feel like this is an excellent placement to do.