Research Chemist Review

Thoroughly enjoyable placement. Some great people and lots of social or 'team-building' activities with the lab, ie; the pub, but a continual expectation that you will work hard.

There are a large number of new students annually recruited each year by GSK for a "Year in Industry". This can sometimes manifest itself into the belief that students are like "foder" and also create an "us" and "them" divide in the lab. There is a certain unhappiness in the air that the jobs taken by students are preventing more full-time staff being recruited. Nevertheless, social and team-building activities are common place and all the staff behave in a professional manner toward students.

Training is excellent, there is no expectation for you to be amazing when you start. But as they train you throughout the year you become more and more competent and more and more independent, resulting in you behaving like a highly trained independent research chemist by the end of the year, despite having been relatively unskilled at the start.

Always busy enough, which is much busier than you'll ever be at Uni. As you start to become more independent as the year progresses you will find how busy you are is off your own back. If you find you are too busy or not busy enough then tell your supervisor!

As the year progresses you become more and more responsible for your own work, some eventually take an area of chemistry to themselves and are given the responsibility of handing a key step of the program, often one that will decide whether or not to progress.

Not just in terms of chemistry, but in terms of developing as a person. Interpersonal and communication skills, presentation skills, forming professional relationships are all things that you cannot learn at Uni and which I learnt very well at GSK.

The office was often silent and reading orientated. The lab played music, was more lively and more friendly. As students, we spent more time in the lab.

Aside from a human-induced error at the start of placement, the placement was organised seamlessly, with a paid training week at Bristol University where you get to know all the other students before you enter you research lab.

There were several 'online' training sessions that all new starters had to complete, there were more of an inconvenience than anything and seemed to be their not for the benefit of the worker, but to prevent the company being sued should an accident happen.

One of the first things they said was that the industry was dying. students are recruited through an employment agency because they area cheaper than full-time staff and come with less liability.

Training week in Bristol allowed all the students to get to know eachother and there were a large number of them.

Paid enough money to live and get by and have fun, the southeast is very expensive anyway!

Some very nice pubs all within walking distance.

Generally speaking this meant you had to take the train to London which meant getting a mortgage to pay for you ticket