Industrial placement student Review

The actual work itself has been a real joy to carry out. The supervisors sussed out that I am quite an independant worker, and so they left me to my own devices while I got on with the work. At times I did feel like I didn't have many places to turn if I didn't know what to do, and that can be quite alarming, but for the most part I could always approach my supervisor with my issues.

This varied from colleague to colleague - my supervisor made me feel extremely valued when possible, and the other members of staff in my office treated me as if I'd worked there for years. When talking to some of the more senior staff I did feel like a placement student, however. They sometimes presumed that I possessed no knowledge in certain areas where I felt that I might at least be able to contribute.

I was an exception to the rule in that I preferred to find things out for myself, and so would go off in search of custodians of machines when I needed to know how to use them, or learn techniques. Most students were guided more closely by their supervisors, but I was reasonably happy with the level of guidance, given that my project area was only marginally related to that of my supervisor.

The volume of work is pretty much self determined at this later stage of the placement, so I organise my experiments and the other administrative work that I do on a day to day basis, and it's up to me to allocate my time accordingly. I'd say that I spend a little more time at my desk organising experiments and reviewing my work than I would like, as I do prefer to be in the lab, but then communicating the work is possibly the most important part of what I do.

While I wasn't the big cheese of the department, I was ploughing on with my own experiments, and making presentations throughout the year. I only reported to my seniors to present data or to meet about particularly challenging experiments.

I think that the experience in time-management alone will be more than worth taking the year out. While all of the laboratory experience will be beyond valuable when talking to potential employers, it is the other experience of being a part of a fully operational pharmaceutical company - the meetings, the networking and seeing how important 'who you know' is - that will be my most useful asset.

I was unlucky with my office placement and got placed in an office with only 3 others - all of which were part time staff. This meant that there were more than a few occasions when it was just me in the office for long periods of time. Most other students were in offices with other students, and they reported a much nicer time.

Project wise, I was again unlucky, in that my project fell through in the week before my arrival, so I had an improvised set of work. I was kept busy, but the sense of completeness was lost. However, I felt a valued member of the team, and in that respect, the placement was reasonably well set up.

At this point in the job, I feel I could complete any experiment that was set ahead of me, but I do think that I would have to go out of my way to find the training to do so. At the start of the placement I was supervised much more and trained more intensely.

Although I would love to work here after I finished university, the job prospects are poor for those with many years experience, let alone fresh-faced graduates, so the outlook looks poor.

A small group of students within my department got together to do something interesting every Wednesday (spinning off from Orange Wednesday tickets to start with). We would then do things most weekends.

Although I am told that north of London is cheap relative to living south of London, it didn't feel that way, with some bars charging upwards of £4 for a drink (more for cocktails). Living costs were reasonable, at around £340-360 per month excluding bills.

Pretty dire. Only one club in Stevenage if that's your thing. A couple of bars, and the major pubs are overcrowded with people I wouldn't prefer to be around for too long.

I started with the internal squash league, trampolining and archery outside of work, as well as socialising with friends. It has been a great year outside of work - the most fun I've been able to have.