IP Student Review

I really enjoyed my placement year. It's such a good opportunity to apply the things you've learned at university and see how the skills you've developed are used. It's also good to get an insight into the industry and full-time work, neither of which I'd really experienced before.

In my department I really felt like part of the team and the contributions you make are valued. In my case, I had my own project and was trusted to run a lot of this by myself like any other colleague. There was never any feeling that you're just being given the boring 'student' jobs.

This probably varies a lot between managers but I've found all the supervisors I've worked with and my manager to be really approachable and happy to offer support. There is always someone around if you have a question to ask. I'd say my manager gave me the right amount of freedom to be independent in my work but he was there to help or offer advice when I needed it.

The workload varied quite a lot but I think most of the time this was unavoidable. Sometimes there'd be a lot going on in my group and I'd have to work longer days to support this alongside my usual responsibilities and other times I did find I didn't have a lot to do, if for example I was between experiments or waiting for data. Other times there would be a nice balance where I had plenty to do without being too rushed.

I was responsible for running my own lab based project throughout the year. This meant I had to plan experiments, research and write protocols, conduct the experiments and complete data analysis on the results myself. In terms of other responsibilities, I contributed towards other toxicology projects coming into our department but I didn't run any of these - you'd need a lot more experience for that!

I've developed so many skills over this year, both degree related and general workplace skills. I hope to do a PhD after I graduate so the experience I've gained in what it's like to work in a 'real' lab, and put together your own protocols will be invaluable. I think learning to live the 9-5 lifestyle means I'll be more organised in my final year at university, and simple things like reading journal articles have become second nature which will definitely help with my dissertation.

I had a really good department and we'd often go out for lunch and had the occassional trip outside of work. It's nice to have a relaxed, socialable environment because this makes it easier to approach people with a work related question and makes working feel less like work!

GSK had hundreds of placement students every year, and my departments always has at least one student so most things went quite smoothly as the company was experineced in dealing with us. There were a few issues at the start as we are employed by a recruitment company as opposed to GSK themselves and figuring out exactly where we fit in as contract workers wasn't always straightforward.

GSK run a lot of educaitonal lecture series and seminars, some scientific and some based around sift skills which you can attend. In terms of training, I was offered everything I needed to complete my work. There were also opportunities to attend external conferences.

I would very happiliy return to work at GSK based on my experience here so far. There are some oppportunities to do a PhD part funded by the compnay which I will definitely be looking into.

There were around 40 industrial placement students based on the research and manufacturing sites in Ware so there was a fairly big group of us. Although not all of the students got involved, becasue most people had moved to the area for the year there was still always someone around to do something and people to sit with at lunchtime.

Ware is a fairly small town but there are plenty of pubs and restaurants, and from here getting to London is really easy meaning there was a lot to do. However, the genreal cost of living and the rent was higher than I'm used to in my university town so this year did require a bit more budgeting.

There are a lot of pubs in Ware but nothing in terms of clubbing. When you're working 9-5 everyday this isn't as much of a problem as it would be when you're at university - it just meant we had to go slightly further a field to plan a big night out!

There is a sports and social club which runs various sporting activities (kayaking, squash, archery etc.) and other events such as a pub quiz and Friday lunctime BBQs. There are other sports teams which play initernally within GSK so there are opportunities to get involved with other things.