Industrail Placement Student Review

I love my placement at GSK and do not want to leave. My department was so welcoming and helpful. I have learned so much in just 51 weeks and the experience has been incredibly valuable. I enjoy coming in to work every day, there is always something different going on, something different to work on or hear about, the diversity keeps you interested as well as the lectures and seminars you are invited to, to expand your knowledge.

I feel very valued by my colleagues. I have been given many responsibilities over the months I have been here. Responsibilities that involve comleting experiments for other departments, or providing the analysis service that many people in the department use. I feel my colleagues believe that I am capable of taking on these responsibilities, which makes me feel appreciated.

My supervisor kept her calendar very minimal at the start of my placement. She was able to help me whenever I needed help practically, needed advice on where to find a paper, or even simple maths calculations. If my supervisor was not around, it was evident who I could speak to if I needed guidance, and my manager would always help where she could. I was never told the answers, but guided through my problem, so I could learn to think for myself and begin to ask more questions and think about the answers logically.

Some weeks I would be very busy. I planned my own workload, so I had an end due date for some work but would divide my time myself to ensure that deadline was met with the other work I had to do too. I would push myself some weeks to get as much done as possible, but wouldnt let the workload I had effect the quality of work I was producing, I never pushed it that far. Other weeks I was less busy, and I could help other people if I could lend a hand, or would go and explore another technique or department I have not yet been involved in.

I was given many responsibilities, I would run weekly assays to produce data for a programme team and also run monthly screens too for the same reason. I was given the responsibility of running some analysis for the department, where I would take people's samples and analyse them to ensure they are what is expected. Producing data, and doing analysis for others gives huge responsibilty and this has proved to be fun, but also has taught me how important these responsibilites are.

I have developed many lab skills this year. I have learnt about so many techniques and how to troubleshoot which are skills I can keep with me when I work in this area in the future. I have also gained many other skills, communication skills from presentations, writing up experiments and having meetings about updates of my work. I have developed my interpersonal skills and my work ethic too. There are too many skills I have developed to list, but I know this year will have helped me gain experience that will aid me through the rest of my degree, and also through life.

Everyone appreciated that everyone is busy, so the atmosphere is generally quiet when people are working. But there is no hesitation in asking each other questions about work, or asking someones opinion on a problem you have, noone is afraid to ask for help, which has taught me a valuable lesson. We all talk about our personal lives too, we ask how people's children and parents are if we know something is happening and ask abotu social lives too. Everyone can sit and have a chat in the office very casually when we want to and the time is right.

The work experience placement at GSK is very well set up. They have been doing it for a very long time and it shows. You are assigned one supervisor, but know who you can go to if they are not around. There are intensive training sessions at the beginning of the placement which prepares you for the rest of the year. Everyone appreciates that we want to experience as much as possible, so they are very accomodating if you would like to have some experience in another area. We have information packs at the beginning of the year, and are encouraged to ask questions and live the experience. They know how to treat the students here too, noone is ever forgotten about.

We did many online courses, from courses about the company and their policies, but also safety courses on how to use equipment. We are trained in this to the same level as "normal" employees of GSK. In my personal experience, I was trained very thoughroughly in the use of some equipment and also in the processes I was going to be using everyday. My supervisor slimmed down her calendar to ensure I had enough help and support in my training. We also have many opportunites to attend lectures and seminars accross a range of subjects to develop our knowledge, and this makes us very lucky to have this opportunity.

I would love to return to GSK for future employment, however, they are few future leader programmes (graduate schemes) involved in Biology. All of the schemes are chemistry or engineering based, which I find unfortunate. However I have entered into a student assessment centre to be eligable for direct entry into the company for future emplyment.

We had a very nice and big group of students in our department, there were 15 of us. There was still an even bigger sense of community with IP UNITE, which brings together all GSK IP students from accross the country. There was a lovely social event where the department went out together and celebrated around Christmas time.

There are good links to London from our workplace, so if you wanted to have an evening in London it would be expensive. However, if you stayed in Stevenage it wasnt expensive to live at all. I actually was fortunate enough to live at my family home as I am close enough to commute to work every day. So my cost of living was significantly lower than others. Many people are able to commute from their family home as Stevenage has very good transport links.

There were more bars and pubs than clubs, which suited many of us here fine. If you wanted to pop down to the pub on a Friday after work that was very easy to do so and you have a lot of choice. And even if you do want a big night out, you can hop on the train or the coach to London and have a very good night out!

There is a leisure centre on site, so there are many opportunites to get involved in sports sessions like football and netball, but also people are very friendly, so you can form your own social groups. There are sessions where people go out walking, which brings people together, and also Orange days, where you can go and volunteer for the day. There is also a summer family event at a national park where many employees go and have fun outside of work.