Assay Scientist Review

I really enjoyed the placement year. I got to experience a vivid lab experience and picked up lots of skills along the way.

Although my colleagues were always very cordial, it was very much a professional atmosphere at work and jokes/casual conversations were minimal.

My supervisor was fantastic and was willing to step every step of the way. She was always willing to train me but allowed me to then take responsibility once she felt I was ready to do so.

I had daily experiments I was responsible for, some days were definitely busier than others. While I was busy at work, the nature of the job was always different so it never got boring.

I was personally responsible for all the experiments I conducted, this included the practical and data analysis components. This was extremely gratifying as I could report this directly to my line manager.

Coming from a science background, all lab experience is for life. Working in a lab and learning how to design and conduct experiments and then analyse the data obtained is always useful.

The site I worked in was an extremely busy one, and especially had a lot of students. This meant the atmosphere was quite upbeat and the department was always buzzing.

GSK has taken on placement students for a long period of time and are very organised employers, a reason why prospective students always look out for this company. All parts of my placement were well organised, including my final project.

I was allowed to sign myself onto whichever courses I thought would increase my professional development (within reason) and this included courses such as data analysis, statistical parameters and monthly technology seminars.

While I believe my placement would definitely help me secure a possible job with GSK in the future, this year has taught me that I would like to go a different route following graduation.

My flatmates and friends were also friends from my university or in the department I worked in. There were always parties during the weekends.

Being quite close to London the prices were quite high, not quite as high as London but not too far. This meant that socialising was minimal.

Living in a small town, most of the employees would commute so there was not much nightlife aside from a few pubs on the high street which some students would frequent during the weekends.

There were some opportunities outside work including where we were allowed to take part in a charity of our choice one day of the year to give back to the community.