Industrial Placement student Review

I have thoroughly enjoyed my placement. It has been a very exciting year with many new friends made as well. I have had some invaluable experiences and met some great people who are never unwilling to help with any problems I may have had. I have also become a much better scientist and gained invaluable skills in the lab. As an experience it had been enjoyed to the fullest extent both personally and professionally.

There has never been a time that I have not felt valued by my colleagues. There is the expectation at university that when you start your placement year, the full time employees will still see you as a student and treat you as such. This is not the case. As soon as you are confident with your work and department, you are able to carry out work independently, and all colleagues will treat you as another equal employee. At times this can be a lot of pressure; however it is great experience, builds your confidence and prepares you for life in the real workplace after university.

There is a lot of support and guidance available. As well as your direct supervisor, you also have their manager and the rest of your department/anyone else you happen to be working with. In the first few weeks your supervisor is the main person to train you and teach you how to do the job. For me this was invaluable time, as you can make mistakes and it will still be okay. There is lots of other support available too. Other members of the department are always there to help if needed. If you are working in another lab for another project, the staff in there are always friendly and willing to help also.

This depends on the specific department and supervisor. If you have an exceptionally busy supervisor it is likely you will have a lot of their work to help with and finish. For me, there were times of extremes. Some weeks will be very busy with lots of work and new projects, sometimes working on multiple projects at a time. Other weeks would pass with slow progress, but this gives you a chance to catch up on other work.

I was often given lots of responsibility. You could be in charge of showing external visitors around or doing the work for a very important project. This responsibility is good practice for life a real job. You learn how to deal with pressure, and how to handle the consequences when things do not go to plan, as is the nature of science. At university when things do not go to plan, it is only you who will suffer the consequences; whereas in a real job, there are plenty of other people depending on each other, so it is important to concentrate on your work.

There is no question that placement has helped me extensively in my university life and future plans. For university you learn basic skills like doing a full day at work, coming in every day without being late and responsibility for your own work. You also see what it is like to work in industry and receive valuable life advice from colleagues. This can really help clarify what direction to take post-university. You get to see what opportunities are out there, such as PhD’s and masters, and going straight into work. By speaking to others you get an idea of the reality of doing further study from those that have been there themselves.

There was a great atmosphere in my office. From day one i was told that the main idea in our department is to enjoy what we do when we are doing it, and that was certainly true. It was like working with a group of old friends and as a result you were never afraid to make mistakes or ask for help. There was also plenty of socialising outside of work which really helped integrate me. They were all so welcoming and really made me feel like part of the team.

I would say that it was pretty well organised. We had a day before we started to meet our team and get familiarised with the staff and the other placement students. This was good as we all became friends. The only thing we could have used a bit more help with was finding housing for those relocating to the area. however, this was not too much of a hassle.

The company invests a lot time into training and development. They run workshops for CV improvement and interview skills. They provide us with a week’s training prior to the start of our job so that we are all at the same basic level of lab awareness. They also provide us with a community which organise socials. There is also a few lectures a week on site which are really good. They are on current research at the company and at other institutions and are really interesting. We also have guest speakers, one of which was the Nobel Prize winner.

There are many opportunities for employment. There are the graduate programmes which we have been able to apply for, and there are also PhD opportunities in collaboration with other institutes. There are also opportunities for normal entry into the company following graduation. We have met many members of staff that started out as placement students that work here now.

Yes definitely. There are fewer than 100 students at this company and they are all really social, it’s much like being at uni, just with a full time job. There is always something happening at weekends, and plenty of new friends to be made. There is also the community of placement student who have been set up through work, a board of around 10 students who organise end of season balls/parties as well as mid week paintballing trips and other such fun things.

As my site is in the south of the country and only a half an hour train ride from London, the cost of living is quite high. This was to be expected, and many of the students that go to university in the south think that this is reasonable. I got to university in the north so am used to the cost of living being much lower. Still you are being paid for the placement so the cost of living is more than covered. The cost of socialising is slightly higher as there is not much to do in this town, so you have to travel to nearby towns/London to do activities and go out at night. There are still some things you can do here though.

There is a few bars and many pubs in the local area. Most of the student go the pub together every week, and socialise at the weekend. There is one nightclub, which often gets overtaken by placement students. There is the nearby town just on the train line that are easy to get to, and if there are enough of you it can be cheaper to get a taxi.

Yes, depending on what you want to do. There are church groups which organise activities. There are plenty of water sports to do in summer at the local park for a fee. There are things to do in the company sports clubs at lunchtime and after work, such as volleyball, netball, football etc. There are also numerous gyms in the area as well as one on site.