Scientist Review

I really enjoyed my job. The work was interesting and varied with plenty of opportunity and support for me to forge my own direction.

My colleagues were very friendly and my supervisor would thank me for my hard work.

The management level were not involved in the day to day workings of the company and did not give much input in any area. However, if I had needed it and asked, I may have received whatever help was necessary.

Chemistry is quite dynamic in terms of work load as depending on the reactions being run there may be a lot of work, or very little. It was up to me to managethis appropriately.

I was given the responsibility for my own projects and my supervisor recognised that I was being productive and hence did not hinder me.

I feel much more confident in my lab work and in general areas of chemistry that I became familiar with during my placement. Past degree level I can take the advanced skiulls to the work place and I have a full year of experience to offer potential employers.

My colleagues were fun and friendly and we often had games, lunches or other activities planned, as well and day to day talking and fun.

My placement was in America and I did not think that the there was enough time to sort out visas and flights comfortably. Also, since I was the first international intern nobody really knew what to do with regards to social security, finding and apartment etc etc. Hopefully in the future this will become easier. When I arrived I had a project planned for me to get me in the swing of the work but after this it was less planned, again largely due to the dynamic nature of chemistry. I think that it would have been beneficial for the company to have planned specific times for seeing different departments or getting a wider range of techniques learnt.

Lab skills were taught to me by the relevant colleagues as time went on - necessary to do my job. In addition to this I was allowed to go on a course designed to improve presentation skills which helped me greatly.

The economy isn't promising and pharmaceutical companies are taking cuts. However they still take on a few graduates each year and I would be happy to go back.

There were very few interns. As a group people would go out but most people were young professionals with young children which hampers the social scene

Not super expensive, not super cheap.

America's nightlife is very different from Britain so it's hard to judge. There were plenty of bars and live music.

It was very difficult to get involved in a large number of things as many things seemed to be exclusively for members of the local universities. Anything I wanted to do I had to work very hard to try to make happen, and more often than not it didn't work out so well.