Industrial Placement - Histology Review

I adored my placement! It was the friendliest working environment were I was actively encouraged to develop new skills. I was treated as a valued member of the department, given equal responsibility for my tasks and allowed to plan my own working day and experiments. There was nothing I wasn't allowed to do, including extracurricular courses and lectures and I could also plan my own working hours - choosing to start early in the morning or come in late and leave later. I felt trusted and valued the entire time I was there and am very saddened to have to leave.

My colleagues were so friendly and helpful, I was encouraged to speak up in meetings and always felt like my ideas were listened to and used. I was given responsibilities and helped to work through them when I needed help. Every one of them would listen to me if I had a problem and I was never made to feel inadequate when I made mistakes; I was told that they wanted me to make mistakes because that's how you learn properly.

My line manager talked me through all the fine details of the project I was given and was always around when I needed help. I also had an amazing network of coworkers who were always there to offer advice, even when I didn't ask for it, and had a real skill for sniffing out mistakes before I had a chance to make any disasterous ones.

There were times when I did have to put in very long days, but there were also times when I was stretching my tasks to fill my time; however I do believe this is the nature of the job sometimes if you have long-running experiments or are waiting for sources beyond your control. When I had too much on my plate I told my manager and he helped me prioritise my tasks in terms of what was most high priority company work and what could wait.

I was given the chance to have control of my own project within the first few months. I attended the project meetings and designed my own experiments. I never felt too pressured because the project team were so friendly. They listened to all that I had to say and were more than happy to answer my questions. I was given the opportunity to chair meetings and to present my results to my whole department. I never felt liked I was being watched or judged in any of my tasks.

I have learnt incredibly valuable skills here that I know I will be using for the rest of my life. Not only was I able to learn from the people in my department, I was also given the freedom to travel between departments and learn whatever I was interested in! I have also developed presenting skills and networking between coworkers.

I came into a group that has had a placement student every year for about 10 years, as such they were fully prepared for my needs in the work place and were so wonderfully welcoming. They expected my mistakes and also were totally fine with the social side of things that occurs between the 100 or so placement students on site; for example - going for a fry-up every friday in the canteen.

I came into a company with a long history of taking placement students and as such know exactly what to expect and how to treat them. Everyone was so supportive, generous with their time and treated you like a valued member of the company.

There was nothing that I wasn't allowed to learn, I recieved one-to-one training for everything I learnt and someone was always around to help if I needed it.

It is unlikely that I would be hired straight from uni (as they tend to hire PhDs) unless I applied via the graduate scheme, however I have made contacts within the company that I feel confidant that I could reach out too int the future about prospective jobs.

There were over 100 placement students on site and even more in the surrounding sites, we were all encouraged to meet up and socialise. On site it seems that student socialising is important to the way the site runs, as students tend to know one another better between departments than colleagues that have worked there for years know their coworkers.

Being only 25 minutes outside London my rent was only £325 per month. Most of the placement students tended to socialise in London.

Almost no nighlife in the areas that we lived, but usually we travelled to London - however this is quite expensive.

There were plenty of activities offered by GSK including volunteering, walking/cycling to work in exchange for money to spend in the canteen (fry-ups), and free sports clubs like football and netball.